Teaching a class or workshop
A class is not a talk. People came to be able to do something by the time they leave, so the planning starts from what their hands will do, not from what you will say.
Read in the order the work arrives, not the order the manuals sit on the shelf. Each step below names the one chapter to open first, so you are not starting at the top of a manual at two in the morning.
Teaching for a living. This is written for the person running a session for a group of adults, not for a licensed teacher building a graded curriculum.
The route
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Before you agree to it
Teach a Practical Workshop
Whether a session is the right form at all. A handout, a recording or a written procedure beats a room full of people for some of what gets taught in one.
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Three weeks out
Teach a Practical Workshop
Write down what people will be able to do when they leave, as something you could watch them do. Everything else is built backward from that sentence.
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Two weeks out
Teach a Practical Workshop
The run sheet: what happens in each block of time, and who is doing it. This is the document you teach from.
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The week before
Teach a Practical Workshop
How to show a skill so a group can see it: where people stand, what you say while your hands work, and what you do twice.
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When the handout is printed
Basic Graphic Design
Slides sized for the back of the room, and the handout that carries what slides cannot. Letter height and contrast are measurable, not matters of taste.
Open atSlides for a Room, and the Handout That Does the Rest
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The night before
Everyday Speaking
One timed run, out loud, with a listener. It is the only way to find out that your forty minutes is sixty-five.
Open atRehearsing a Speech Out Loud: Timed Runs and a Listener
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The morning of
Teach a Practical Workshop
Seating, sightlines, power, and whether everyone coming can get into and use the room. Check it before the group arrives, not with them in it.
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A week after
Teach a Practical Workshop
Whether people can do the thing now, which is not the question a happy room at the end answers.
Everything here is free, needs no account, and can be opened at any chapter. The other routes · all the manuals.