Grade: A 100%
For this year’s speech class, I planned to learn how to write a speech, perfect its presentation by practicing in front of multiple audiences, and then actually compete against others in speech tournaments.
I was able to achieve this… with one tragic exception. COVID-19 came and all the spring speech torunaments including regionals and nationals, were all cancelled.
Since I was able to practice my speech in front of many audiences, I am confident I accomplished the core of my mission with this class. But I look forward to doing speech meets next year when things hopefully return to normal. I will eventually post my speech on my website after I debut it in competition and will include a link of it here.
To round out my studies, I took a Second City improv course to improve my ability to speak off the cuff. I also took a New York Film Academy acting class. My studies included watching favorite speeches of people like Martin Luther King; President John F. Kennedy; and President Ronald Reagan who gave my favorite speech on the beaches of Normandy, France, on the anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
Additionally, I watched most of the popular TED talks, my favorite being given by Sal Khan about Mastery learning. I also enjoyed a book that helped me become a better speaker, TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking. I highly recommend TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking for anyone interested in public speaking, even beginners.
I can’t wait to do a live, in-person speech meet. But until that time, I will continue to master the art of speech making.
