Haila Del Pino - Reflection 1

Dear Blog, 

Looking back and reflecting on our first speech as a class, I am beyond proud of how amazing each of us did. I formed part of Group 2, which was full of extremely hard-working and dedicated individuals. Everyone who formed part of my group, communicated in the chat, completed their slides promptly, and overall made sure that we were all coordinated. Words can’t explain how pleased I am, that everything turned out great.

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I can say that I am grateful not only for my team members but our professor, who also took the time and effort to sit and chat with each of the groups to answer any concerns they might have had. She took her time, went around each group, and asked thoroughly what we did and did not understand. She made sure to give us tips, one I still remember today has to be something along the lines of “less is more, be minimalistic with the slide and add few words”.

The first presentation we heard came from our team members of Group 1, they all stood together, and even though it was their first time giving a speech to our particular class they did amazingly and spoke very well. Their speech was specifically based on tricks for a great presentation, they explained well what their chapter was about and went into details about what public speaking is. When hearing and watching this group present, I was able to see that even though the presenters were fairly nervous, they stood up and gave their speech regardless. They each had notes they had taken from their PowerPoint to remind them of key points they wanted to talk about, some in paper form and others in iPads which I found very adequate.

Their slides were fairly organized and although I would say some had a bit more words than what was needed, it was balanced by images they inserted. This PowerPoint had many images which I find to be a positive thing since they would look at the images and thoroughly explain why it was placed and what role each played in their presentation. All in all, I believe this group did amazing yet if I could help and give them a piece of advice I would only say that communicating and engaging with the audience should be prioritized a little more next time. Sometimes we are a bit nervous and tend to forget what we wanted to say and we read directly from our notes which can at times lead the audience to think that an individual is not well informed of what they are speaking about. Overall, good job Group 1!

When it comes to speaking about Group 2, I believe I might be a little biased since that was my team, but truly I couldn’t have asked for better teammates, leaders, or managers. We had amazing communication, we well planned our sections and what each of us had to do, and overall I think we all did exactly what we were supposed to and even more.

My team manager Fernando was constantly helping and answering questions we might have had, he was very attentive and responsible that we all participated and did our part of the project. We all well coordinated our slides and the theme we were trying to get across. We all let know that we didn’t want a full word or too-long PowerPoint, but rather more images and short ones. My team and I managed our time correctly and completed the project in a very good time frame. Our chapters were based on determining the general purpose of a speech, finding your sources, and organizing a speech. My team members and I gave credible information about these three topics and thoroughly explained what each of them was. I specifically talked about determining a general purpose, and while reading my Chapter I obtained a lot of information I didn’t know about before. I learned that among the many types of speeches, there are the most common are informative, persuasive, and special occasions. I also learned that when giving a speech you must always have a purpose that being informing, persuading, or special occasion ceremony. I enjoyed that when presenting my team members engaged and communicated with the audience, I didn’t as much as the others in my team did but I believe that is because my main goal was to inform rather than engage and communicate. Their goal was to inform as well but they did that in an interactive manner which I found amazing next time we present a speech I would love to include more communication and engagement between the audience and me. In conclusion, I enjoyed a lot the people I had the pleasure of working with and hope I have the opportunity to work with them many more times. I am proud of my whole class for doing so well, especially with Group 2 since I had the honor to see the dedication and effort behind this project. THANK YOU GROUP 2 !!

Both Groups 3 & 4 did amazing as well, they had a bit more time than we did to complete their presentation, and I am beyond happy for them since some had more chapters to read and learn about. Group 3 I could say I am very passionate about, they had individuals in their group whose first language was not English and I can only say they did beyond good. They stood up there and gave a very informative and meaningful speech. Group 3 spoke about delivering the speech as a whole, and did awesome. Group 4 had many chapters they had to include in their presentation, and I can say that they did so properly and engagingly. They didn’t have all that many words in their slides but rather images as well. Their presentation was long enough to where the audience was paying attention and interested in what they had to say, they did as well very well. If I could give a piece of advice to these two groups I would say that engaging and communicating with the audience is sometimes necessary as well, but overall you guys did AWESOME!!

The End !