On Wednesday, October 4th, Alan Devine or may also be known as 'Louie Gleeson' from Fair City visited our school to teach us about the importance of public speaking and help us to improve on it. He showed us the special assets necessary to be confident and keep our audience interested whilst speaking publicly. These assets included 1. Eye contact 2. Hand gestures 3. Strong and confident walk 4. Good posture, and last but not least 5. A big Granny Devine smile :)
When we first walked into the classroom that we were staying in for the day there was 3 rows of seats that we all sat into. Alan was standing in front of us looking quite depressed and angry, Alan started to speak but he was very quiet and his tone of voice never changed while he was speaking, we were all very confused wondering why was he in to teach and us about good public speaking if he couldn't do it himself. Alan turned his back to us and let out a shout, he then began to repeat what he said at the start but except this time he was happier, full of energy and used all 5 assets that are listed above. He then explained how important it is to use these assets because at the start when he used none of the assets he had everyone zoned out and weren't listening to him.
Throughout the day we did a lot of public speaking exercises and games to help us improve on speaking publicly and find confidence within ourselves.
Some of these exercises were as simple as telling jokes , but they weren't so simple when we had to tell a joke whilst standing up in front of the class, but Alan was very nice and gave us good pointers to settle ourselves down. Everyone had to take part so that made it easier on everyone.
We also did an exercise where we had to stand up inf ront of the class while there was one person at the back of the room called the machine doing hand gestures that we had to copy, while doing these hand gestures we also had to look at everyone in their eyes for 3 seconds whispering their name, saying hello and giving them a nod while still trying to follow the machines gestures. I felt very uncomfortable at the start as it was quite awkward but once a few people did it everyone started to calm down and forget about it.
They were just 2 examples of the exercises we did ad i found each one very helpful and i have gained a bit of confidence just by playing these games.
Alan told us that each one of us is powerful and fear of public speaking is only fear itself. He told us that if we told ourselves we were powerful and used all the important assets involved in public speaking that we would sell anything and people would listen to us with no problems.
Overall, i enjoyed Alan's visit to the school and I learnt a lot from him. I found him very funny and he did have me laughing for the majority of the day. I feel much more confident about myself and definitely would be more inclined to stand up and speak in front of a crowd than i was before if i was asked to do so , although i still wouldn't be rushing to do so, i'll leave that for another day
Alan Devine came back into the school on Friday the 13th to hear the year give speeches that we had prepared for him. Unfortunately I was unable to attend as i was away with the Schools camogie team on the Friday , but i heard the speeches were very good and everyone had approved a lot on their public speaking.
When we first walked into the classroom that we were staying in for the day there was 3 rows of seats that we all sat into. Alan was standing in front of us looking quite depressed and angry, Alan started to speak but he was very quiet and his tone of voice never changed while he was speaking, we were all very confused wondering why was he in to teach and us about good public speaking if he couldn't do it himself. Alan turned his back to us and let out a shout, he then began to repeat what he said at the start but except this time he was happier, full of energy and used all 5 assets that are listed above. He then explained how important it is to use these assets because at the start when he used none of the assets he had everyone zoned out and weren't listening to him.
Throughout the day we did a lot of public speaking exercises and games to help us improve on speaking publicly and find confidence within ourselves.
Some of these exercises were as simple as telling jokes , but they weren't so simple when we had to tell a joke whilst standing up in front of the class, but Alan was very nice and gave us good pointers to settle ourselves down. Everyone had to take part so that made it easier on everyone.
We also did an exercise where we had to stand up inf ront of the class while there was one person at the back of the room called the machine doing hand gestures that we had to copy, while doing these hand gestures we also had to look at everyone in their eyes for 3 seconds whispering their name, saying hello and giving them a nod while still trying to follow the machines gestures. I felt very uncomfortable at the start as it was quite awkward but once a few people did it everyone started to calm down and forget about it.
They were just 2 examples of the exercises we did ad i found each one very helpful and i have gained a bit of confidence just by playing these games.
Alan told us that each one of us is powerful and fear of public speaking is only fear itself. He told us that if we told ourselves we were powerful and used all the important assets involved in public speaking that we would sell anything and people would listen to us with no problems.
Overall, i enjoyed Alan's visit to the school and I learnt a lot from him. I found him very funny and he did have me laughing for the majority of the day. I feel much more confident about myself and definitely would be more inclined to stand up and speak in front of a crowd than i was before if i was asked to do so , although i still wouldn't be rushing to do so, i'll leave that for another day
Alan Devine came back into the school on Friday the 13th to hear the year give speeches that we had prepared for him. Unfortunately I was unable to attend as i was away with the Schools camogie team on the Friday , but i heard the speeches were very good and everyone had approved a lot on their public speaking.