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This online course introduces the essential principles of becoming a highly skilled presenter, one who can provide both information and inspiration to audiences in order to facilitate transformation. Participants who seek to develop or improve their impact as seminar leaders, educators, trainers, and lecturers are welcome.
You’ll learn:
- The wholebeing approach, which enables you to teach from a place of wholeness and authenticity
- Foundational presentation skills to support the expert and the novice alike in organizing the content flow for successful audience engagement
- How to aspire to your best by leveraging your strengths, passion, and wisdom in order to offer your audience a lasting positive impact.
Taught by Dr. Maria Sirois, core faculty for the Certificate in Positive Psychology program, with Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, the Teaching for Transformation course offers nine lessons, combining live webinars and demonstrations, readings, video analysis, and peer-to-peer practice. Live, 90-minute webinars are held most Tuesdays from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm ET. The complete syllabus includes all the course details and content.
Following completion of the course, students will have an additional five weeks of access to the virtual classroom, including the recordings of webinars, after the final day of class.
Key Principles
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Content is offered in three key arenas:
- Concepts examined include appreciative inquiry, permission to be human, benefit finding, and the principles of Wholebeing Institute’s SPIRE (spiritual, physical, intellectual, relational, emotional) approach; each concept is addressed from the perspective of how and what to present.
- Concepts explored include beginnings and endings, transitions, keeping energy high, the inspiring use of story and data, handling difficult audience members, managing anxiety, and professionalism.
- Concepts addressed include the “who” of teaching, establishing your integrity and authority, presenting from a place of authenticity, elevating strengths, learning from the masters, and establishing your unique voice.
1. The Wholebeing Approach
Participants are introduced to the principles of whole-person well-being, and given a vocabulary for understanding how individuals and teams move toward their highest selves and sustained health. This establishes a unique foundation of skill for the trainer. As we understand how adults move toward positive, sustained health and well-being, we are able to offer material that strengthens their growth and enhances our own growth toward our best selves.
2. Foundational Presentation Skills
Presenters from every field—from business to art, coaching to education, athletics to politics—receive in-depth instruction on the fundamentals of presentation skill development. These fundamentals, based on the best research from the fields of positive psychology, education, and training, provide a clear, impeccable support structure for both the novice and the practiced instructor.
3. Aspire to Your Best
Participants come to understand their deepest strengths: what makes them unique as a presenter, where their passion elevates both the audience member and the material, how they best connect with their audience, and how the very act of presenting moves each of us towards our most important work in the world.
Who This Course Is For
- Novice, aspiring, and experienced presenters, including seminar leaders, educators, trainers, and lecturers.
Course Objectives
- For all participants: To provide training for presenters at every level that broadens and deepens skills, increases personal well-being, and sharpens excellence for the presenter as well as for audience members.
- For CIPP graduates: To provide a professional development pathway for teaching positive psychology and whole-person well-being material.
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Technology
This user-friendly course will be offered via webinar so you can participate in the manner and at the time of day that best suits your schedule.
Students will be able to easily connect to live sessions by webinar (audio and video). Presentation materials will be emailed in advance. Recordings will be posted following each session for those unable to join live or who would like to review the material again.
Homework includes peer-to-peer video calls (using Skype, for example) to practice critical skills in presenting, such as beginnings and storytelling. Students should have (or be willing to learn) rudimentary skills in using video call technology.
Schedule and Time Commitment
The course consists of nine lessons taught over 11 weeks, combining live webinars and demonstrations, readings, video analysis, and peer-to-peer practice. Live 90-minute webinars will be held Tuesdays from 7:00 to 8:30 pm ET.
We estimate that most students will put in a total of two to three hours of preparation per week, plus the class session itself.
Peer work
To strengthen learning, students can choose to be paired with a fellow student to practice key presentation skills via video conference calls. At the start of the course, students will be given the opportunity to opt into the peer presentation sessions.
Assignments
Weekly reading assignments will consist of material from the fields of positive psychology, education, and training. Weekly journal prompts will be aimed at deepening students’ engagement with the material. The viewing of video lectures (such as TED Talks) will be required as part of weekly assignments.
Final Project
Participants will be asked to create a final project, consisting of a three- to five-minute video presentation on one aspect of teaching for transformation. Your partner will be invited to spot the strengths in your presentation and to provide you with feed-forward (information about what worked well). You’ll also be asked to reflect on what you learned through this process, what went well for you, and what your own next step as a presenter might be, in terms of strengthening your skills. The final project is not mandatory, but is strongly recommended.
Joining in this journey with the leaders and the vibrant students was like walking through the desert and then taking a drink of cool, clear water. Get ready to think about teaching in a whole new way. Delightful.
I have been teaching for years, and yet this course offered many new viewpoints and skills. It has greatly impacted the way that I teach, by making me a much more dynamic presenter.
I had never taken an online class before, and this surpassed my expectations in every way. I had no idea that an online class could be so rich and deep in learning. The live lectures were captivating and experiential. I look forward to taking more courses with WBI.
