Using a Flip Chart During Your Presentation

By Ellen Egan

While mentoring some colleagues to help them overcome their fear of public speaking and to improve their public speaking skills, I noticed a distinct “fear of the flip chart”. What is it and how does one overcome it?

It can be easy to spot someone with a fear of public speaking because they are glued to the spot where they began their speech and they refuse to move. The idea of using any kind of props (e.g. flip charts, handouts, etc) is terrifying because they would have to move and it might make the experience go on even longer.

However, an important public speaking tip is to use flip charts and other props to support your presentation. The way you use your flip chart is a critical part of public speaking. Here are some important public speaking tips and techniques for using a flip chart effectively:

1. Arrive early and be sure that the flip chart is positioned so that you can get to it easily when you need it.

2. Be sure that it is positioned so that you can stand next to it and write while still facing your audience (ie. Do Not Turn Your Back On Your Audience!)

3. Make sure you have several markers that work and immediately throw away the ones that don’t work. You don’t want to be scrambling to find a good marker during your presentation.

4. Only use blue or black markers please. It is too difficult for those at the back of the room to see other colors. Red is OK to accentuate things already written in blue or black.

5. When writing on the chart, make your letters at least 2-3 inches tall.

6. Draw lines in pencil pages beforehand to help you keep your writing legible.

7. Plan out your pages as you are writing the outline for your presentation. They will be the support for your public speaking presentation.

8. Write notes to yourself, in pencil on the flip chart to help remind yourself of all the important points to be included. I promise your audience won’t see the penciled notes.

9. If you have something that you want to present and then accentuate during the presentation or discussion, write out the flip chart page beforehand so that you can just flip the page to it.

10. If you need to refer to something that you wrote on a page at a later point in your presentation, rip off the page and ask someone to tape it up on the wall – don’t forget to bring big masking tape for this.

Flip charts are a great way to be interactive with your audience and get their inputs to your presentation. People feel important when you write their words and ideas on paper in front of the room.

I hope that this sparks some ideas on using flip charts to strengthen your public speaking and help to overcome any “fear of the flip chart”.

Ellen Egan is a public speaking expert who specializes in public speaking, public speaking tips and techniques and releasing your fear of public speaking.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ellen_Egan

http://EzineArticles.com/?Using-a-Flip-Chart-During-Your-Presentation&id=2524540

How to Buy Easel Online

One of the best toys that you can ever give your child is an art easel that can kindle their creativity, talent, and love for art. No other toy inspires the young hands like a children's easel with paint, chalk, markers, dry erase markers, crayons, and a blank sheet of paper. There are several different types of kid's art easels that are available to help you make a selection.

So how do you go about purchasing one?

Well, the Internet is the best place to look for all kinds of kids' art easels and you can take your time looking at the various options available at many online stores before deciding on the type of easel you wish to purchase.

You would do well to follow these tips when buying them online.

1. Do your research – It definitely helps to be prepared before you hit the buy button when you are shopping online. There are numerous stores that sell kids art easels online and there are numerous choices that needs to be made before you decide to buy an easel. Do you need a standing easel or a desktop easel? Do you just need Chalkboard or Dry erase board or Magnetic Board or Paper Pads or all of them or a combination of them? Do you need a single-sided or double-sided easel? The questions are many and the choices numerous. That's why it helps to do your research first. In order to narrow down your choices decide on one or two things that are a must have feature. By narrowing the search you will save time and compare products effectively.

2. Fix a Budget – Kids Art Easels come in a broad range of $30 – $200 depending on the features and add-ons that you are interested in. Most of the easels do not come with accessories like paper pads, color pencils, chalk, dry erase markers etc. You would need to purchase them separately. Keep in mind that these are priced on the higher side and make sure you provide for these in your budget. When you see a $40 on an art easel you can be sure that they don't come along with the necessary art medium. Browse for the accessories and decide which ones do you want and then add those prices to the base price of the easel. First time buyers generally tend to overlook the art supplies and are surprised by the total cost when they need to order each of them separately.

3. Read Reviews – One of the benefits of buying online is that you can get different viewpoints of the product that you have chosen. Most of the online stores provide a way to write reviews by people who have already bought the product. You can read through all of the reviews to understand the quality aspects of the product that you would like to purchase. If you are not satisfied with the quality of reviews or if the online store does not provide many reviews you can search for reviews in other online review sites. Most of these online review sites provide unbiased reviews from real users and can definitely guide you in your buying process.

4. Choose a store that can ship nationwide- Buy choosing an online store that has nationwide ties you are likely dealing with a larger and more established shop that is less likely to make errors and better able to fix them if they do. Large stores are able to pass on the benefits of scale to their customers in the forms of discounts, free shipping and other offers. In case you are not satisfied with the product you can easily return back as these large stores have better refund policies in place.

5. Plan Ahead – One of the key aspects to buying online is to plan ahead. There are number of sales offered by different online stores at different periods of the year. If you are looking out for a product you can capitalize on these sales. You can also look for sales offers from online retailers who wish to dispose of surplus stock. You can thus get good quality stuff at very reasonable rates. You however need to be checking regularly to take advantage of such offers and planning ahead will definitely help you save a lot.

To sum it up, if you plan ahead and follow the tips above you should be able to seize upon some good bargains as well as have fun in the process.

For the best art easel reviews and buying guides from a real parent check out the Standing Easel Store. There you will find great reviews on kids art easels and tips to buy easel online.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=D_Albert
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Buy-Easel-Online&id=4883389

7 Reasons For Using Flip-Charts For Coaching

# 1: Flip-Charts activate the collective brain power of a group

One of the key elements in Accelerate Learning Techniques is active involvement of the learners. There are two ways to involve your audience using the flip-charts:

1) Solicit ideas and capture them on the flip-chart yourself being the trainer
2) Pass out markers and let the participants do their own problem solving and writings.

By involving others, you take ourselves out of the role of a presenter or subject matter expert, and move into a new role of being a facilitator. Advantages of this new role, is that you have become less intimidating and more professional since we build on the knowledge of the group and avoid talking down to or controlling others. As we have always said in active learning – you learnt the best when the information given is related to the learners on a personal basis. Most effective way of learning is to have input into what happens to, and with, them.

# 2: Flip-Charts Facilitate Creativity

Using flip-charts in presentation allows you to express your personality and ideas on paper. Unlike computer software programs, flip-charts free you to become as creative as you like. You can draw anything there. You are limited only by your own imagination. To enhance your flip-charts skills, you are encouraged to take opportunities to practice whenever possible. Pick a couple of images or characters you like from any source and doodle whenever you have time. Draw the images on scraps of paper, restaurants napkins, or any writing surface you can find. Very soon, you will be able to replicate the images onto a flip-chart with little effort. Personally, I love drawing on flip-charts, because my audience always find it personal, sincere and fresh.

# 3: Flip-Charts are the Best Visual Aids in Coaching

The main reason for using flip-charts is because they help presenters to communicate their ideas and messages across to the audience much better. There are many reports in several business schools in United States that stated presentations with visual aids increases the effectiveness, as perceived by audience. Typical comments following presentations with flip-charts were “better prepared”, “more concise”, “clearer”, “more interesting”, “not boring at all”, “I can follow the lectures clearly” and “I love his presentations using the flip-charts”.

If you have ever tried to take notes as someone rattles on, seemingly oblivious to the audience, you will understand that value of flip-charts. Students can perhaps testify to this – remember the long and boring power-point presentations by your school teachers, without knowing whether the students are following them or not?

# 4: Flip-Charts Writing by Participants Increases their Interest & Learning

Giving your participants a chance to write on flip-charts increases their interest and learning.

Confucius (551 – 479 B.C.) once said:
I hear; I forget
I see, I remember
I do, I understand

The message here is that even though you may get some of your message across by speaking or demonstrating, the most effective method of coaching and making sure your participants are learning effectively is getting them to participate actively.

And more specifically for Chemistry learning, it is a academic subject that you can’t score well if you just memorize directly the chemistry theories. What you need is to understand and have a strong foundation of essential concepts and then apply it according to application-based questions.

# 5: Flip-Charts allows Reviews to Accelerate Learning

Flip-charts review is another big advantage in presentations and coaching. Because the flip-charts can be pasted on the walls of the room, after each session of the lectures, participants can review what they have learned earlier. This is most effective when we conduct “Partner-Sharing” during such flip-charts review.

At other times, participants can also refer to the posted flip-charts without interrupting to ask the facilitator to repeat a point, they are able to review material or catch up at their own speed. In addition, flip-charts provide a vehicle for reinforcing what participants heard, or thought they heard.

Many times after the coaching session, we also compiled and transferred the flip-charts onto softcopy so that we can email it to the participants for reviews on their own, Just because the information there are written in a personalized way and these participants have read it before using their eyes and mind, such re-caps almost never fail to rekindle their knowledge and reinforce what they have learnt earlier. This is the power of associations based on earlier experiences.

# 6: Flip-Charts presentations signifies Professionalism

Whenever I see someone uses a flip-charts extensively for their presentations, I always perceived them to be a professional in coaching that specific subject, no matter how much knowledge they have in that subject. It is kind of “only subject matter expert have the capacity and confidence that uses flip-charts” perception. And this always allow me to listen to them immediately without prejudice and suspicion.

# 7: Flip-Charts are Simple & Inexpensive to Use

Flip-charts have long been the choice for professional coaches during presentations. They are versatile, simple to set-up and use, and convenient for capturing ideas quickly. They also require no cords or electrical connections, and are relatively inexpensive compared with other visual aids. They can also be used virtually anywhere, be it indoor or outdoor.

With flip-charts, you won’t have to worry to carry an overhead projector, bulbs, extension cords, white screens, and other accessories. You don’t even have to supply a stand to use them. With masking tape, straight pins, and/or clips, you can turn nearly any wall surface into a writing surface. This meaning you can turn virtually any large room or open space into an ideal presenter’s forum. All you need is flip-chart papers and markers of different colors.

Many people talked about teaching Chemistry, Sean Chua Lian Heng lives it. He is a passionate Chemistry Coach based in Singapore, Southeast-Asia and one of the most dynamic, powerful and humorous speakers in Asia. He has empowered hundreds of students to experience Chemistry learning with a difference, and unlock the secrets to achieve the grades they truly deserve.

He specialized in helping students through The 1ST in Singapore GCE ‘O’ Level Chemistry Intensive BootCamp and Organic Chemistry Mastery Workshop using Accelerated Learning Techniques. His 10 years of coaching experience has equipped him to understand the true reasons why students are not able to perform well in Chemistry, and has allowed him to structure his teaching methodology to cater to different levels of learners. Sean has produced many outstanding students who have achieved marvelous ‘O’ Level Chemistry results under his wings of patient guidance and coaching.

His chemistry coaching methodology emphasizes on the vital 4 ‘A’s and has a 100% proven track record to help students to improve their chemistry grades:
- Associations with Everyday Life
- Applications in Real Life & Industrial Examples
- Analogies for abstract Chemistry Theories
- Accelerated Learning Techniques

Having acquired knowledge in the different fields of Chemistry during his Polytechnic and University days Sean is able to communicate experiences, real life Chemistry observations, apt analogies – all this to simplify the Chemistry Concepts for students to grasp and remember in an easier manner. He also has several years of experience as a Chemist and Technical Specialist for the fast-growing Research Chemical Industry. Through his extensive experiences in the Chemical Research arena, he is constantly talking to aspiring scientists, researchers as well as Deans, educators in local universities and schools – such updated research and market trends are always the highlights when students asked about how each Chemistry topics relate to real life situation.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_Chua_Lian_Heng
http://EzineArticles.com/?7-Reasons-For-Using-Flip-Charts-For-Coaching&id=1418966

[wpebayads]

Products advertised on this page are sold by external companies who provide Using Flip Charts (Graham Jones) with a commission on each sale