Be yourself, listen to others and love, love, love~~~~

This class has really made my time at Southern State worth while.  I always had a great time in this class.  It was so fun getting to know everyone and listening to their speeches.  Candee taught us through a variety of ways, and one of the best ways she has taught us was by her own example.  Every time someone gave a speech she was always interested in what they had to say.  She would always actively listen to our speeches.  One of the biggest parts of this class was learning to listen with an open-mind, and our teacher was a great example of this.  Candee also taught us by her loving, joyful, and kind-hearted spirit.

In this class and in life, we just need to be ourself.  Candee taught us to be ourselves by being her own self with her kind attitude.  On the very first day, I remember Candee sharing a quote with us.  I can’t remember the exact words, but it went something like, “All human actions come from either love or fear.”  After she said that, I realized that a lot of the things I did came out of fear of my own failures.

Candee let us know that she loved us and that was why she does what she does.  Even though I already knew the importance of love, Candee reminded me that our motives need to be out of love.  I am really glad that I took this class.  I really appreciate my teacher and all the other students in my speech class.  I have learned basic things like be prepared and relax before your speech, but Candee really  taught us important life skills.  Be yourself.  Listen to others.  And love, love, love.

Mary

Connecting With the Audience Through Your Own Personal Story.

Hey,

This is my visual reflection.  In this class I learned the importance of  eye contact,proper hand gestures, incorporating pauses, and so many different things to help improve my delivery.  Another important thing I learned was to connect with the audience by using these delivery methods.  A big part of connecting to the audience is picking a speech that is important to you.  When the audience sees that the topic is so important to you, then they become interested in the topic as well.  If you are doing a speech that means nothing to you and if you express no emotion, then the audience will not be interested either.  A big part of getting the audience interesting is telling your own personal story.  Throughout the class it was very interesting to hear the personal side of each person’s speech.  It was great to learn all the facts about a certain topic, but knowing how that related to the person giving the speech is what made the speech even better.  When you make eye contact with the audience you also connect with them.  For my visual reflection, I cut out foam rectangles and tied them together with pipe cleaners. I drew an eye on one rectangle to represent connecting with the audience through eye contact.  I also put hands on my visual reflection to represent hand gestures.  Each rectangle is an individual, yet each of them are connected to each other.  On the back I had each person in the class sign a rectangle.  So my visual reflection also represents our class.  I feel like each of us were in this together and we created bonds with one another in the class.

This class has taught me a lot, but I will always remember some of the wonderful  memories from the bonds that were created by public speaking.

Mary Johnson

Trying to Get it Right

Besides the fact that I left out one of  my points and the conclusion in my informative speech, it actually went pretty well.  I practiced my speech ahead of time and I kept messing up just while practicing.  I thought to myself How am I supposed to get this right, in front of people, when I can’t even get it in a room by myself?  So I practiced more and I ended up getting it.  When I gave the speech in front of the class I tried to remain calm and not to appear nervous.  For some reason my speech ended up working out even though I feel I could have done better.  I could have done a better job making eye contact with everyone in the room because someone wrote on the comment sheet to not just look at him the whole time.  Also, since I ended with playing the dulcimer I ended up leaving out the conclusion, so next time I will hopefully make sure to conclude.  But I was glad that people learned about the dulcimer from my speech because most people didn’t even know what it was.

I really enjoyed everyone’s informative speeches.  Everyone did a good job and the topics were very interesting.  Just like with the reading speeches, it was cool to see what topic everyone would choose, but this time we had to write the speech ourselves.  Everyone seemed to do a good job at constructing their speech and at delivering them.

Mary Johnson

Reading Speeches

The reading speeches were all very interesting.  Some were very informative while others were very funny.  I really liked this one in my class that was very encouraging and very powerful about a bond between a mother and her daughters and Sandy doll.  A few people in my class also read poetry that they wrote themselves.  Their poetry was very good and even though they said they were nervous about reading something they wrote themselves, they seemed to do just fine.  I also loved it when a few students brought in props to go along with their reading.  One student brought in extremely cute chicks to go along with the poem she read.  Another student brought in a watch that went perfectly with his reading, which he did great on.  Another student read a poem about a mother and daughter so she brought in pictures of her own baby girl.  It was cool to see what kind of reading each person in the class would pick out.  Most people in the class picked out a  reading that seemed to reflect who they are.  Just listening to someone else’s speech gives you a since of who they are on the inside.

I’m also very glad that I was able to relax before my speech so that I could do a good job.  I was glad that I put emphasis  and meaning to my words.  I hope that I will continue to try my best on my next speeches.  I look forward to what’s to come in everyone else’s speech.

Mary

Learning to Improve

I have only had three days of speech class and all of them have been great.  I was glad that the teacher gave us the opportunity to get to know each other in the speech class.  It was fun to get to work in groups together and then present what we have learned to class.  I think that the group presentations helped to break the ice before I have to give a speech by myself.  I have already learned a lot from this speech class through the teacher, the book, and the other students.  I can tell that this speech class will help me to improve my confidence and my public speaking skills.

I learned that there are  many people afraid of public speaking, so when I get nervous before a speech I am not the only one.  However, I can turn that nervousness into excitement for giving my speech.  I am glad I am taking this speech class because there are a lot of things I need to improve on in public speaking.  I need to improve on my body language while giving a speech.  I learned that the way you walk up to the podium before giving a speech even matters.  I am the devotions leader for my 4-H club and a lot of times while giving the devotion, I have bad posture, read directly off a paper, and do not make very good eye contact with those around me.  I am looking forward to learning how to be a more effective public speaker so I can apply what I’ve learned to all the times in life when I have to get up in front of people.  Another area that this speech class will help me improve on is in being more calm and confident in giving a speech.  I have learned that a speech does not have to be perfect, so as long a I am fully prepared I should have confidence and enthusiasm as I make my speech.   As I have already begun to learn from my teacher and classmates, I am looking forward to continue to improve on my public speaking.

Mary Johnson