Melanie Jimenez- Reflection

 

First Major Presentation in College   

I decided to take SPC2608 because first it is mandatory for my major but also because I’ve always struggled with public speaking. Throughout all my years of academic schooling, presentations have been a nightmare for me. So, one can only imagine how I felt when the first day of this class I was told that two weeks from that day our first big presentation was due. I was petrified to say the least, but I was determined to feel confident and prepared for this assignment. This presentation was also very different from any other one that I have done before because I had to teach the rest of my peers the content of a specific part of our class textbook. Professor Sinkoff divided our class into three group and split the textbook into three sections like that each group presented one part. Therefore, I was in group 2 which meant that we presented part 2, chapters 5-9.

Once I was informed that this was going to be a group project, I was also a bit nervous since I have had very bad experiences in group projects in the past. I have had to do my work and the work of other students because they never did their part of the assignment. Yet, once I met the people in my group I definitely felt at ease. All my peers seemed very dedicated to the class and to getting the assignment done quickly and effortlessly. Our teamwork and communication was very good since day one of class. Automatically we decided on a group leader which was Emily. Then we divided the work between all of us evenly and set meeting times to check up on the progress.

In my opinion, I actually really enjoyed this project because my section was about visual resources and presentation technology. This entire part was about sensory aids, the importance of using sensory aids in presentations, and how to incorporate these aids effectively. Which all this information is very useful for all of us in class since we could incorporate these learnings in future presentations for this class, other classes, or even in our future endeavors.

The day of the actual presentation I felt so many mixed emotions. I felt prepared since I had done all my research and practiced my presentation numerous times. I felt a bit anxious because we were still missing some slides to add. Lastly, I felt nervous because I knew that I would speaking to my entire class for over 5 minutes. Which definitely made me anxious because I don’t want to make a fool out of myself by forgetting the information, stuttering, or talking to fast or slow. Yet, I wasn’t trying to think of those thoughts, so I was just focused on learning the new material that the other groups were going to present.

The first to present in the class that day was group 1, they spoke about chapter 1-4. Their overall presentation was good and informational; however, I felt like they could’ve improved their presentation in certain areas. For instance, some of the slides had a lot of text and information which caused me to not be able to concentrate on both the speaker and the reading. Also, they incorporated videos to their presentation which were excellent and very informative. However, some of them were very long, over five minutes, which that is also not recommended for presentations because the audience could become distracted. Besides those things, I enjoyed their presentation. The members spoke very clear and accomplished their goal: to teach.

The second group to present was the group I was in. The moment our group leader began to speak my nervous completely kicked in because I knew it would be my turn to present soon. Yet, I was very proud of my group. Every member spoke clearly, explained their points, used visual aids, and didn’t over saturate the slides with written information.  Also, we did encounter a last-minute obstacle in our presentation which led us to add a last-minute video. However, as a group we problem solved quickly and found a solution. To me that really showed how great our teamwork was since we communicated and worked together efficiently to solve the problem. After mostly everyone presented then my turn finally came up. All though I was very nervous, the moment I began speaking all my nervous left and I just embodied my inner teacher. Personally, I can say that I am proud of how I presented because I spoke with confidence and explained all the main information of chapter 9.

The last presentation was group 3, chapters 10-appendix. This presentation I also really enjoyed. I liked how their PowerPoint looked. It was very cohesive and visually pleasing with the theme that the members picked. This group taught about the different types on speeches and how it is to work and present in groups. That last part was very important to me, and I believe the rest of the class since in this course all of our assignments are in groups. Only issue that I saw with this group was that their presentation seemed rushed due to timing. Since they were the last group, they were a bit restricted on time to present all their information; yet I still think that they did an incredible job. Also, I believe they did a great job keeping the rest of the class focused on their presentation all though most of the students including myself were already tired and mentally checked out from the long day.

Overall, I can confidently say that these presentations were very successful for everyone in every group. All the presentations went smoothly, there were very minimal technical issues, and everyone did their part. Also, the main goal of the entire class was accomplished: to learn and easily understand all the material of the course textbook. I can say that this project has set the standard for the rest of the presentations for the semester, and I hope they all go as amazing as this one.