Days It Is Rewarding To Be A Teacher...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I teach a course in Speech at a local college.
Tonight, all of my students (from two classes) had to give their speech in front of a new audience. To make sure there were plenty of bodies in the room, I got the school to fork out for free pizza to entice others to come into the classroom and listen to the students give their final speeches.

The turnout was pretty good - probably 40 people in the room, not including the 34 students giving speeches.

The reason I felt today went well is:
One woman is struggling with a dead-end job at McDonalds and trying to keep her kids and family afloat while studying. She was so thrilled with her new-found ability at public speaking, she invited her mother and father to come hear her speak.
Another woman said she dreaded this class, but it turned her life around by getting up the courage to speak in front of a crowd, and now she feels she “can do anything” and can hardly wait for new challenges and new classes. That was even the topic of her speech.
One guy, terribly shy and almost quit the class, brought his wife and two children to see him speak in front of an audience - and he got rousing applause. His wife actually shed a tear.
Many of the students “dressed up” for the speech, one had it professionally video taped to put on YouTube; several other students brought family and friends to watch their speech.

Considering Speech classes are usually the LAST course any student ever wants to take, it was particularly rewarding for me to see all of my students really enjoying their final exam - giving a speech in front of an audience - when just 9 weeks ago, 95% of them were terrified of speaking in front of anybody.

Like I say - sometimes teachers feel like their efforts are worth it. Today was one of those nice days for me.

2

Sounds like a great day! Over a couple of years I gradually got over the fear of public speaking. It’s a real confidence booster, that’s for sure. At my last two jobs my bosses were pleasantly surprised that I was usually the first, or only, one to volunteer to emcee an event, do a presentation, or whatever. Usually they had to bribe someone to do it.

I teach a class at church every other week and I get asked this a lot…“Are you really as calm up there as you look?” Definitely. I figure if I ever get asked to speak for 20 minutes with only a couple of minutes warning, I could probably do it. I’m lucky, though, because once I start talking the ideas and personal anecdotes just jump right out of my brain and into my mouth. I think the real challenge would be to limit an impromptu talk to 20 minutes and not go on for an hour.

You must be very proud of your class! Sounds like a day you’ll never forget.

3

I’ll bet that years from now, those students will be remembering you and that class, and how you helped them. It isn’t just little kids who are inspired by their teachers. Congratulations to you and them.

4

**DMark **- very cool; congrats on having such an impact and thank you for sharing. Public speaking - and gaining a basic competence in it - clearly pays dividends way past the simple delivery of a speech…

5

Awesome! I’ve never had a fear of public speaking, because my teacher in first grade put me on stage to give a speech to open our class play, back when I was too young to know that was supposed to be scary :smiley: and I never looked back. But sooooo many people ARE bothered by public speaking, it’s awesome you can help them overcome the fear!