Education

with my presentation; of course every classroom had a different response. Every classroom had a different setup. Sometimes they were labs; sometimes it was a standard classroom filled with chairs. Some had white boards, some had chalkboards, each was a little different. Sometimes the teacher stayed and participated, sometimes they watched for a few minutes and left.

I don't purport to be enlightening anyone. I'm simply sharing my experience as an outsider. I imagine you know a lot about classroom management that I don't. One of things that I noticed when going around to these schools was that some classrooms were prepared; some were not. Obviously there is some knowledge required for optimum classroom performance. Some classes went smooth; some were bumpy.

I didn't have to do it in front of the same people every day, and I'm sure that's a whole different challenge. I'd give a presentation and the next day I would return to my job site.

I'm not typical; I did quite a bit of training of subordinates in the military as an NCO and as an Officer before I went back to school to finish my engineering degree. So I'm a little more familiar with what kind of little stares and questions and comments it takes when young people start to lose interest to prevent (or at least minimize) their tendency to act out.

The most difficult of my 'career orientation' presentations was with a large classroom of African American students. While their behavior wasn't significantly worse than the smaller classrooms; I was wore out by the end of the day. I know it would be difficult to handle them day after day. The teacher was very stern up front about treating guest speakers with respect.