Ever since junior high school, I have always been nervous when it comes to public speaking. Class presentations were something I dreaded, especially when it was solo. I remember hearing my heart beating so fast I thought it was going to beat out of my chest. When I first came to UofSC and looked through all the courses, I remember telling myself that I would never take a public speaking class.

 

It wasn’t until I decided that I wanted to go into elementary education that I thought to myself, “it might be a good idea to get used to speaking in front of a big audience.” Because of this realization, and the Carolina Core requirements, I enrolled in a public speaking course in the fall of my sophomore year. Although this was an online public speaking course, I learned so many techniques and strategies that I currently use in my teaching and my volunteer organizations on campus. In class, we practiced writing speeches, conducted interviews, created a podcast, recorded speeches on YouTube, and participated in a live video presentation. We also studied techniques for speaking in front of a crowd like hand gestures, body movements, rhetoric, and tone. All of these skills have helped me become the public speaker I am today.

 

During my freshman year of college, I joined UofSC’s Relay For Life on campus. Relay For Life is an organization that raises money for the American Cancer Society to fund cancer research, patient treatments, housing, etc. I have been a part of this organization throughout my whole college career and have been given the opportunity to be put in several leadership positions within it. My sophomore year, I was the Recruitment Chair on the executive board. I used the techniques I learned in my public speaking class to create persuasive speeches and interesting presentations in order to get people to sign up for Relay For Life and to join our organization. I presented at various student organization meetings, residence halls, and faculty and staff. I used my knowledge and studies of rhetoric to help me during these presentations. According to Lisa LaBracio and Camille Langston, authors of Rhetoric 101: The art of persuasive speech, Aristotle said rhetoric is the “art of seeing the available means of persuasion.” He tells us about the three persuasive writing techniques we know today as ethos, pathos, and logos. In my Relay For Life presentations and speeches, I would utilize everything I learned about pathos, also known as the appeal to emotions. As my senior year rolled around, I was elected as the Director of Finance and Production for Relay For Life for the 2021-2022 school year. In this role, I will be doing a lot of public speaking. SPCH 145 has given me the tools I need to speak in front of a big audience during weekly meetings, special events and during our main event in April.

 

When I began student teaching, I was able to see how I would be using the skills I learned from SPCH 145 in my future career. Teaching young learners requires public speaking all day. As a teacher, you are the one in front of the class all day, facilitating learning in the classroom. I frequently look back at the lessons I have learned in SPCH 145 in order to elevate my teaching. One of the most important skills that I try and incorporate into the classroom is my tone. I learned that tone is very important when it comes to public speaking because it paves the way for how the audience is going to perceive the words. It is important that I use an upbeat and excited tone when teaching my students because it helps keep them engaged. Young learners thrive off of the teacher’s energy. The more excited I am about a lesson, the more they pay attention and participate. I also use the experiences of writing speeches in SPCH 145 in my student teaching when I am writing lesson plans. In my lesson plans, I write a basic script of what I am going to say while I am teaching. This is very similar to writing a speech, so I tend to think back to the techniques I learned in the fall of my sophomore year. For instance, I always try and relate my lessons to real-life scenarios that will hook my audience. My most recent lesson was teaching subtraction strategies to 2nd graders. I told students that we were going to be “math magicians” by using our magic wands and making bunnies disappear. Young children are very familiar with magicians, so this activity kept them entertained while also facilitating understanding of the math techniques. I will continue to use the skills that I have learned about public speaking in my future career.