A Fine Presentation

Maybe three weeks ago I was asked to teach at enrichment night. The invitation/assignment went something like this: 'A few months ago you mentioned you'd be willing to teach. What would you like to teach, and would you like to do it May 12th?' When I made the offer, I had intended to be teaching part of a class on what I do for work, not presenting the whole program. But I accepted anyway and was told I could borrow a laptop and broadband card for the class.

I thought about it on and off for a few weeks, and was reminded that this was happening now when I saw the announcement in the program on Sunday (in which my name was misspelled, of course). So I worked hard Monday and Tuesday perfecting my presentation and practicing what I would say. Not to my surprise, the borrowed laptop and internet connection never arrived. No problem - Aaron has a laptop and we just got wired with mobile broadband (for other reasons) a week or so ago.

I arrived at enrichment 45 minutes early to set up my laptop and projector. Aaron really wanted to fly his flight simulator on the big screen, so after I was all ready he started to fly his big jet. The appointed start time came and went, and I sat there watching Aaron fly and wondering how long we would have to sit around if no one came. Ten minutes later, 3 people arrived. I didn't want to start without the leadership there, so we waited another 20 minutes while Aaron and Zeke flew on the simulator and Aaron lost a game of chess to the computer before looking up his homework assignment online. Finally I gave up waiting and gave a powerpoint presentation to 3 people who knew absolutely nothing about the topic at hand.

Right as I got started, Zeke ran out of milk and loudly let me know about it. Aaron distracted him. Halfway through my presentation, Zeke came running around to the front of the room, stopped in front of me, and said 'home! home! home!' (Sorry dude, I'm a little busy right now.)Then he headed over to the piano. After his concert, he was totally ready to go home and was starting to get loud and irritated. Aaron took him down the hall to look at something else and I made my concluding points.

It wasn't a total loss.... I think those 3 people did learn something new, which was my intention. However, it was absolutely nothing like I envisioned and prepared for. And on top of it all it was freezing in that room.