Final review

Sorry for my late post. I have no excuse but forgot about this...

1. Like I said in the last class of AEP I was not fully satisfied with my presentation despite all the great work other group members contributed. Please note this is only addressed to my own part of the whole Teach For America presentation not to other members. What I learned, though, what I have to improve is not exactly the skills of demonstrating speech or ideas but the way I prepare for it. Preparation here refers to deciding on topics, collecting relevant pictures and images from websites, making outlines, construct a brief speech note, practice and rehearsal. The entire process tended to be halfway done partly simply because I was being lazy and also, and largely, because presentation skills regarding voice volume, body language, speech speed or intonation were focused on more than precedent preparation.

2. Now that I know what the main issue is I pursue to get the preparation process done more carefully with more time spent on it.

Teach For America

3. Finally, thank you Sylvan and Mark. You definitely helped me with widen my view on what it takes to make a great presentation. I honestly get inspired by whatever you demonstrated in front of us. The direction you showed us certainly led me to where I had not expected to reach if it was your intention or not... So, thank you again , I have no doubt the prospective AEP students will have great time and attain personal goals if you two are to stay in the same position. ありがとうございました！

PechaKucha

my PK presentation

It was my first experience of doing PK presentation. The best part I liked about this style is that it is a lot easier to organize my presentation since all the slides are given exactly 20 seconds and basically all I have to do is find 20 photos that appeal to me and are suitable for my topic and then arrange them along with my speech. That also means, though, that it is not as flexible as normal type of presentation. There were things that I wanted to go on to the detail but due to the time restriction I could not. Overall my impression about PK is that it can be useful depending on what the topic is about and how serious and important your presentation is (I personally liked it).

First Presentation

1. Voice (Volume, rate, pausing, emphasis etc) 

Reflection: I mumbled several times.  

Goals:I tend to say things that are not planned to be in presentation especially when I'm nervous. That'S when I start mumbling because I myself am not even sure what I'm saying. So it seems that more practices and confidence must take place and gained before the actual presentation day.

2. Body Language (Eye contact, gestures, posture etc) 

Reflection:Not sure, to be honest. I sure looked forth to the audience almost all the time so my nervousness did not show much though I really was, which is good. 

Goals:More use of body language will help audience understand what I am putting emphasis on.  

3. Visuals (Images or text on slides, timing etc) 

Reflection:All the slides that were to be presented were in my head so I was able to avoid looking at the slides to make sure the right slide is on the screen. I could have taken more time to prepare for it, though, to make it more interesting and for more impact. It was rather boring. 

Goals:More effort on preparing an stimulating and interesting slides that provoke the audience's curiosity.  

4. Preparation Process (Topic selection, notes, visuals creation, rehearsals etc) 

Reflection:The topic was appropriate for a presentation as short as 3 minutes. But like I mentioned earlier, more practices could have helped me improve the presentation. For instance, if I had spent more time practicing the presentation would have been done smoothly so that I would not have run out of time. 

Goals:I must start preparing presentations sooner than 2 or 3 days before presentation day, which I've been doing. The day before the presentation must be dedicated to lots of rehearsals instead of still composing it.  

5. Any other reflections or goals?

Overall, it was not too good not too bad type of quality, which is only satisfactory or worse. Since one of my goals is to learn the way to prepare presentations more efficiently should I try and devote more time in it.  Another thing is that I cannot help but feel the need of getting my pronunciation corrected and improved. I never had a chance to hear myself speak English and it was rather shocking when I did. This is not to say that it was hard to understand but it sounded strange and weird. It could be due partly to the accent I got from staying in S.A. for one year and that it's mixed up with Japanese accent. But I believe it's mostly because I'm just not good enough yet.