T/Th Class 10/30 and 11/4

Like many of my students, I procrastinate all too often. (Especially on volunteer or un-assessed tasks.) Thus my notes about last week's class are late.

Informative Speeches - 10/30/2008

I can't name a Best Speech of the Day for this day because everyone did something well and no speech was perfect. I think the speech I personally enjoyed the most was Steve's presentation on the impact of microbrewery beer on Central Oregon. It was well organized and researched and had lots of local information. Steve also spoke with the energy and natural style that is common to speakers who pick topics on which they have a lot of interest.

Ryan offered good research in his speech on Cocaine and also spoke with energy. Megan also presented her information with a friendly style. Alma managed to get beyond her personal biases and present an object speech about the benefits and dangers of gambling. She also shared personal information with us that touched our hearts. Andrew faced the same challenge of possible bias in his speech about hybrid cars but managed to present pros and cons as well. Speaker 6 (who hasn't given permission to use a name) spoke with passion about a fun travel experience her family enjoyed. Jessica chose the fascinating topic of the Black Death and began and ended her speech with a nursery rhyme as her hook and clincher. This was a very artistic device. In his speech on the Chinese dragon, Rufio also had an artistic structure, motivating us in his introduction and conclusion by showing that China was the most populous nation (and the coming world leader) and suggesting that it would be helpful for us to know something about it's customs.

Informative Speeches - 11/4/2008

An historic election day that was totally ignored in our classroom!

Best Speech of the Day Honors are shared by Abby, MacKenzie, and Scott. All three gave speeches about subjects of interest to students in Central Oregon: piercing, caffeine and snowboarding, respectively. Abby's speech on piercing was well organized, interesting, and delivered with energy and a conversational style. Mackenzie wowed us with the number of sources she used and with her smile. Scott made the effort to dress up, bring his snowboard, and use his visual aids appropriate. Scott also taught us how to get rid of the automatic slide rotation on the latest version of PowerPoint. THANK YOU. I always appreciate students who teach me new aspects of technology.

Each of the other speeches also showed some particularyly appropriate quality. Rachael chose a topic that fascinates everyone - sex - and had lots of data to share. Alex had easy-to-see visuals of the army weaponry he discussed. Jason wore a shirt made out of hemp, the topic of his speech.