I was putting together an educational presentation last week designed to help students with their communication skills. In my search for slide images to back up my concepts, I happened upon the following image:
This was on someone's Pinterest page, with no source attribution. I did a Google reverse image search and couldn't find any other instances, so I can't properly reference the creator.
I instantly appreciated the concept for presenters. Imagine you have a live presentation to a local audience coming up. You have gathered your facts, structured your speech, and built your notes. Now you want to work on your delivery style and memorization so you can confidently and smoothly address your audience.
Buy a dry erase marker (Expo is the biggest name. Here's a cheap knock-off with an included eraser on Amazon.) MAKE SURE IT IS LABELED DRY ERASE!!!
Write your keywords and brief facts on the mirror with the marker. Now you can keep your reminders right in front of you while you practice your delivery, watching your body language, facial expressions, and movement. Once you feel comfortable with a section, start erasing your reminders. Practice that piece again. Are you remembering everything you wanted to say? Erase everything and try it one more time. Now you can move on to another section of your talk, writing new prompts on your "teleprompter."
Once you feel comfortable with each section of your talk, you can practice the whole thing, writing brief "section headers" on the mirror to remind you of the overall order and main content pieces.
Forgetting some of your facts? Write them up there and try again. Practicing in this manner builds "muscle memory" for getting used to looking forward at your audience instead of cheating glances downward to look at written notes or having to read your facts off your slides. You'll feel much more comfortable and assured when you get out in front of the room.
Just promise me you won't get mixed up and buy a permanent marker by mistake.
