At the beginning of semester 1, we were put in to groups containing primary education teachers, social workers and community learning and development workers for our Working Together module. We worked together throughout the semester, attended an agency visit together to Armitstead Child Development Centre and met up every week, ultimately working towards our end goal of presenting a 15 minute presentation about our agency visit and how we worked together as a group. I was very lucky to be placed into a group of people who were very hard working, and each individual put in an equal amount of effort and time. We all brought a different perspective and experience to the group, and I thoroughly enjoyed taking time to sit back and listen to their entertaining, but very real stories.
Although I had no problem with speaking within my group and sharing my experiences and thoughts, the thought of the upcoming presentation was always at the back of my mind. I have never been a confident speaker, and am not the type of person to speak out during lectures and voice my thoughts or opinions. This is a confidence issue that I have always had, and is something that I am working towards overcoming, although I know this is not something that will be solved overnight. Going into the presentation, I was extremely nervous, even though I was confident that my group had worked hard to produce a good presentation, and we had rehearsed together several times. This nervous feeling did not go away until after the presentation was over, however as I delivered the presentation, I did begin to feel more at ease and my confidence did grow slightly. I personally feel that the fact that it was a group presentation was both a positive and negative thing, the positive thing being that I had the support and reassurance from my group members, and the negative thing being that if I had not delivered the presentation to the best of my ability, I would not only be letting myself down, but my group members as well.
On reflection of the presentation, I do feel that I delivered my part of the presentation well, and did not let my lack of confidence get the better of me. Although presentations and voicing my opinions during lecture are never going to be my favourite thing, I do believe that I need to challenge myself by doing this, in order to become a more confident individual.
