Valery Butto Blog #2

     Hello, my name is Priscila Garcia, and this is my first time taking SPC 1017. When you think about SPC 1017 the first thing that comes to your head is public speaking and presentations and being in front of the whole class while they listen. 

   Did you know that public speaking is the most common phobia? It is more terrifying than the fear of death or the fear of spiders! According to some estimates, up to 77 percent of the population suffers from some form of public speaking anxiety. It’s okay to be a bit intimidated by public speaking but be sure that you can achieve it.

    In high school I did many presentations, and we would present in order of our last names, so I was never surprised that I was always the 6th person to present. After many, you start to lose the fear and get comfortable. Don’t get me wrong I still hated to present even to this day, but I have gotten better. The night before every presentation I write a script with my introduction then I continue with the key points I want to talk about and manifest on and lastly, I write a conclusion. I have always found it better and much more professional if you don’t read off your PowerPoint or slides. Your slides would contain numbers, analyses, and pictures or charts you add to them with a minimum number of words. While your script has all the important information and much more details and explanations. This makes you seem like you truly know the topic and its information.

    I go over the script multiple times at night and some before it’s my turn to present. Once I am in front of everyone, I take deep breaths and shake my head to calm down. Another thing I do to calm down is to talk to myself before presenting. As crazy as that sounds it truly does work for me. I tell myself that everyone in front of me is a regular human just like any other student sitting down and listening to my presentation and that there is no need to be scared everything will go by fast and well. Some tips I would give for public speaking is one make sure you have everything you need. If you don’t want to be caught off guard in front of an audience with nothing to say, prepare your stuff ahead of time. Two it’s all about practice, practice, and practice. Lastly, consider watching some well-known speakers.

    Life changed completely about two years ago and so did the way we learn. Covid-19 came with major effects on humans which most were negative. However, it has benefited me in the way we present our assignments and homework. Since everyone turned to online learning, we no longer go to school physically. This also means that we give our presentations through platforms like zoom or blackboard. For me, this way is much better because I don’t have to stand in front of 35 students or my teacher. Now I just see the PowerPoint, myself, and little boxes that are my classmates. With online presentations I have the chance to split my screen into two, having one side with my key points and the other side with the video call.

    For our first presentation, it was not an individual assignment but a group assignment. Which was new to me since mostly all presentations I have done have been solo. One difficulty with online learning is that most of the time all the students have their cameras turned off and you only see little black boxes next to yours. You don’t get to know them nor get involved with them, but this assignment gave me the chance to at least know some of their names. Our professor split the class into three groups each group had 11 students in it, and I got to be in the third group since my name starts with the letter “P.” Group three had to present on the topic of Group Leadership and Problem Solving which was chapter ten. At first, it was awkward because no one would speak nor turn on their camera but then we started to say hello and give out ideas of how we were going to split the chapter, so everyone had a part to do. We finally decided that

everyone was going to have three to four words to focus on their slides. We also decided that we wanted a very colorful PowerPoint with many images as well. My four words were oral report, panel discussion, and symposium. My group’s intention was to explain to the rest of the class on how groups deliver effective meetings and identify everyone’s role in the group. In each group, there is supposed to be a team leader and in ours, it's Valery Butto. She has been very helpful in answering any questions we have as well as Maria Chourio. I enjoyed working with my group. They are all very engaged in doing their solo parts, no one failed in presenting their slides. Group one’s topic was on Intercultural Communication, it was very nice to see and learn from their PowerPoint. Group one made me understand that culture is developed and endures as people are conditioned by similar life experiences. And that in culture there are values, it may be ideal values or real values. In the United States, there is intercultural communication which refers to the interactions that occur between people whose cultures are so different that communication between them is challenging. Group one gave many examples of these intercultural communications. Race, ethnicity, sex-gender, and religion are huge factors of everyone’s culture. Group two taught us the different types of groups in our lives. There are families, social groups, support groups, interest groups, and service groups. We also learned the characteristics of healthy groups and the stages of groups.

    From my viewpoint, they all seem very knowledgeable and did the best to their abilities. Everyone was very detailed on their topic and even included short videos and many images that emphasize their material.