Mediocre man vs. Public Speaking: Weeks two and three

Week two of public speaking was fairly interesting. Our task on evening one was to present a review of our text book How to Give a Damned good Speech by Philip Thiebert, which we were asked to read in its entirety over the course of the weekend of our first week. The book was relatively simple and proved an easy, if not somewhat sleep inducing read. Wheeler decided that we would present in the opposite order in which we arrived at class, and since I was the second person to show up, I was next to last to present.

It is somewhat difficult to present a topic without belaboring the points when 14 other people have presented their take on the same topic right before you the same evening. I touched lightly on a lot of the points that the others brought up and came in about a minute below my allotted time. I felt rather guilty, like I had copped out on the class with such a pathetic display.

The second evening of the class Wheeler presented an award to the best speaker from the first evening. She had to give an acceptance speech. Afterward, we watched several acceptance speeches on youtube to see how some famous people handle them. Before the end of class Wheeler laid out some slips of paper with our next speech topics; we selected at random and I drew the short straw with "photosynthesis." The challenge is to make the topic personal while delivering an expository speech for 5 minutes. I've decided to utilize a powerpoint presentation (which I will post here later so as to avoid spoilers just in case any classmates happen to stop in) to liven up my performance, and to give my audience something other than me to focus on.

Week 3 is only half way over but I wanted to share this bit because it was so much fun. As part of his torturous curriculum, Wheeler had us visit Breaking New Grounds for an open mic poetry reading hosted by Stone Pigeon. There were only 16 available slots so not all of us could get up to read, but those who did made us proud. The hostess invited us back and exclaimed how great we were. I used my phone to gather some really awful quality video (I really want a Digital Video camera, hint, hint) and put together a compilation movie of the presenters from class. We all had such a blast despite some of us initially having massive apprehension and skepticism in regards to the event.

Here is the video of the presenters that made it to the stage. Fear not, those that were unable to present at the mic will get their due in class on Wednesday (myself included).