“The Fine Points of Making Your Point: Honing Your Lecturing Skills”
Elissa Scalise Powell, CG, CGL
$69.99
There has never been offered a course aimed at improving the lecturing and teaching skills of genealogical educators. Similar to other skills in genealogy, lecturers are self-taught and may be lucky enough to find a mentor or experienced educator who will give them pointers. Whether for a local, state, regional, or national conference, or classroom course, each presenter has to figure out the mechanics, topics, and style for themselves, often with many missteps, possibly costing them time, dollars, and opportunities lost. This course is for those who want to learn how to become a better speaker, market themselves, and master the mechanics of presenting.
Included in the course are topics on evaluating your readiness, developing topics, creating PowerPoint slides and handouts, marketing your lectures and courses, and doing webinars. Tips on “dos and don’ts” before, during, and after the presentation will be given. This is one course that will benefit the entire field of genealogy through helping presenters become better in classrooms, conferences, institutes, and webinars, as well as prove useful to Board-certified genealogists who want to apply for the teaching credential Certified Genealogical Lecturer (CGL).
Elissa Scalise Powell, CG, CGL, a western Pennsylvania researcher for over 25 years, is the co-director of the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP), and Professional Genealogy Course Coordinator at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR). She was an instructor for Boston University’s Genealogical Research Certificate online program (2008-2016). She was the course co-coordinator of the AG/CG Preparation Course at the 2010 and 2013 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG). She is a regional and national speaker on such topics as Pennsylvania records, methodology, professional development, and society management and has taught genealogy courses for over 20 years.
She was honored in May 2010 with the NGS President’s Citation in recognition of outstanding, continuing, or unusual contributions to the field of genealogy. She was a Director for the Association of Professional Genealogists for six years; taught genealogy courses at the local community college for fourteen years; co-edited a cemetery book series and appeared on the PBS-TV show ANCESTORS2 cemetery episode. She was a Trustee for the Board for Certification of Genealogists for nine years, their President (2012-2014), past Outreach Committee Chairperson, and is now serving as the immediate past-president. She is a past-President of two local Pittsburgh area societies and a contributing author to many publications including the APG Quarterly.
Course Schedule
Day One
- Session One: “Setting the Ground Work”
- Knowing when you are ready and what motivates you
- Traits of a good lecturer
- Standards for Genealogical Educators
- Audiences and their needs: beginner, intermediate, advanced, mixed
- Choosing Topics and Creating Marketable Titles
- Session Two:
- Answering calls for proposals
- Social media
- Direct and indirect marketing
- Contracts and Ethics
- Equipment sometimes needed by contract
- Types of payments to expect
- Negotiations
- Webinars
Day Two
- Session Three: “Creating the Presentation”
- Creative process from concept to visually appealing presentation materials
- PowerPoint Presentations
- Demonstrations of PowerPoint tricks and tips
- Graphics
- Animation
- Presentation style – finding your “voice”
- Analysis and discussion of various speakers’ lectures
- Session Four: “Audience Experience”
- Creating Syllabus Material
- Standards
- Copyright
- How much is too much or too little
- Show Time
- Tips to make the speaker and audience more at ease
- Practice tips
- Timing
- Test audiences
- Webinar Presentations
- Tips
- How different from an in-person presentation
- Creating Syllabus Material