Response to Laurel Miller's Demonstration Eval

I am responding to Laurel Miller’s blog in regards to the demonstration evaluation she did on a girl teaching her class how to make puppy chow.  I agree with basically everything Laurel says in regards to how the student presents her speech.  She catches the audience’s attention right away with a good introduction by saying how she needed a healthy and delicious snack that can get her through studying and she found exactly that; Puppy chow.  

The student then goes into the steps and procedures of making puppy chow.  She has lots of energy when delivering her entire speech and was very organized.  I was impressed that she was able to say exactly how much to use of each ingredient and the costs without any notes.  This showed that she had practiced before hand and was well prepared.  The only thing was that when she was delivering the steps she spoke very fast.  It was hard to keep up and she did stutter a few times.  This showed that she was nervous although she had great energy.  Another thing that showed she was nervous was that she did not look up at the class and make eye contact with them very much.  But, she did use a lot of gestures which was very good. 

Next, the student gave her conclusion after giving the body of her speech.  Her conclusion was very short and could have summarized her speech more.  It definitely was not as good as her introduction.

So, in the end, Laurel did a great job evaluating the speaker and I agree with her on the comments she made.  I also agree that this speaker needs to look at the class more and that this speech was presented and organized well.  

Kool Aid Demonstration Eval

                After searching on youtube.com to find a demonstration speech, I finally found a video that seemed interesting.  This demonstration video was given by a student that goes by the name of Lori.  She presented her speech to her fellow classmates and did a very good job.  Lori demonstrated and taught the class how to make Kool Aid. 

               Lori started off her speech with a very catchy introduction.  She said how she looked long and hard for the perfect recipe and finally found the perfect one.  Lori was very positive and said that hers was the best recipe and began to go through the steps to make the perfect Kool Aid.  She also began to state what ingredients and supplies were needed to create the perfect Kool Aid. 

                When presenting her steps and ingredients, Lori made it very easy to follow along.  Throughout Lori’s speech, she was super upbeat and used very good hand gestures.  She did not use vocal fillers and did not have pauses that were noticeable.  The only thing was that she spoke very fast, although it was not an issue in regards to following along.  She was still very easy to understand. 

                Lori made her speech very interesting.  Because she was so upbeat, you just were waiting to hear and see what she would do next.  During her speech she surprised me and her audience.  I could tell she surprised her audience too because of the comments I heard in the background by her fellow classmates.  She surprised us was when she was explaining one of her steps, which was stirring the Kool Aid after putting the mixture in the water.  The reason she surprised us was because usually when someone says they are going to stir something, it involves some sort of utensil.  Lori did not use a utensil in this case.  Instead, she stuck her hand right into the mix and stirred it around in the container. 

                Lori finished up her speech with her conclusion.  In her conclusion she did a good job summarizing the main points and steps she covered in her speech.  The only thing with her conclusion was that she could say it with more force rather than raising her voice at the end.

Overall her speech was very good.  The next time she performs a speech I think she could do the same things as this one such as good use of gestures and no vocal fillers.  But, she could slow down and let her statements sink into the audience’s minds a bit before continuing on.  Lori’s speech was very entertaining so I suggest watching it to learn from her. 

"How To" Speech Self-Eval

I did my “How To” speech on juggling. Normally, I feel like people think juggling is too difficult to even attempt, so they don’t try it.  The problem is, is that they have never had anyone teach them how to juggle, so, I thought it would be a fun thing to teach the class. 

When looking back and watching myself give my “How To” speech, the first thing I noticed is how many times I used the vocal filler “like”.  I over used it way too much and it got to be distracting.  Another thing I noticed was how I rocked back and forth when giving my introduction.  When giving a speech I feel like the speaker should always have a strong stance to make their speech more effective.  I also think they should add platform movement, but what I was doing was not platform movement. 

Other than those two things, I felt my speech was pretty effective and I was able to properly teach the class how to juggle.  I mean, I had Brittany come and attempt to juggle, which she has never been able to do before, and by the end, she was somewhat able to juggle.  I was pretty excited about that.

I hope my speech interested the class like how I hoped.  Juggling is not something that is very difficult to learn.  You just need to complete the proper steps and be sure to not jump ahead before you are ready.  Also, having patience is the key to being successful.  Practice makes perfect!

Response to Caroline Bauer's Blog

I am responding to Caroline Bauer’s Blog post titled, “From Home-Schooling to Classroom: Kids Face Challenge of Transition” In Caroline’s blog post she stated what she wants to do for a persuasive topic that we will have to write about in the near future.  Caroline says that she would like to write about home schooling and found a blog post that related to this topic.  Caroline did a very good job on explaing who wrote this blog and gave lots of background information on this particular blogger.  The blogger’s name is Rebecca Dube.  Dube is a MSNBC contributor and is a member of The News One Staff in Nations of Black.  Coroline says that Dube and the other authors of MSNBC tend to post very creative blogs mutiple times a day. 

I think that writing about home schooling would be very interesting for someone to read about.  I think it would be interesting because I have never really thought about the positive or negative effects home schooling has on children because I have never been home schooled.  I think that a child who is home schooled would grow up much differently than a child who is not because they would not be exposed to different situations like a child who goes to a public school.  Then, to think about a child going from being home schooled to a student at a public school, I would feel would be very hard and am interested in learning about what normally happens.

Overall, Caroline posted a very good blog.  It was very informative and was backed up with lots of information.  

Technorati on Healthy Foods

I had a difficult time finding a blog that related to my informative topic of “Sports Nutrition” when searching on technorati.com so instead, I searched “food, health” and came up with a blog that was similar.  Written by Lan N. Nguyen, the blog post is called, “12 Foods Nutrition Experts Buy for Their Own Kitchens”.  The blog can be found at http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/10/11/12-foods-nutrition-experts-buy-for-their-own-kitchens/

The blog was posted on October 11, 2010.  This particular blogger tends to post about healthy foods and tips and advice on what to buy when grocery shopping.  He also has posted blogs about celebrities here and there.  Nguyen tends to post blogs every couple weeks and he has been writing blogs for a very long time. 

In this particular blog post by Nguyen, he linked nutrition experts names that were quoted in the post and other articles that he received information from to post in his blog.  In his blog, he also posts pictures of healthy foods.  He relates them to what he is talking about in his blog, but he does not over do his blog with pictures. 

This blog was close to how I wrote my paper.  It was very informative on what foods were healthy to eat and gave explanations on why.  The only difference was that my informative paper related to athletes on what they should eat to get the highest performance possible.  This blog was very interesting and it was helpful to know what types of food are good for you and why they are good.  Nguyen did quote 12 nutrition experts on what foods they have and eat.  Each person talked about a certain type of food that is good to have in your kitchen.