Time Out

The persuasive speech seemed like it was going to be a big challenge for me. I was very apprehensive and didn’t really know how to go about preparing for it. I am not a forceful person by nature and I felt uncomfortable about trying to coax the class to see my point of view. However, Mrs. Basford gave me ideas on how to be less forceful, yet still make my point of view. So, I chose a topic that was right for me. I have talked about food related topics through out the quarter, so I choose to conclude on that note. I ended up giving a speech on how important having family dinner together is.

I was nervous because I didn’t know how the class would react to my topic. I was afraid that they might think it would be boring. I hope that I gave interesting facts about the negative and positive aspects of having dinner together as a family. Also, I hope that I gave some ideas on how to plan for a family dinner night at home and that they try to get together more often with their families.

I hope that at least one of my speeches made a difference to someone. I have learned so much from everyone else’s.

 

Julie

We Made It !

Wow, four speeches at first seemed dreadful.  Dreadful soon turned into to enjoyable and fun, especially this last speech with Courtney.  Drinking and driving is something that struck very close to home with both of us.  More so her with the loss of her cousin, Rodney.  I think the class really paid attention to what we had to say, and they cared.  It felt good to know that they were listening and that hopefully we could save a life by them thinking before acting.  Speech has been awesome and I sure will miss it. It was definitely been an experience like no other and I wouldn’t trade it for the world, even though it was very stressful at times.

Haylee

Persuasive Speech- Living in the Country is the Best

Ah finally did my last speech with Ms. Julie. We did in on living in the country as opposed to the city. A giant thanks to Julie she did a lot of the work and did an amazing job. She was probably the best pick as a partner. I had no nerves at all when I got up in front of the class and im really glad. This class was a success cause I defiantly feel like now I know what I am doing. Thanks for all the great feedback guys! Today is the last day to do the persuasive speeches  I believe so good luck to all of those who are left in the class. Take a deep breath and if your anything like me say a little prayer.

 

Joanna

Preparing for the persuasive…

As I prepared for the persuasive speech I kept asking myself the same question: “Who am I to persuade anyone of anything?” While I still feel this way, I look forward to giving it my best shot. My speeches have consisted of someone who inspired me, my passion, and one of my many loves. This one will be no different. I have always had plenty to say, but getting it out in an easy to follow way can be a challenge. So I sit here preparing my key points that I want to talk about in hopes that my peers will appreciate and enjoy what I have to say. I certainly enjoy listening to everyone talk, and always looks forward to their thoughts and opinions. I personally believe there is no such thing as a bad opinion, as long as you have one and can back it up. As much as I anticipate the final speech, it is also saddening that this class is over so quickly. I have enjoyed it far more then any other class I have taken…ever.

Andy

A Look In The Mirror

Coming to the end of speech class, we were all asked to do a visual reflection… something creative. I knew right away that I wanted to do some sort of ‘craft’ dealing with Confidence. The most important thing I gained from being in this class, I believe, is self confidence. And I wanted my visual to reflect that. So, while my idea was extremely simple, it meant a lot to me. A $3 mirror and some sticky letters from Wal-Mart was all I needed. As I wrote ‘CONFIDENCE’ across the hand mirror, my point was that whomever was looking into the mirror would see themselves and their confidence– confidence gain through the journey of speech class!

 

Shayla

“A Christian Nation” was the topic of my persuasive speech

As I began the process of choosing a topic for my persuasive speech, I wanted to make sure I was better organized this time. I chose my topic and started writing it down on my note cards, but when I went to give my speech I realized I had lost half my note cards. So as I was giving my speech I would use the “pause” to try to remember what I had lost. Luckily this was a topic I truly believe in and was able to improvise and remain calm when I would struggle to bring to memory my speech. This kind of topic is always a scary one to talk about, but even though our class is some what diverse when it comes to religion, I knew no one would take offense to it. I am proud to be part of a class that is tolerant to rights of everyone’s point of view, and I believe Candee helped to set that kind of tone early on in the quarter. Once again I want to thank everyone for the encouraging comments, and without this kind of support I would not have been able to grow as a public speaker. Thank you all!

Mark,

Persuasive Speech

My persuasive speech was about riding a horse. There was a lot more people in the class that had ridden a horse than I thought. There was only two people who had not rode a horse. I just wanted the people in my class to get the experience that I got out of it. Most of the people in the class probably only rode a horse a couple of times which is great. My step-dad took my sisters and me to see his mom and when we got there I seen horses in the field. Before I went to see his mom I went to see the horses I wasn’t scared of them at all. Robin was very surprised that I just walked on in with all the horses. When he seen me do that he knew that I would be a horse rider. My first horse that I rode was named Dolly she died a couple of years back. I still have the jeans that I rode her in I always called them my Dolly jeans. My first horse that I got was a surprise I went to church with my Aunt and Uncle when I got back there was two horses in the field. My horse was named Dollyanna. We got her baby with her his name was Star because when he was born he had the star of David on his forehead. We ended up getting rid of Dollyanna because he was going after people, my cousin brought he a horse named Pearl. She was beautiful but she had a lot of problems, because of the way she was trained. I started riding Buck my second year of 4-H and I wanted my mom to give him to me so bad I did work around the house an everything. That year for Christmas my mom gave me an envelope saying that Buck was mine. Buck is the only horse that I actually stuck with and I always will.

 

Cheyenne

Persuasive Speeches are the Hardest

I really feel like the persuasive speech was the hardest one that we had to do. It was so hard to pick a topic that I thought I would be able to persuade people to do. And, the topic I picked wasn’t the best. I felt like I was running out of things to say and I started using the word “like”  a lot. But, throughout this class I’ve met soo many different kinds of people with different struggles in life and different outlooks on life. The people in this class we all amazing & we were all being guided by an amazing teacher. After this class I have a whole different outlook on life and I’ve become a much more positive person! Going into this class I was really nervous. I don’t really like talking in front of people and I didn’t want to go out of my comfort zone. However, because of this class I’m much more comfortable being myself in front of people and I have everyone in this class to thank for that! Thanks for always supporting me guys & always having nice things to say whenever I’m sure there were so many negative things you could say. You all are the best! And, I wish you all the best in the rest of your lives.

Candee – Thanks for being the person I could talk to whenever I needed someone to help talk me through things. It has never been easier to talk to someone about my parents divorce then it was to talk about it with you. You’re truly an amazing person! And, I hope that your life continues to be what you want it to be. You’ve changed my life. And, I want to thank you for being so understanding & great!

Thanks for everything guys! You have no idea how much it means to me.

Jeanna.

All Good Things Come to An End

Last week, we all brought in our visual reflections to share.  I had a good time looking at the different things that people came up with.  I must say that some of them were really creative!  Mine was basically just a poster with a few of the major things this class has taught me written on it.  In the background was a drawing of a weeping willow tree, which was personally my favorite part of it.

Today was a unique day in this class for me.  Carrie and I had partnered up to present this one last speech.  It was different writing a speech with another person, but definitely not bad.  We bounced ideas off of each other and shared the workload, plus, both of us had experience with our topic, which was volunteering.  I believe these things made our speech come out stronger.  Overall, I enjoyed working with Carrie and thought it was cool to try doing a speech with two people rather than just one.

The sad new here is that today was the last day ever for our speech class.

I can’t say enough how much I’ve enjoyed this class.  Honestly, if there was a second part to this class then I would schedule to take it in a heartbeat.  I never thought I’d say this, but Speech is the class I will miss the most next semester.  I already know that I’ll still be seeing my classmates faces around campus, so it’s not too bad.  I just hope everyone had as positive an experience in here as I have!  Thanks to Candee and my classmates for having a great time every Monday and Wednesday from 8:30 to 9:50.

- Natasha

Persuasive Speech and Reminiscence of Quarter

I can’t believe this was our last speech of the quarter.  As a matter of fact it was our final CLASS.  Today my partner Natasha and I got to deliver our Persuasive speech.  We basically decided to join ranks with this one when we started running out of classes and the efficiency of two minds working together.  Our persuasive was about Volunteering.  Since we both are very involved in volunteer work it was very appropriate.  The basic concept I learned to delivering a persuasive speech is to keep your credibility and be conscious of the feelings of the listeners.  Oftentimes not everyone will agree with you on some things.  And it is important to determine what you want to do with the speech, whether it’s to get people to side with you on an issue or at least view it in a different light, or if you want to have a call to action to the audience.  Our speech was definitely a call to action when we were done.

Our points began as: 1.) Benefits of Volunteering 2.) Our personal experiences and 3.) How to get involved.  (which was the call to action)  We had a few visuals with us.  Natasha brought shirts from her volunteer work and I brought in an example of an Operation Christmas Child box, where you send a shoebox of little toys and basic things that get shipped around the world to kids who can’t enjoy Christmas.  For putting our speech together with only one time to meet, I felt that we did a very nice job with it to be honest, and I was very satisfied with it as our final speech.

Now that the classes are over though, looking back it has been a good quarter for us.  Not only can I say that this class was very enjoyable, but I can honestly say I took a lot away from it.  I could not have chosen a better class for Speech, and I wish all of my classmates the best.  Thank you Candee Basford for being a great professor!

Carrie Chalker

Smoking

I was so nervous for this speech. For some reason I think I was more nervous for this speech than my very first one!!! I think it was because I did not feel like it was very persuasive, I felt like it was more informative. I am glad that I chose the topic that I did, because it was something many others, and myself can relate to. I got to tell my story about my papaw who died from smoking, and how it didn’t just affect him but our family. I would like to hope that my speech helped people learn really how dangerous smoking is, because before I did research on my topic I knew smoking was dangerous, but I didn’t really know how dangerous it was!!!

Carly

How Do You Choose an Interesting Speech Topic?

Even more than delivering the speech or deciding the content for the speech I have trouble selecting a topic. To some people this may seem to be one of the easier things to do when creating a speech but so many things go through my head like is the speech appropriate material for my class, will the material pertain to me, will I be able to make some sort of effective point with this speech? These are all things that I factor into my topic selection. Over the course of this class though I have found that maybe you don’t have to tailor your topic to the class. You just have to show the class that YOU care about your topic and earn their respect through your sincerity in your speech.

All this being said, I have recently been thinking about a topic for my persuasive speech. I considered many different things like smoking, alcohol, abortion, the typical things in life that people tend to take a strong stand for or against. However none of these apply directly to me, no one in my personal life has been a victim of a direct smoking or alcohol death and I don’t even know a person I could give for an example on abortion. Being the nerdy kid I am one thing quickly popped into mind; this thing is tariffs. Tariffs are taxes on imported good in the case about which I am speaking. They help protect the interest of our own country’s economy. To me this is interesting, I care about it and through all I have learned in this class I believe that my care about this topic will help make this speech more interesting and it be a better speech overall.

Clayton

Flossing!

Monday, Kendra and I did our persuasive speech on flossing. We tried to persuade the class to floss twice a day, or at least once. I will have to admit, I am guilty of not flossing every day. I went to a dentist office to do job shadowing with a Hygienist and realized that I actually should be flossing once a day. Also, looking up pictures on the Internet of periodontal disease and tartar build up made me realize how important it really is to floss daily.

We taught the class some of the effects of not flossing daily and also how to properly floss. If you do not floss, your teeth will eventually have a plaque build up, which leads to tartar (this was the last picture I showed). You can also get deep pockets and periodontal disease. To floss properly, you need 15 to 18 inches of floss. You will insert the floss between your teeth and run it up into the gums very gently, making sure not to be to hard on your gums. If your gums begin to bleed while you are flossing, this is a sign of inflammation and the beginning of periodontal disease.

We got a lot of comments after we finished our speech in our evaluations. A lot of classmates said that we gave a very informative speech and that our visuals helped back up our speech. I think that the visuals might have scared some people, which hopefully will make them realize that they might want to start flossing daily.

If we didn’t persuade the whole class to begin flossing every day, I hope we have at least persuaded a few. After all, that is the goal! Everyone has done great with their persuasive speeches so far, good luck to everyone who presents on Wednesday!

Regan

The Final Showdown

I am glad that Regan and I decided to talk about flossing for our persuasive speech.  Most people do not think about the importance of flossing until they are told about all of the consequences of not flossing.  We all want to have healthy smiles, and flossing really is a big part of that in the long run.  I was glad to know that our speech was effective; a fellow student even came up to me afterwards and informed me that they were going to begin flossing their teeth!

This speech was also important to me because, afterwards, I realized that this would be my last time working with Regan on a school assignment.  Regan and I have been best friends since Kindergarten and have shared many school projects together; everything from science fairs to country profiles to Destination Imagination practice.  And it just kind of hit me that next quarter we won’t have any classes together. After that, we’ll be headed to different universities.  So, I think that a speech about proper dental hygiene was a good way to wrap up our long list of school assignment tag-teams.  Regan, if you’re reading this, I’ll miss you! :’(

So, this is my final blog entry.  And I have learned and grown so much from this class.  Speech is one of those classes that can really be applied to the real world in so many scenarios.  I can totally tell the difference in my ability to communicate with others.  I thank all of my fellow students, and of course my amazing teacher, for that.

 

Kendra

Semi trucks

Yesterday, I did my persuasive speech on the dangers of semis.  In my personal opinion, persuasive speeches are the hardest speech out of all of them to give because you have to talk about something that you strongly believe in and find information to back that belief up.  The hard part though, is to persuade the audience of what you believe in and make them think and feel the same way as you do.

I believe that semi trucks are dangerous because their drivers are driving on the road with blind spots or “no areas” which are areas that they cannot see.  If you are behind a semi truck and you can’t see their mirrors, they can’t see you and could cause them to cut you off or run you off the road.  Always make sure you can see their mirrors so they can see you.

Another hazard is that truck drivers don’t always stop at rest intervals when they need to. This can cause them to fall asleep at the wheel and cause major accidents with vehicles around them.  So what can we do to prevent these things from happening?  Well, we can’t take semis off the road, but we can just be more cautious when we come up behind or beside a semi truck and always make sure you can see their mirrors so they can see you.  Hopefully, this will help prevent some accidents on t he road with large semi trucks.

Alex Wigginton

The Finish Line!

Well the end has finally come and I have gained so much from this class. I just did my  final speech with Alaina and we tried to persuade our audience to take the post-secondary/dual credit opportunity whether they are given it or their kids are given the chance. Alaina and myself have done post-secondary for two years and will be graduating highschool along with college and that is why we thought that topic would be a great choice for our persuasion speech.

As my speeches have went on throughout the quarter my feedback forms became more and more positive with less suggestions which was good because it shows how much that I have improved speaking in front of a crowd. I am so glad I took this speech class because it has helped me a lot from growing out of my shyness to being more open with people. I am glad I took Candee’s class  because she made it really fun and creative. From the very first class she started us out in groups with our classmates to help us get to know one another which helped out a lot. I just want to say thank you Candee for a great class and thank you to all of my classmates for supporting me during my speeches. Now I will go into my future being more open and less shy and hopefully will meet more people and as a result make more friends.

Lindsay

Speech Class- Coming to an End :(

Wow, so we have just two more days of this class! When I scheduled speech for this quarter I remember myself repeatedly saying, “I don’t want to take a speech class, I’m going to hate it.” I felt this way because the thought of giving speeches in front of a class frightened me. Well, turns out this has been my favorite class by far! I don’t think I have ever had a class that was this much fun, honestly. Throughout this course I met new people, learned a lot about people I didn’t know before, and even people I already knew. From the fun activities we did at the beginning of this course to the awesome speeches we now hear during each class- this class was great and it has taught me so much.

I have given three speeches so far, and with only the persuasive speech left I think it is safe to say that my favorite speech that I have given is my informative speech on Valentine’s Day. I just really had a great time with this speech. It was one that I had a lot of fun with. I got to give it on Valentine’s Day and I even made treat bags for everyone. This was the speech that I felt most comfortable with, and I think it was because it was a topic that I could have a lot of fun with and the smiles on everyones faces after handing out treat bags also helped!

Last week we all brought in visual reflections of what we have learned or how we feel about the class, and it was so interesting seeing what everyone brought in. There were some really creative ideas! I brought in my penguin pillow pet.

At the beginning of this course I was so nervous about giving speeches, and after learning all that I have and receiving all the positive comments from my great fellow students and our great teacher, I am so relaxed and calm when giving speeches! That is what I feel has been the biggest change in me throughout this class. When I want to relax or get comfortable I grab my pillow pet, therefore my pillow pet represents the change in me- now being calm and relaxed when giving speeches.

I can’t wait to give my persuasive speech, even though it’s sad that it’s my last one. This class has been awesome and I am so thankful I took it. To my teacher and classmates- Thank you!!! Thank you for being so accepting, positive, and kind! You all are great. I’m definitely going to miss this class!

Gainfully self employed!

I gave my persuasive speech on how I can be gainfully self employed. I think I waited until the last day so I could convince myself, too. After I got started talking about my ideas on how I could make my business a success I didn’t want to stop. After I concluded my speech and sat down I thought of a lot more things I wanted to say. I really want to thank LA for the spider prop idea for Halloween. It will make a great marketing tool to sell my pumpkins. straw and mums next year. I want to thank Candee for the information she shared with me on what she would like from a late season garden. It helps to know what people want, and if Candee is looking for these things I’m sure other people are too. Whole new industries have been created by entrepreneurs who have experimented in markets that have been overlooked!

 

Sherri

Can I persuade you to read this?

We finished up our persuasive speeches on Monday. I feel everyone enjoyed giving their speech this time. I am so glad we were allowed to give our speeches on the topic of our choice. It makes giving a speech so much more enjoyable when you are giving it on something you know and care about. I thought this speech would be harder than the others. I didnt see how I could persuade a whole classroom of young people to see things my way when I have a hard time convincing my own kids (all in their 20s) to see things my way. But the speech went great and I think I could have kept on talking if there wasn’t a time limit.

 

Sherri

preparing

Ok. It’s the day before my finial speech! I know what I need to do I just hope everyone enjoys it! I decided to do something fun! I really liked all the other persuasive speeches but they were all so serious so I am going with something a little more up beat! I am doing mine on Getting out of the house and going to Kings Island for the day in hopes to persuade people into going there next summer! I hope every one enjoys it and I hope I do a good job on it! I also have to re-do my informative speech but I think I can get it right this time I really hope so wish me luck everyone! Last speech I am so glad it’s finally here I wish I was done with it already! I just get so nervous!

 

Russ