Public Speaking

http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/Seven-Principles-of-Effective-Public-Speaking.aspx


Public speaking is so easily overlooked in our profession. Many people in our age group who plan to become future educators sometimes fall by the wayside sometimes simply because they lack the skills to comfortably speak in front of other people. Public speaking is a skill that can be obtained and even inherited. All through school, we all have taken many different classes where speaking in front of people was mandatory. It was always so easy to pick out those who would struggle and those who would flourish when speaking in front of people. It is not hard to spot.

 In language arts, public speaking is pretty much required. If you can't speak comfortably in front of people, it will be difficult to be able to go on a stage and recite lines to 500 pairs of eyes glued to your every word. It will be hard to stand in front of a small audience with four other people, reciting a comedic sketch about drivers ed in a speech. A lot of how you learn how to public speak is by the people who teach you. Good teachers, coaches, or even parents who are willing to be straight up with you and tell you how you can get better instead of sugar coating your efforts and telling you "you're great" when you aren't. Though feelings may be hurt initially, in the end they are doing nothing but making you better at what you do as well as making you a better public speaker.

In this article, it gives 7 ways to effectively public speak. What I liked about this article was that it was straight up, like what I was talking about in the previous paragraph. The first rule we see says "Perception: Stop trying to be a "great" public speaker". As students and even as teachers, it's easy to try to hold yourself to such a high level of perfection that we see ourselves giving a speech about photosynthesis like MLKJ would himself, and that simply isn't always going to happen. It's possible, but its not something to be upset about if you don't accomplish that task in front of a class of 15 students.