Class is going well. Our first actual speech (not reading) was a 1-2 minute self-introduction, which had to have two main points each with two subpoints, and at least one visual aid.
The hard part is keeping it to under two minutes. As Pascal said, “This one [letter} would not be so long had I but had the leisure to make it shorter.” My speech ran longer than two minutes, but not by as much as some of the other speeches. And still one of the comments I got was that I need to slow down a bit.
For the start of the introduction I slapped an oversized name badge reading “Nerds Anonymous” on my chest, and said “Hello. My name is Eric Smith, and I’m a nerd.” I wasn’t sure how well that would work. I also got to use my line about how I’m quite famous, but not many people know it, with reference to the back of my head having appeared on the cover of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. Makes me feel a bit like Mike in Monsters Inc.
The instructor gave everyone 10 points for this speech, but he did fill out an evaluation form which included the score we would have gotten if it were actually graded. I got 9.4 out of 10, and I’m happy with that. However, now we have to write a self-evaluation based on the videotape. I’ve watched it, and there’s a *lot* of room for improvement. I said “umm” too much, fussed with the folder of transparencies too much, and generally wasn’t well enough prepared. I need to spend more time practicing.
The next speech assignment is a 4-6 minute “How To” speech. Tonight the class split up into small groups to review each others’ outlines for the speech. I’ll be presenting in the second group on Monday, so I’ll get to practice on the weekend.
Taking summer classes at Mission College is pretty difficult since the class is compressed from the usual 17 week semester into under 6 weeks. One of my classmates is actually taking *three* summer classes right now. She’s in school from 8 AM to 9 PM! Even if I didn’t have a full-time job, I don’t think I could handle that.
I’m stll on the waitlist for CHEM 030A, which is in session two so it overlaps the last three weeks of this class and the first three weeks of my summer POLIT 001 American Government class. Even if there ends up being room in the class, I’m not certain that I want to take it now (during the summer). But if I don’t, it’s that much more coursework that I’ll have to take in the fall in order to finish up my AA degree in time to transfer when I want to.
What degree are you pursuing? I really enjoyed speech class. I did a speech comparing Barney and Dino as the ideal dinosaur. The class was rolling with laughter when I pulled out a pointer and identified opposable thumbs and other differences on the poster I had made.
Les
I intend to get a B.S. in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics, and then a Master’s in Computer Science. I’m currently completing the General Education requirements.
I didn’t originally plan to get an A.A. degree, but I found that I only had to take one more course than I’d otherwise planned, in either American History or American Government. And if I take either Differential Equations or Linear Algebra, I can get an A.A. in Mathematics rather than in General Studies.