Everyone freezes. A speaker has a procedure, not a minute of um.
A freeze will come. Even when you know one sentence what it is about. Even when you have notes. The brain hunts a word and the mouth stands. That is not the end of speech. The end is when you apologise for half a minute, laugh awkwardly, or run to reading the whole slide. The procedure is short: a pause, a breath, a sip of water when you may, the next sentence from notes. An apology three words max, better zero. A pause of three seconds may. It looks like certainty. A minute of um eats time and trust. No rustle on A4. Notes are in Slides. In PowerPoint in presenter view. Drill at home is cheaper than the first freeze at the board. Gum is not a rescue. Someone else’s bottle neither. A parent holds the account. Do not put a recording of a fail on the network. Today you go silent on purpose. When you can do it in the living room, at the board you use the same procedure without thinking.
Ema froze and apologised for half a minute. The class remembered the fail, not the sentence. Adam went silent, breathed, a sip of water, said: So twelve kilometres. He went on. The class read the pause as certainty. After the lesson Ema wrote a rescue sentence into notes. She tried it three times after a freeze on purpose. The apology vanished. A parent from the door said Adam’s pause looked like certainty. Ema’s third try she made with no apology. Both wrote a rescue sentence into notes. They left A4 in the bag. Rustle would steal eyes just when the mouth hunts a word.
An apology three words max, better zero. The next sentence from notes is the rescue. Blaming yourself for a minute is not.
A pause, a breath, the next sentence
Click Present (F5). In the middle of a slide go silent on purpose. A breath. Look at the short sentence on the slide. The next sentence from the Notes field. No apology. In PowerPoint you have notes on your monitor, not on the screen. Do not lift A4. Rustle steals eyes. The stopwatch runs even during um. That is why you cut um. Drill three times on the same slide. A parent says: did it look like certainty, or a fall? Certainty — hold the procedure. A fall — shorten the next sentence. Write a rescue sentence into notes: maybe So twelve kilometres. That is a rope. It is not reading the whole slide. Reading after a freeze is a run. The class sees a run. They do not see the procedure. A parent’s account. An email does not belong on a slide or on a rescue scrap. Water yes, when you may. Someone else’s bottle no. Write the procedure into notes: a pause, a breath, the next sentence. When you see empty in your head, you read the procedure, not a paragraph from the slide.
Wrong: Ema, an apology half a minute, the sentence forgotten, the stopwatch eats um.
Right: Adam, a breath, water, So twelve kilometres. Next. The pause looked like certainty.
Home drill: go silent on purpose. When you can do it in calm, at the board you use it without thinking. Equally wrong is laughing at yourself for a minute. The class remembers the laugh, not the sentence. Right is three seconds of silence and the next sentence. The stopwatch runs. That is why you cut um. Home drill is three times the same slide.
Do not chew gum as a rescue. Water yes, when you may. Do not drink from someone else’s bottle. Do not play a freeze as a minute joke about yourself. A minute is expensive.
Four things you will build in this course
The course has four small projects. You do not have to do them all at once. Today you add only this:
🎯 A hobby in 5 slides
Five slides about something you like doing. One sentence about what it is. No paragraphs from your notebook.
Hobby: a rescue sentence is a scene in one sentence, not an apology that you forgot.
📚 A report
Eight slides for school: a start, three proofs, an end. The title on every slide is a sentence, not “Slide 3”.
Report: after a hole go back to one sentence what it is about. Not to the next chapter.
📊 Survey results
A chart from a table (not a screenshot from chat) and under it where the numbers come from.
Survey: when a number drops out, breathe and read it with your eyes from the slide. Then meaning with your mouth.
⚖️ A defence
You say one sentence, show proof, answer “and what if…”. If you do not know, you say I don’t know.
Defence: a minute of apology eats time for proof. A breath and the next sentence.
A freeze on purpose
Three times the same slide. Three times the procedure. No minute apology.
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Open Slides. Into Notes of a slide write a rescue sentence that is not on the slide. Present (F5).
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In the middle of speech go silent on purpose. A breath. A second of eyes on the slide. Say the rescue sentence. No apology.
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Esc. Present (F5) again. An apology three words max, better zero. Stopwatch: a pause of three seconds may, a minute of um must not.
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In PowerPoint turn on presenter view so you see notes, not the class. Leave A4 in the bag.
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A parent: certainty, or a fall? Fix the rescue sentence. Save the file on a parent’s Drive. Do not put a recording of a fail on the network.
A rope in notes
One short sentence you can do even after a hole. It is not a paragraph.
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Write one rescue sentence into notes. Say it after a freeze on purpose.
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Ban A4 at your face during a freeze. Either the slide, or notes on your monitor.
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Ask a parent if the pause looked like certainty.
Now you 💪
- After going silent I can breathe and say the next sentence.
- I do not apologise for a minute.
- The rescue sentence is in notes, not on A4 at my face.
Done when: After a freeze on purpose you can do a breath and the next sentence with no minute apology.
What to take from this lesson
- A freeze is not the end. A procedure is.
- A pause of three seconds may. A minute of um no.
- Water yes. Gum no. Someone else’s bottle no.
- The next sentence from notes, not reading the whole slide.
- Drill at home is cheaper than the first hole at the board.
- Names in the examples (Ema, Adam) are made up. Do not put your number, email or photo on a slide.
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