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From: Terry Dartnall
Date: 10/13/03
Time: 10:11:09 PM
Remote Name: 132.234.9.147
Hi Amy!
You ask how I feel when I’m lecturing my large classes. It’s very strange. I become a different person the moment I go through that big door.
The “big doors” vary. Sometimes they’re up the back of the lecture theatre, so that you go down through rows of students, but more often they take you to the front of the theatre, so that it’s a bit like going onto a stage.
I always feel a little nervous before a lecture. How nervous depends on various things, such as the lecture I’ll be giving today and what this bunch of students is like (they vary a lot!). But as soon as I’m on, and especially, as soon as I start talking, I become somebody else. It’s almost as if I’m seeing that other person doing the talking.
It’s a big lecture theatre and you have to project your voice. In some ways it’s like singing, because I find it quite hard to stutter when I’m projecting my voice. Also, it’s YOUR lecture. You can go at your own pace. The students are a captive audience! That makes a big difference, because it gives you a feeling of being in control.
I used to think it was all a sham and that wasn’t ME up there! It was a front I was putting on. I don’t feel that way any more. I’ve been doing this for more than thirty years. That’s me up there all right – a more confident and assertive me!
I hope that answers your question.
Terry