Pocket Speech Assignment Analysis

The Pocket Speech assignment was an assignment which involved the review of my school’s Executive Summary that included important information about my school. From this summary I developed a short PowerPoint presentation that included chosen information in which I was familiar, and I gave that speech to a group of authentic audience members. The aspect of the school in which I chose to focus was the Engaged Learning Initiative (ELI), which is our school’s technology initiative, and my audience was comprised of brand new teachers to the school and student teachers. The information presented was important for the new teachers to our school because they were not present when the ELI was implemented, and with the refocus on that initiative this year, I felt it was important for them to understand the progression of the initiative, the importance for our students, and the alignment of the …show more content…
When presented with this assignment at the beginning of the semester, I was concerned because speaking in front of people is an area that I feel is not a strength; however, after delving into the material that I used in my speech, the importance of one’s level of knowledge when speaking was reiterated. Because I was very familiar with my topic as well as very passionate about the affect it has on students, I was more confident in my delivery. Even though I felt confident, I still started off my speech with nerves. This is why I had a point taken off of my final score, so Ms. Gibson noticed, and I also noticed in the video as well. My nerves were evident through breathlessness. I speak quickly, and I was trying to slow myself down by taking deep breaths. Once I got through the first 30 seconds, I had calmed and slowed myself down. I learned that I am better with public speaking than I thought I would be, and that practice will help me become more