With some training and opportunities to practice, you will be awesome! You can attract and hold attention with your blog entries, which rely entirely on content, without any of the non-verbal tricks to hold attention and engage an audience.

The nervousness goes away with exerience. I'm actually more at home in front of a group than meeting with a group of 2-5 people. There is nothing like knowing that a roomful people are interested and engaged with what you are presenting.

What really pisses me off, even now after it is all over, is that bad work was not rewarded with bad grades. It seems to me that there was some unwritten and unspoken rule that students could not be failed. I guess being too strict would lower enrollment, low tuition collections, and thus reduce the school's ability to pay instructors.

There were people in that program that had no business being there and there are people that have and will graduate that do not deserve the degree they will receive. It upsets me because it reduces the overall value of the degree that I worked very hard to earn.

Yeah, there was one undergrad member in my group who did absolutely nothing and I wonder if she can read or write. I wouldn't know, not having seen her do either. It definitely cheapens the program to hand out grades, but this sort of thing goes on at the majority of educational institutions in this country, even highly regarded private universities. Because you worked hard and applied yourself, you got more value out of the program and will benefit from that regardless of the slackers who coasted through school next to you.

From the other side, at least with undergrads, sometimes it is just getting them up in front of their peers and talking that is the major accomplishment. If you aren't teaching presentations, and willing to go through the long process of rehearsing and critiquing, then the presentations are what they are. The 18-22 year old crowd have little or no experience normally. The crowd, undergrad or grad, that comes back with some work experience is a mixed bag. Some jobs give those skills to people and some don't. The ones that have some sort of outside experience are great at in class presentations. Obviously, the others need a lot of help and usually there is no time. I admit to grading "easy" if this is a first time as opposed to a second or a senior in the program. But I also schedule prior rehearsals, in excruciating detail, if I invite outside people in. No sense embarrassing the students or the university.