Campus Life

» Irene Taylor - Love this series!

I love this series! Public speaking is probably the number one fear of most people! When I taught 4th grade, giving a speech was part of our state-wide testing. Every 4th grader had to give a speech on a topic they were handed at the start of the "test period"!! Talk about pressure. We developed a public speaking course to help get them ready. I often wonder if they found that they could apply those skills later on in their school and life careers!

Great articles!

Irene

» Naomi Rockler-Gladen - Love this series!

Thanks, Irene!

That does sound like quite a bit of pressure for 4th graders. However, it seems like a great idea to me to have elementary students learn a little about public speaking. Maybe then by the time they get to a class in high school or college, they won't be so freaked out about it.

» Ash6789 - public speaking

I was so nervous about taking public speaking but I had to for my major. I think you're right about just doing it. We gave a whole bunch of practice speeches in class and I hated it at first but by the end of the class I wasn't nervous much at all.

-- posted by Ash6789

» Naomi Rockler-Gladen - public speaking

I'm glad you got over your public speaking anxiety! "Just do it" doesn't work for everyone, but it does help many people feel less anxious about the experience.

» Miss_Beth - A Tip

As a (hopefully former for a while) public speaking teacher, one of the techniques I used to recommend to students to help symptoms of nervousness before speaking was to do stretches and deep breathing. Another was to utilize "emotion memory"--an acting technique in which you envision someone who is confident and emulate those qualities. And of course, there is visualization (imagining yourself giving a great speech), which many of my students swore by.

Just some tips. Some work better for some than others.

-- posted by Miss_Beth