Jeff Moden (12/15/2010)Having some jitters is not a bad thing. Shaking uncontrolably is a bad thing... especially if you've had lots of water to drink.

I was a Navy instructor and was qualified to teach and did, infact, taught all hours of a 26 week 8 hour a day course (1040 hours altogether). I also wrote and taught a 200 hour course on microprocessors and troubleshooting digital interfaces before Bill Gates could spell CPM. I found that the attention span of most folks was limited to about 50 minutes which was perfect... at the top of each hour, I called a 10 minute break and broke the antlers off of anyone that didn't return on time. Since we were all heavy coffee drinkers, the only problem any of us had (I usually had about 30 people in each class) was standing in line for a chance to fully process the coffee. 😉

I taught at that pace for about 2 years. The jitters go away after you've done 3 things... get a little podium time behind you, review the "movie" you made of yourself so you can get rid of your speaking "tics" and shortfalls, and be very well prepared as the subject matter expert. Keep in mind that if it's a new subject for you and you don't have lesson plans, it's going to take about 4 hours (or more) of preparation time for each hour you're on the podium. If you have working code examples, it may take you 10 or 20 hours of preparation per hour on the podium to actually do it right.

I used to do double duty in the Navy... After teaching for 8 hours, I'd have a quick dinner and then study the lesson plans for the next day for about another 8 hours that day. Walking into the classroom the next day knowing full well that no one was going to be able to pin me to the wall with a question really helped the jitters go away.

And, yes... do get some podium time in front of your local user group. It's a great way to get started.