Thursday, September 25, 2014

Impromptu Speech

Please reflect on your impromptu speech by writing one well-written and thought-out paragraph. Use complete sentences and correct grammar. Upper classmen should be writing paragraphs with compound and complex sentences that are a minimum of six sentences long. Things to consider (you do not need to include all of them)

  1. eye contact
  2. nervousness
  3. audience feedback
  4. preparation (What did you do during your 2 minutes--would you do the same thing? Do you have advice for future impromptu speakers?)
  5. Speaking Rate (too fast? too slow? too many pauses?)
  6. gestures (Did you do any?)
  7. poise and presence 
  8. confidence level
  9. introduction and conclusion
  10. organization
  11. facial expressions

What went well? What do you need to work on for the next speech? Would you want to try it again or are you glad it is done? Be as specific as possible! 

In addition, leave feedback for at least two students. Feedback should be specific and original

73 comments:

  1. Wow, I have to say I was very resistant to this new kind of speech but I liked it a lot! It felt a lot more relaxed like I was just talking to a bunch of my friends. I'm pretty pleased with the topic I picked. I'm glad my worst fear could make everyone else laugh. If anything I could use more gestures and organization. For only a minute of preparation time, I think I did pretty well pulling some things together. I hope to do more impromptu speeches in the future and have everyone there to enjoy it together.

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    1. I really loved your speech. I found the topic very intriguing, but the humor you added had gained my attention even more. I felt you had great eye contact, volume, and rate throughout the speech. I too have had my scared moments where I thought I was going to be taken. I am glad I could relate to your experience!

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    2. your speech is great! you really own the stage!!! :) love it!!!

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    3. Alyssa...liked what you were doing right idea....you looked very comfortable, calm, and composed when the game was on the line. You are very cheery and happy when you are up there and I love that. Keep it up!

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    4. I liked you incorporated some personal stories into your speech. That make it easier to make the time limit. You had an interesting topic and it is always good when you can get the audience to laugh. Overall a well done speech.

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  2. Wow! The feeling I had before this speech versus the feeling after was completely different. I had thought of so many things of what my topic could be. Luckily, I found a subject I could really attach my heart to. Of course a lot of the class enjoyed the first couple of speeches, but I felt those first two were a lean toward a much serious side than this one causing them not to bring out my humorous side. However, I felt so great I could finally make my audience laugh consistently throughout my speech. Overall, I am feeling great at the end of the day.

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    1. I really enjoyed how passionate you were about your topic. I too agree, Andrew Garfield is the best, way better than any other actor for spiderman. You are always a great speaker, and this speech did not disappoint. Everything about your speech was top notch.

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    2. Lol Pfaff, I got a sense from you that you like Spiderman, yet I didn't know that you were a huge fan guy of him! You didn't have any awkward pauses at all, since you had a lot to say about it ha. I agree that this was a more light-hearted speech than the past ones, and I tend to remember speeches more that have a bit of humor attached to it, which this one definitely did. Your tone, confidence, and volume was all there. Noice job!

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    3. Zach, you did very well on your speech! I really like what you were doing it was definetly the right idea. I got a really got
      A goo laugh out of when you said you styled your hair like Spider-Man haha....to be perfectly honest...I think your speech is just about perfect.. I really don't have anything to critique you on zach! Solid speech keep it up!

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    4. I thought that your speech was very well done and entertaining. You presented your message clearly and hearing someone talk about spider-man is awesome.

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  3. Ehhhhh honestly not my favorite speech. I didn't feel attached to the idea I picked (favorite family vacation). It didn't really help that I had about 50 seconds to prepare for this one, so for the 5 words that were written on my "notes" were pretty much worthless. In hindsight, I thought of a lot of other things that I could have included in this speech that I left out. I was probably talking pretty fast at times, and I'm not sure how many fillers I had. I felt that I went pretty tangent in some of my sentences. I thought that my eye contact was fine, and I think I was loud enough. Although, I thought I was able to open and close my speech in an alright manner. On the positive side, I liked how I didn't need to stress any practicing, and I think the only way to get better at impromptu is more reps at it.

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    1. Michael,
      I actually thought your speech was really good. I could definitely relate to what you talked about on going on vacations with the family. Also in your speech you had lots of confidence and you did not seem nervous at all. The only thing I can say you can work on is preparation for your speech, because you said you did not write much down. So, next time just try to write down a little bit more things to say. Other than that you had pretty much everyone’s attention, and the speech was great.

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    2. You always have me leaning in when you begin your speeches. I laugh in every single one. I can promise to tell you your humor is always the best and consistent thing I have experienced throughout all of your speeches. I know this was not your best one, but it is hard to beat out the fantastic ones you have had in the past! I still felt it was crisp and lovely. Eye contact is always swell and I could hear you loud and clear!

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    3. Micheal, I thought your speech was terrible. It looked like you were really uncomfortable up there and it was just a very pathetic speech. I am disappointed in your effort in this class overall. Please be a better student.
      Just kidding...whoah I bet I got you nervous there but anyway I thought tht you actually gave a pretty good speech. It was kind of a boring topic to talk about, but I thought you delivered in the clutch and you did a good job buddy.

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    4. Krupo, I thought you did great on your speech. If I hadn't known that this speech was impromptu, I would've guessed that you had worked on your speech for hours. There weren't any awkward pauses that I heard and you looked like you were just having a lot of fun up there. Great job!!!

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    5. (Stephen Gebbia) Michael, as usual you had great confidence up at the podium. I think you did a great job of constructing a speech with that topic. I can see how that would be a difficult topic, but you made it look easy! The speech you gave was relatable and well put together. Nice job!

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    6. As always, your speech was hilarious. It seems to me that you have a natural talent for telling stories in an amusing and coherent way, not something that everybody can do. I was cracking up when you told us about the homeless fight and the subsequent apathy of the San Francisco natives!

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    7. Mike, I somehow knew from the second I heard your first line what you were going to talk about! I thought it was very funny how you spoke about your vacation. I think it really helped how personal you made this speech. It made in engaging for both you and the listener!

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  4. So, I am not a super big fan about impromptu speeches, but I felt that this did not go too bad. Also during the speech I felt very confident and not that nervous. My preparation I thought was pretty good, I wrote down things that I wanted to talk about and did not have to pause because I ran out of things to say. Even though I was jotting stuff down like crazy I was still able to keep this speech organized, and give it a good flow. This topic I got was probably not the best topic for me to talk about, but I was still able to whip up a fine introduction and conclusion. Lastly, I believe that I had pretty good eye contact and I know at one point I was smiling during my speech, because I was feeling very happy for some reason.

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    1. For such a vague topic you really managed to pull it together nicely! I enjoyed your speech because you have great tone quality in your voice and lo of inflection. I also related to your childhood experiences with Reading Rabbit and other "learning computer games", much of which was time split with my sibling. As a less than avid gamer myself, your speech was impressive and brought a flood of nostalgia. Thank you!

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    2. If only Anton was given this topic lol. But I agree with what Gabby said above as well. I can totally relate to more of the educational computer games as growing up just like Reading Rabbit! I thought you did a great job of making a solid speech off of a topic you didn't necessarily have a big passion for. For some reason though, the Pokemon reference seemed to make everyone smile ha. Eye contact, volume, and tone were all there.

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  6. Although this was my best speech yet, I was unsatisfied with the topic. It was way too broad and extremely similar to my first speech. I ended up repeating a lot of things and not being able to think of anything new to add. i was very excited for the impromtu speech and thought that it would have been more fun and relaxing but I ended up just being tense. I thought my speed and clarity were ok and that my eye contact was fine but the speech in general didn't quite live up to expectations. I didn't think that the notes I had were very helpful and I should have spent more time working on a stronger conclusion. Overall, I would give this speech a 6.5/10.

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    1. Out of all your great speeches, I cannot really pick a favorite. However, I enjoyed your entire subject of knitting and other things you love. Do not worry! I rambled so much about Spiderman I felt I taught the entire history of it. I saw you up there and I did not see any tension at all. You looked and sounded comfortable and great as always. Seeing you in drama over the years, I know you have a lot of talent and you show that with all your speeches. I would give you a 10, but I am not the teacher.:p Great job!

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  7. I really like the speech! The first time that i could do a speech without getting really nervous. LOVE IT!!!
    I think that i'd rather doing a surprise speech than a well-prepared speech!!! just that the time was not as long as i wanted it to be :(

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    1. Bao, I felt like that this was really the first speech that you had a lot of confidence in. Your sentences seemed to flow a lot smoother and I thought that I saw more eye contact. Your time may have been a bit short, but I think that this was your best speech so far. Nice job!! :D

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    2. Every time you go up to the podium you seem to just grow more and more confident, especially in this speech. You looked at ease and spoke smoothly. Other than it being a bit short, great job!

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  8. "Is your room 'clean as a pin' or 'messy as a pigsty'" At first when I got my topic I couldn't think of what that even meant. So I panicked because I had no idea what the second prompt was even talking about. So, to calm myself down, I drew a turtle with a monocle, pipe (blowing blubbles), and a top hat. Just looking at the poorly drawn turtle made me feel a little bit better. I was ready to start thinking of an idea when my mind suddenly drifted off into the past where my old school in Louisiana held a "Speech Festival" every year. The Speech Festival was an event where you would need to present a monologue, poem, and answer an impromptu question which is why I believe i had a flashback. Well, I was in third grade when I entered the Speech Festival for the FIRST time. The monologue and poem are completely irrelevant, however the impromptu question was not. The question they gave me was "If you were in a sticky situation, how would you get out of it?" Well, since English was my second language, I had never heard of the phrase "sticky situation" so I took it completely literally ,and rambled on about how I would stick to everything and would not be able to take a bath because I would just stick to the tub and I would never be able to comb my hair again ( back then i used to rock the "slicked back " hairstyle). Everyone laughed at me and I did not understand why at that time. However, like thirty seconds before it was my turn to present, I realized why everyone laughed, it was because I did not understand the idiom. I was horrified and started to blush intensely out of embarrassment. Then Mrs. Dennert said it was my turn and my heart dropped into my stomach because I had nothing written down and I was terrified that this would be a relapse of my third grade humiliation in front of 100 peers and teachers, all because I did not understand the prompt. So, I got up walked up to that dreaded podium and of course being a nervous wreck as always. I set up my timer, and as soon as I looked up, it occurred to me that I had received honorable mention at that speech festival. Which was a HUGE deal because I not only competed against my class, I had to compete against eighth graders and I also did not go to a regular school I went to an academy so all the kids in that school scholars practically. Remembering that I could do that made me feel a little better, but it also didn't exactly help my situation of professor turtle blowing bubbles at me. I guess that is why they call it impromptu. So, I talked about me moving in to my house currently in Wisconsin and talked about memories of when my sister was harboring a spider next to her bed. Everyday I came into her room I was frightened that the spider was like a brown recluse or a black widow and it would kill me or something (arachnophobia). So I went through the years of how much i remembered this spider but not in my perspective, but the spiders. Because, in reality, I invaded HIS/HER home so I was a rude guest to Mr/Ms Spider. Well, if anything i should have written down, I should have written years. I was counting up year after year and realized that i had jumped from 2010 to 2013 and realized that I had skipped over a few years and I lost my train of thought. I panicked ,of course, talked about the spider STILL being alive inside of a vacuum cleaner. I felt like i began loosing eye contact, mostly because I did not even want to look up. I felt that I had messed up real bad. However, I had to finish, I peeked at my timer and I was at 1:20 and It felt like an eternity had passed and I had no clue what else to talk about, so I started the conclusion in 2014. Leaving him with a memoir of hope that one day he would escape the vacuum prison, which strangely was exactly how I felt; I was trapped at a podium with the air being chocked out of me. However, because of my peers being so encouraging that I was able to feel confident that my speech was alright.

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    1. I thought that your speech was very good as usual and that this is the most interesting way I have ever seen anyone talk about how clean or messy a room was.

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    2. Seriously, Chris, you must be one of the most creative people I know. I have no idea how you came up with such a unique perspective on an otherwise boring topic. I was a little confused as to what your topic was at first, but it was cleared up in the end. All of your speeches so far have been very good and keep getting better. Great Job!

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    3. That is a lot of thoughts in a couple minutes of thinking!!! I always enjoy your speeches. They are not the typical speech so at the start I am a little lost, but then I understand better a little bit into the speech. Your eye contact is well and volume is always clear to me. Jimmy the spider will miss you.

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    4. (Stephen Gebbia) Your speech, Chris, was very abstract. That is what makes your speeches so interesting and intriguing. It was very original and creative. It is always a pleasure to hear your speeches. The only bit of constructive criticism I have is for you to avoid playing with your fingers during the speech, as Mrs. Dennert had describe such an action as sometimes distracting. Try using your hands for gestures. It honestly is not that distracting, but I couldn't think of anything else to fix about the speech! Well done!

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    5. There is no doubt in my mind that your speech was extremely clever and hilarious! I appreciate how you deviated from the original speech format, and instead opted for a diary of a spider. This provoked me to contemplate what you actually did, and I came to the the conclusion that yours is something about spiders. When you told me what it actually was, it made the speech even more entertaining, as it was a spider observing the increasing messiness of a room!

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  9. I feel that my speech went OK for having written nothing down. I was able to maintain eye contact and speak clearly. I was not as nervous as I had been during my other speeches. but my into and conclusion were almost nonexistent.

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    1. I always like your speeches, this one was ,by far, my favorite. The reason for this was because you didn't look nervous at all and I felt that your topic idea was great. However, there was one thing that caught my attention. You have an excellent thought process, however, the pauses that you had in your speech took away from the words being said. Honestly everything you said was great, but those pauses made it almost awkward. When you say your ideas, adding filler words or transitions may make the ideas flow a lot better. Overall I enjoyed your speech, especially your conclusion.

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    2. I thought your speech was good and I thought that you gave great summary of the movie.

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    3. As Chris said in his feedback the pauses were the main problem but the rest of the speech was great. It was a solid speech and was a good review.

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    4. I also agree with Alex and Chris. You need to have more pauses and slow down on your speech. Your speaking just a little too fast. Slow the pace down and show your confidence.

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  10. I absolutely love impromptu speeches! They were totally fun! Haha I could probably go up there and talk for hours, but I really enjoyed the topic I had to...cause I was talking about food which is my passion. So overall I felt that my speech went well and I was happy with how I did! But I want to hear constructive criticism!

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    1. Max,
      I really loved your impromptu speech! You had a great amount of confidence, and could get everyone’s attention right away. You had good eye contact, volume, and talked very passionately about your topic. The only thing that I can think of that you should work on is your pace in your speech, because sometimes you tend to talk fast. However, in total your speech was great!

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    2. Another solid speech. One thing to work on may be a conclusion. You surely were very passionate about this topic. If I had $100 I may do the same. Overall an excellent speech.

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    3. Max, I found it funny that you talked about what you would do with 100$ It was like you were having a conversation with the audience. You brought up very good points and different perspectives on spending it. Overall great job!

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    4. Your speech really gave me a good laugh! And it was really well done! I really liked how you were able to basically do the entire thing without looking down at any notes. You clearly related to this topic very well. I don't quite understand your outfit but it helped with the overall light-hearted take on the speech. Also I thought you had a decent conclusion, given that it was an impromptu speech. Solid work!

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  11. This speech is certainly different from the other ones. You have no time to plan unlike the other ones where you have over a week. You need to get a topic that is easy to relate to and something that you. You should try to tell a story or something easy to relate to. I would like to try to do this again because now I know how to plan and how to perform this speech. Overall my speech was decent. I ran out of things to talk to and it was a little short. I planned my introduction and conclusion, and had a pretty easy topic to talk about.

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    1. Winter, I loved your speech. I learned a lot of new things about you. However you did look kind of nervous up there. It was easy to see when you ran out of things to say because you kind of just trailed off but other than that, you did a fantastic job!!

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    2. Your speech is really interesting, this career is really a good one. You have good eye contact, look around the room, and your volume is really good, you really did a good speech!

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    3. I too would love to be a food critic. i enjoyed your introduction and reasonings. As you got towards the end of the speech, you started to run out of things to say and started rambling; but i really cant say much about that as i did the same thing.

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  12. This had to be my favorite speech yet. I loved doing it and had no reason to be nervous because this wasn't something I could've practiced for. I absolutely loved talking about meeting someone from the past. Abe Lincoln has always been a huge role model of mine and talking about him is always fun. I'm amazed at what he was able to do for this country and I love knowing that we are where we are today because of him.

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    1. Jordan,
      Great job on your impromptu speech! I personally also really like Abraham Lincoln, so I found your speech very interesting. During your speech you look very comfortable and confident, and quite excited to talk about your topic. The only thing that I can say that you should work on is having more energy in your voice, because I was not draw into your speech right away. Anyways, you had good eye contact, pace, and a really good speech!

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    2. Jordan, I was pretty shocked that you looked up to a guy from that long ago. Usually people have role models that are around today. You did a great job with explaining why and even using a quote from him with such little preparation. Great job!

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    3. Your speech was great it sounded like you have practiced it for days. Its great that you admirer someone so influential.

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    4. That was a great speech. It didn't feel rushed at all. It was awesome that you got a topic that you could really relate with and make such a great speech from.

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    5. Personally Jordan I thought your speech was the best for the impromptu speeches. How you spoke about your topic with ease and looked completely comfortable up at the podium, it sounded like you were completely prepared and knew exactly what you wanted to talk about. Awesome job!

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  13. I believe this is one of my best speeches I've given so far. I was lucky to get a topic that I had some personal opinions about so meeting the time requirement was not a problem for me. I was a little nervous to begin because I did not have a pre-written introduction like I had for other speeches. However, once I got into the details of the speech I felt much more comfortable and I was able to speak fairly smoothly. I also was able to us a few gestures which is something I've been trying to work on for a while now! My eye contact could have been better but I feel like it was improved from my last speeches simply because I had less written down beforehand.

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    1. You did a great job. When you got up to speak you seemed a little nervous, but once you started, your nerves seem to melt away. It had almost appeared as though you had months to prepare this speech; thats how well i thought it went. you knew exactly where you wanted to go with oyur topic, and you seemed to be able to speak well about the topic(ideal dates) as though you had quite a bit of experience. Hand gestures were also nice o have included in your speech.

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  14. For this speech, I was more nervous than the others. Due to the lack of preparation that is allowed, I felt unprepared which made for a poorly structured speech. I believe that I made good audience eye contact mainly because I did not have a script that I was reading off of the whole time. As for my speaking rate, I have no idea how it was. I think I was too nervous to take note of that while speaking. I was under the speaking time requirement because of my lack of ideas for what to speak about relating to my topic. I also had trouble creating a solid introduction and conclusion. Overall, this speech was difficult for me and I could probably use more practice with it.

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    1. I thought your speech was very solid. I did like your introduction mostly because I knew exactly what your topic was right at the first sentence. I also thought you had great eye-contact and volume. Overall, your content was good.

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    2. I think you did really good in this speech. your volume is good, and you really have eye contact, and you organized your speech really well. I really liked your speech

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  15. To be honest this speech didn't go as well as I had hoped. Being te first one to go I only had a couple words on my notes and I planned on talking about more but once I got done with what I had on my notes I forgot about the rest that I wanted to cover so it ended very short and abruptly. I thought my eye contact was a little better since I really didn't have anything to look down to. I didn't really do many gestures but that's because it was so short. Overall not to great but I look forward to doing better on the next one!

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  16. I think I did good on my speech. I was so nervous because I don't have a lot of time to prepare for it. However, when I start the speech, I think I am really into it, and I was not nervous anymore. It went better than what I thought. My eye contact was a little weak. I was really trying to make my speech fluent, but I think I have some pause.

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  17. I really wish I had a better topic I'm not very knowledgeable about ghost stories. I tried not to stumble a lot and keep good poise. I'm feeling more comfortable up their and I think I can do better in the future speeches.

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    1. Seth, the topic sounded a little difficult to talk about, so I do give you credit in trying it. Your eye contact was good and it definitely felt like you were a bit more at ease up at the podium. Good job!

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  18. My topic was pretty tough and I think if I had more time I could have came up with a decent speech. I started out with a solid intro but drew a blank from there. I just stood there hoping to come up with anything, but nothing came to mind. I hope to do better on the next speech.

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  19. I'm indifferent about this speech. I didn't exactly love it nor hate it. My topic, how do you want to be remembered, wasn't that bad to talk about. Though I do feel like if I had a topic I could connected with more, I would've had a lot more to talk about and have it feel more fluid and conversation-like. If I know what I'm talking about, I can speak upon it no sweat with confidence. This case I had to think a little more about the topic to expand on it. Thus I hope to get even better with the upcoming speeches.

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  20. For the impromptu speech, I think I did better than I had expected. Initially, I thought that I was going to choke, stutter, and be rendered incapable of speaking without sounding awkward or uncomfortable. When I saw the topic, however, a surprising rush of creativity and ideas came through me head. I enjoy doing improvisation on extremely vague topics because I can take the topic and derive a plethora of tangents from them. I think I improved my pose and confidence significantly on this one because I was excited that I was able to successfully do it. I think my eye contact, yet again, definitely need improvement, but I think I'm gradually become more comfortable with it. Another small personal achievement is successful organization as I've always experienced difficulty with it.Additionally, I think my conclusion successfully tied in the introduction and ended the speech strongly.

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    1. Anton, I think impromptu speaking is your specialty! You always come up with things to say and are able to back it up with something whether that's facts or insistence. But for this speech I could tell you knew what you were talking about and was very pationate about it! Keep up the work Anton, and don't doubt yourself saying "I can't do this" or "I can't do that" because you WILL surprise yourself if you give it a go!

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  21. My speech in my mind was really rough. Two minutes to prepare for a speech is a small amount of time. My topic was "What time period would you like to live in and why?" I honestly never really thought about it before, so I had no idea what to pick. So I just choose to pick the past around the settlers/ pilgrims era because I have visited many old foundations like Jamestown, Plymouth, etc. I thought I didn't really have good eye contact to the audience. Plus for time I had to prepare, I didn't think I prepared that well. I probably could have gotten more notes on my sheet. I thought to hard about this topic as well. I honestly didn't really like this speech. I don't know how Chance likes this.

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    1. I agree Ty haha! This also was not my favorite type of speech, but I thought you did well! You seem like a naturally confident person up there and continue to back up that claim. You aren't the type to get sidetracked up there giving a speech. You know what to say and you say it. This leads to a very consistent, solid speaker. Keep it up!

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  22. A little late but better late than never! My topic was on cheating and how it's a problem and what we can do about it. I was on a roll coming up with a great outline and ideas to say, but before I knew it I was thrown to the podium and had to do my best with what I had. My into was good, body was good, but I didn't have a conclusion in mind. I guess I'm not very good at impromptu because I couldn't think of one on the spot. Overall I thought I did pretty well delivering my speech, eye contact and all. My only downfall I feel was my conclusion, which left me rambling.

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  23. My impromptu speech could have went better. I feel like i could have used my two minutes more wisely. I started to write my speech rather than main points and so I ended up having a good flow in the beginning of the speech then afterwards going completely downhill. My gestures and eye contact weren't nearly as good as my other speeches because I was more caught up in figuring out what to say.

    Drew: I really liked your topic, great main ideas and you flowed very well from beginning to end.

    Jaycee: Your speech was well done. Your eye contact and gestures were good.

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  24. Mr. Herzog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWg_quHbdkg&list=UUplPLGAQ6GFDJmhLynVdlmA

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  25. Mr. Herzog:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWg_quHbdkg&list=UUplPLGAQ6GFDJmhLynVdlmA

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