Tonight's meeting was very different from the past Toastmasters meeting I have been to, but in a very good way. Our club hosted the Lions Club High School Speech Contest and the members of Toastmasters judged each speech and determined the winners. From what I understood, Lions Club is an international volunteer organization and therefore the topic of the speeches was to explain the changes that could be made in their community through volunteering.
There were six speakers, all in high school, and every one of them was an excellent speaker. I was impressed at their composure and ability to deliver organized and meaningful speeches without many flaws. It was great to have people in my age group there as well for a nice change because almost all of the members of the Ranch Raconteurs are much older than me. This experience also helped me greatly to become a better evaluator, because I had to manually score each speaker on a rubric and then use those to determine a top three.
After the Lions Club portion of the meeting, one speaker was scheduled to give a speech and be evaluated in the normal fashion. I was relieved that there was no time for Table Topics because of the contest. The impromptu speaking is my biggest fear so far because I'm scared that I will get a question that I don't know how to answer and will embarrass myself in front of the group. I usually need time to think a question through after it is asked and I tend to freeze up when I am put on the spot. Hopefully I will conquer this through persistence and I will continue to go to the club and participate every week despite my fear.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
First Speech Completed
A few hours ago I completed my first prepared speech in front of my Toastmasters club. I was a little nervous at the start of the meeting and when I was walking up to the podium, but when I started speaking it came naturally and I became more comfortable. Although my biggest worry was that I would rush through the speech and not meet the minimum time requirement, I ended up speaking for around five and a half minutes (the minimum was four). I even managed to get the "word of the day" incorporated into my speech which impressed some of the members.
My evaluator did a great job because he gave me a lot of positive feedback in addition to some constructive criticism. He said that I smiled through the whole speech which was great, my stories were very detailed, and that my volume and confidence were good. One thing that needed to be improved was that I didn't know what to do with my hands and sometimes they were distracting. Next speech I will try to incorporate my hands more into different gestures to engage the audience instead of dangling at my sides.
Overall, I thought my Ice Breaker Speech went much better than I expected. I received a lot of positive and constructive feedback which I will use to make my next speech even better. I was glad I was the first person to speak because I was able to get it over with and relax for the rest of the meeting. I really appreciate all the positive comments from the members and I feel very supported by them. I am ready to start thinking about my next speech and advance my speaking skills further.
My evaluator did a great job because he gave me a lot of positive feedback in addition to some constructive criticism. He said that I smiled through the whole speech which was great, my stories were very detailed, and that my volume and confidence were good. One thing that needed to be improved was that I didn't know what to do with my hands and sometimes they were distracting. Next speech I will try to incorporate my hands more into different gestures to engage the audience instead of dangling at my sides.
Overall, I thought my Ice Breaker Speech went much better than I expected. I received a lot of positive and constructive feedback which I will use to make my next speech even better. I was glad I was the first person to speak because I was able to get it over with and relax for the rest of the meeting. I really appreciate all the positive comments from the members and I feel very supported by them. I am ready to start thinking about my next speech and advance my speaking skills further.
About Me
My name is Josh Larison. I am 18 years old and as my senior project for ThunderRidge High school I have joined a local Toastmasters club to hopefully improve my public speaking and leadership skills. I have been going to the club for a couple months now, and two weeks ago I officially became a member once I reached the minimum age requirement of 18. From the very first meeting that I visited, the group has been very welcoming. I even stepped up and did a Table Topic (a short impromptu speech) the very first meeting that I went to. Toastmasters has a mentoring program, so I took the opportunity and got together with a mentor who has been very helpful so far in teaching me about the different roles in the club and giving me advice.
Tonight I am giving my Ice Breaker speech, which is the first speech in the ”Competent Communicaton” manual which has ten speeches to work through. This speech only has to be four to six minutes and the topic is just to tell about your life such as your hobbies, job, family, and so on. I am pretty nervous because this is my first prepared speech. My table topics speeches that I have given so far have been on the short side, with all of them being under a minute. My goal tonight is to reach the minimum four minute length and to not speed through the speech that I have planned out. I am nervous, but I’m also ready to face this challenge of giving my first speech.
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