Coker College Semester at an End

A few minutes until there is a celebration/Holiday lunch to say good bye to the semester. One of the great things about working as a faculty member on a college campus is the ability to begin again in a new semester.

SPECIALTY SPEECHES
One of the highlights of the public speaking class (for the instructor) is the Specialty Speech, presented this year during the final exam period.
1 -- This speech directly relates to the use of public speaking skills in the students' real or imaginary lives.
2 -- It provides the opportunity for real fun or real-life speaking.

For example --
 a) one student was leaving the exam period to actually deliver the toast to her brother and his new bride later that afternoon.
b) another student, with a love of poetry, did a tribute to Poetry and the exhalted place it has in her life.
c) a golfer accepted the Green Jacket of the Masters and baseball player accepted a golf glove and one of the music majors accepted a grammy.  Fun stuff
d) had a really meaningful tribute to a mother by one of the students and lots more that made it a fun sort of assignment to review.

This testing period I also enjoyed having students pretend they were spokespeople for companies who were facing a crisis.  Admittedly, if it had been real some company lawyers would be scrambling right now but getting in front of a camera with a communication purpose is a good thing to have done, even if it becomes an aggravating part of a final exam.