New groups

Today there was a quiz over chapter thirteen. Chapter thirteen covered the art of using visual aids during a speech. Raul showed the class how to use certain computer programs to alter pictures that make for more interesting visul aids. I think I will definately use this technique many times because I love messing with digital art. We were assigned our team teaching projects which we needed groups for. My group has the concept of what we plan on doing, but we won't start putting it into action until tuesday's class. But I'm not telling what it's about. It will be due a week from today, on the 7th. That's all for today's review.

Troizieme Jour

Well today we analyzed our speech drafts by displaying them in front of the class to discuss. Mine wasn't the best example and I didn't spend alot of time on it, but it served its purpose. I was ten minutes late to class so I'm not sure if we took the quiz or not. I'm assuming we did and I missed it. Since my speech was presented and analyzed up front, I got some good help on it so that now I've got my plans for it better layed out in my mind. The help from Raul was a much needed critique to get me on the right track with what I was doing. But for now I've got to get going and I'm tired as heck! ttyl

Second Day

Today was the second day. We gave speeches about our most embarrasing moments and I gave mine over a time when I was in fifth grade and I walked into the wrong classroom. I felt like I did a decent job presenting, but the story itself was pretty boring. Pretty much everybody has at some point walked into the wrong room. The only difference with my story was that it was during a class instead of during a class change or something. We also talked about what we read in chapter one about being nervous in front of audiences and things to do to help you from being too nervous. Since everybody gave a speech, there wasn't much time for other events so the focus of today's class was on the speeches. The assignments for next class are to read chapter 2 and 3 as there may be a quiz over them, and to prepare a speech that that explains something using basic speech structure.

First Day of the Rest of This Class

Today was the first day of Public Speaking with Raul Mosley, and I'm pretty sure I'll pass this one. I'm taking this class because I was in a learning community last year and I screwed up on my very first speech of the semester and thought it would be better to just drop it to save my GPA. However, speaking in public is quite a fear of mine so I have to focus hard to get over it. People learn quickest when under fire - meaning that people are capable of adapting the fastest to a difficult situation the more they fear it. That's definately the way I work.
In today's class, we viewed the system for building a basic speech and we viewed Monroe's Motivated Sequence. The homework assigned was to read the first chapter in the text and to decide and prepare for Thurday's speech about a most embarrasing moment. I don't have the text yet and I couldn't buy it today because the bank closed before my classes finished so I couldn't get the money I needed. Tomorrow, I will have time after mein Deutsch klasse to stop by the bank and get the funds I need to purchase the text. That's when I plan to read the chapter. I should prepare for my speech tonight. I have to keep my efficiency level optimal or else I'll slide down to where I don't want to be. I'm looking forward to continuing this class and improving myself in one of my worst attributes. Learning how to be relaxed while standing in front of an audience is actually something I need more than just for classes. When I perform onstage, regardless of if it's acting or music, it greatly affects my performance to be nervous. When I was in the IUK Idol, my first song was full of nervousness which caused me to mess up some of the words and always causes me to hold back on my voice. I was lucky to make it to round two and that's when I became more at ease with my situation and was able to give a much better performance than the first, ultimately winning me the title of IUK Idol. I hope that this class pushes the fear out of me, and allows me to feel safe in what actually is probably one of the most safest pisitions to be in, because if you think about it, you couldn't possibly get run over by a herd of bulls or abducted by aliens with all those people watching you. haha