Birds resting on the arches over the water fountain in front of Toronto's city hall.

Windows XP: Beyond the Basics - pre-game warmup

09.28.06

1:20 p.m. Woosh. Start this blog on an up note. Going to teach a short course today. Nothing too complex. Just a quick introduction to some time-saving customizations and capabilities of Windows XP. Should be quite enjoyable. Small group, 9 so far, but could get one more in before we kick off at 2:30.

The course is basically designed around the Windows Basics: Tips and Tricks course I did for last year’s Professional Enrichment Conference here at UofR.

I wish the week hadn’t been so busy. Last year, I wrote some humerous (or at least I think so) bits into the PEC handout and kept them for this session. Wish there had been more time to add some fresh jokes. I don’t feel they take away from the experience and always seem to keep everyone relaxed. We’ll see how it goes today. I’ll have to ad-lib a bit. Maybe some soft-shoe. I know I can get a cane, but where can I get a hat?

Also, there are several people attending the class who I know pretty well. It always helps to know a few of the attendees. Gives you someone to focus on. And, it is especially good when the people you know coming will laugh at even your worst attempts at humor. Come to think of it, those people should get gold stars. They really help to break the ice and keep the intensity down.

2 comments so far

I agree that it’s nice to have people you know in the class. I’m always interested to connect with people I haven’t taught yet - to see how they learn, to hear their perspectives - but when someone I know is in the class I walk in having a stronger sense of how things are likely to play out.

How did the humor work?

It went fairly well. There was a lot to cover, so I just rolled with my humorous self and tried to keep everyone smiling as we moved through the lesson.

Having a mix of people is nice. One of the upsides to instructing is also meeting new people. So having new faces is always a pleasure. But, having a room full of faces you don’t know changes things a great deal. Certainly creates more pressure for the instructor (or at least for me).



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