My language arts teacher recently decided that we had to give short speeches about our World War Two books, so she's been going over what we should and shouldn't do when speaking in class.

To try and show us what we ought to do when we're speaking, she showed us a promotional video for her friend who is a motivational speaker. It was pretty funny towards the beginning of the video.

He was saying, "What we played with the guys was sophisticated. We had TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES! What can be cooler than that? You had a turtle who was a ninja that you could take to school with you and you could decapitate a Barbie's head with it!"

Then my history teacher decided to talk about a very important thing when you're giving a speech. You have to have a message, something that you want your audience to remember even if they don't really pay attention to the rest.

His example was when we were doing our presentations about historical figures we had researched. One girl (let's call her A) went first. My teacher says that while she was presenting we were all thinking to themselves, "I'm not ready to present. I'm not ready to present. I'm not ready to present...Oh, wait, what was the name? I'll have to ask later. I'm not ready to present. I'm not ready to present..." and so on. And then when the next person goes, the people who haven't gone are thinking the same as before while A, who had just gone, is thinking, "I'm so glad it's over with. I'm so glad it's over with. Oops, I missed the name. I'm so glad it's over with. I'm so glad it's over with." Since everyone's kind of distracted by their own thoughts, you can't necessarily expect your audience to understand everything you said...So you have to make sure they at least get the important parts.

But the secret to a good presentation is something we learned in geometry class, pretty much by accident. A few days ago we were being taught about the areas of prisms and whatnot. While he was talking the teacher walked around holding up a translucent cylinder (I think it was glass or plastic, I couldn't really tell) and we were transfixed by it. He had the notes for the lesson projected, and every time the cylinder was over the projected screen, it looked strange. All beautiful and shiny-like. We were so captivated by it that my teacher said he was heart-broken. He had been teaching for 15 minutes and we were quiet because we were bored and uninterested. But as soon as that amazing cylinder was held up, we became very excited.

So, if you want your audience to pay attention, project something and then wave a magical prism in front of it. It's sure-fire.

Labels: attention, audience, geometry, interesting, mesmerizing, motivational, presentation, prism, projector, public speaking, screen, speech, teacher, teenage mutant ninja turtles, thoughts, trick

Lately I have been seeing just how bad people are at the ABCs and at counting. I was doing my piano theory homework. I try to do a little every week (but sometimes I forget or my teacher doesn't assign any. She's a bit on the lax side when it comes to teaching the theory. I think that's why we do "auditions" with a national association instead of a California one, since the California one requires you to take tests on piano theory). I took a close look at one of the pages and realized it was incorrectly labeled.

a.
b.
c.
e.

Where did D go? I know it's a small mistake that anyone would make, since we are all human, and probably no one would notice because it doesn't really stand out. But I still think it's rather silly to not know your alphabet.

And the situation with counting is even worse nowadays. One student said, "Is this really all the homework? It's just seven problems." Another student told him, "There are eight problems. "Well...I just didn't add one," said the first student.

In fact, students are so careless about their counting that the teacher must cover up the number line so students won't use it to help themselves on the STAR testing (California's standard tests that we have every year from 2nd-8th grade, if you're in another state). I was really amazed. I mean, is it really so bad that students can't even count to 50? Really. I can understand covering up maps and stuff like that since it can be pretty helpful sometimes. But a number line...

I always hear it's important to have a good foundation. Being able to count and knowing the 26 letters of the alphabet is something very basic and fundamental. If we pay so little attention to our simplest skills, I fear that we are on the road to disaster...

So I encourage you to spend your free time reciting your ABC's. And when you need to get to sleep, count sheep.

Labels: 123, ABCs, alphabet, attention, basic, count, cover, foundation, fundamental, map, number line, numbers, practice, problem, skills, sleep, STAR testing

Don't worry, the sky isn't falling, there isn't an earthquake or King Kong or anything. No, it's my dad, because he brought back an old friend of his.

The friend is just coming here to visit. He will only be here about two days or so. But my parents say I have never met this person (even my mom doesn't know him). And he will be sleeping in one of the bedrooms in our house (we actually have three, but one is normally used as my mom's home office, so most of the time no one sleeps in there). I guess he doesn't want to pay for a hotel since he's only staying here a short time anyways. He's Chinese and wears glasses. He lived in Australia (in Sydney! What a shock). And he says his daughter has a friend with the same name as me. (Bigger shock!)

Anyhow, though, I will have to make the best of it, and play the good child/good host. After all, my mom will shoot me warning glances the whole time if I misbehave. (Well, my mom's not home yet; still on the way from her office building, but still.) My mom tends to be the stricter person in the family. Not to say my dad doesn't also have a short fuse.

Today was a pretty lazy day. We had a quiz on Africa's geography, a quiz on our Animal of the Week in Science (We don't do it every week. Just every once in a while), and review work in math. It was weird in math since the student teacher took over the lesson. He seemed a bit uncomfortable since he always says "Umm" and "Uh" when he talks. (But I guess he's always like that.) Some of our table groups had to volunteer to talk about math problems. We also had a Tips section at the bottom with some important reminders. I wrote "Please give me $50" in that section. My tablemate/friend saw it and laughed, but she crossed it out anyhow. Oh well.

Oh yeah, in the morning, I was with my friends, and one of my friends complained about her parents thinking about what kind of husband she would want, despite her only being in middle school. Then another friend remarked that her parents already had a person in mind. Apparently it was a rich family they knew and the son was smart and tall and didn't wear glasses. Her parents thought that guy was handsome but she just says he's weird. I laughed, and then asked them if they knew a guy called "Anton". They did, and I told them my dad had suggested I marry him (seeing as he is fairly wealthy and is actually in advanced math). My friends were at first in shock, then laughed like crazy. (By the way, does anyone know how he got into advanced math? The only time I ever saw him, I thought he didn't look that...intelligent. Maybe looks are deceiving.)

And then one of my friends starting giving some other friends and me nicknames. She called me Syd (no surprise there, though), and called another friend Lily, and a third one she dubbed Nicky. Nicky says that some people call her Nicky and others call her Nickel. Nickel is very similar to her actual name, but I would feel strange if someone called me a kind of money.

When I was walking home, there was a young boy ahead of me. He was walking home along with his sister, father, and some younger sibling (he/she had to be lifted up as they were quite young and could be too weak to walk for a while). The boy was talking to his sister and didn't notice a mailbox sticking out almost over the sidewalk. He hit his head on the mailbox and it fell open, revealing some brochures and other papers inside it. It reminds me of a time I was feeling naughty when I was young, and opened a mailbox. I took one thing out of it, closed the mailbox, and walked for a while, then placed it in a random person's mailbox. (I felt bad afterward but it's too late now.)

Labels: attention, australia, family, friends, future, mailbox, marriage, math, nickname, personality, school, teacher, temporary

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