获胜者是……

Nineteen finalists competed in this year’s Fourth Form Public Speaking Contest held April 29 in Werner Centennial Center. Kudos to Mike Basich who earned first place and Lauren Levinson who was awarded 荣誉奖.

 

The competition was the culmination of the work Fourth Formers completed in the Speech Writing and Public Speaking course that they took during the winter and part of the spring trimesters. Each student selected a topic of their choosing and then was asked to relate it to one of the themes from their civic engagement course last fall. Examples included references to Plato’s Cave and “seeing the awesome in the ordinary.演讲的主题必须恰当, 内容和语气都应该体现出对他人的尊重, 对于这个过程, 这门课, 为了学校和更大的社区, 根据Todd Eckerson P ' 09的说法,’11,’17,’21, 谁教这门课?.

 

Students prepared an original, persuasive speech that they presented to their class section. 在这一轮比赛之后, students from each section were selected by their teacher and teaching assistants to be finalists in the competition. This year’s contest was attended by Third Formers, Fourth Formers and faculty members.

 

Third Formers attending the contest get a preview of what will be expected of them next year. “The hope is that Third Formers will both get excited to take the course and be inspired to create their own memorable speeches,埃克森说.

 

Co-teachers and teaching assistants are essential to the students’ success. 它们提供1对1

one assistance at each stage of the process by helping students brainstorm for ideas, diagram their speeches and practice the delivery of their orations.

 

巴希的获奖感言反复播放着“只管去做”的口号.” He opened his speech by imagining himself holding the ball in the final countdown in a tightly scored football game: “It’s the fourth quarter, 还有15秒. 球队以75比76落后. 游戏七. 球在我手里，我全神贯注.”

 

然后，他的闹钟叫醒了他.

 

“早上7点58分，我的手机把我从枕头底下吵醒.m. I consider every possible reality on how I can skip school today. 最后我不得不起床. 爬下床，我看着镜子. This is when we are tempted, we must rewire our brain to JUST DO IT.”

 

劳伦·莱文森的 speech was about perseverance and was based on her experience learning to ride a bike at age 13. “As cheesy as this sounds, I learned something other than what gears to use to go uphill. 我学会了坚持的技巧，”她在演讲中说.

 

Levinson said the class and the public speaking contest has helped her not only in classroom discussions but in other areas of her life.

 

“通过先生. Eckerson’s class I learned not only how to present myself in class discussions, but also how to carry his lessons out into my own daily conversations and occasional presentations,”她说。. “我从来没有上过这样的课, I have developed an entirely new interpretation as to what it takes to really make an influence and deliver a speech.”