Out of class presentation

I did my out of class presentation to a group of family members. It consisted of a college student, working professionals as well as stay at home mothers. There were a few children present as well. I chose this setting because every person present has children who are school age and could benefit from the information I decided to speak about.

I presented information on how the current educational system is not conducive to the learning needs of children with ADHD, or other learning disorders. Studies has shown that the current school system is flawed and does not compensate for the change in technology and the various ways that children learn today. Many advances have been made that can help children with varying learning styles can still have success in the class room. Ideas such as using new technology to track your educational progress, to the kind of desks you sit in to simply changing you schedule so that you are learning certain subjects at different times of day. For instance, a child may do math well in the morning but by lunch cannot figure out how to do the same problems. By alternating the times of their class could be part of a simple solution for many children.

My call to action was to impress upon my audience how important it is that we insist that the school districts continue to use their resources to keep up with current educational curriculum. As well, there are so many alternatives now that were in the past not available that allows parents to have choices about their child’s education. Charter schools and online schools are just two examples.

This speech was easy to deliver because I am passionate about giving all kids the chance to have a meaningful education. The feedback I received was that it was informational but lacked the information they needed to actually make a difference. It does seem overwhelming and we often think one person cannot make a difference. I used the rubric from our first speech, but asked specifically if I annunciated my words correctly. Unfortunately, I did not get “ONE HUNDRED” percent in that category, which was good feedback for what I need to work on for my final speech.  I also lost a few points for speaking too fast.  Overall it was a good experience to "show off" the speaking techniques we have learned while perfecting the process.