Only 4 weeks until SPRING BREAK!!! 3 Part Blog

Hi Gang! Let's talk about PERSUASION! How will you persuade yourself and your classmates to come to class and stick it out for the next 4 weeks...after break it's all coasting downhill, right? RIGHT??? Lets get those grades up and come to every class, why not get the best grade possible?! Everyone has the potential to improve a full letter grade between now and finals! Follow these instructions for this week's pep-talk-blog:

1. ) Visit this site for awesome and realistic persuasive speech tips:
http://www.brighthub.com/education/homework-tips/articles/53098.aspx
Write a few key ideas/tips down and try them!

2.) Use one thing you learn from this website in #2 to persuade the classmate who posted a problem right before you here on our blog. Persuade them to hang in there! Inspire them to overcome!!! Go in order, so "help" the person who posts immediately before your post.

3.) Post one complaint or struggle you are having in our class, or just school in general this semester. What will be challenging for you between now and BREAK? What's a goal you need a push on? You can use fake names or classes if you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

I'll go first: When the rain and wind are stalling spring's arrival, I get bogged down with grading. I need some good persuasive advise on how to overcome the weather blues and get everything graded so my students know their midterm grades!!!!!!!!!!! Help!!!!!!!!! I'm barely hanging on here...........................

Quiz: Social Network

Choose 5 terms from either part 5 or part 6 in your speech textbook. Underline them and include the pg # for each. Define the 5 and apply them to a character or a theme from the film. Don't post, type this up and it is ue Tuesday March 22nd in class or by email please wheeleS@crc.losrios.edu-- Refer to this blog for ideas:  thesocialnetwork-movie.com

"The Social Network"

http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/

Hey--a million dollars isn't cool...you know what's cool? A billion dollars!Hope you like the film--we'll finish it up Tuesday--the link above is to the official website for "The Social Network"--check it out...bring your notes for the quiz! Think about these aspects of the film...what are the key ethical questions raised in the partially true story? What's the irony in a friendless, techy-geek-social outcast developing the biggest social network in the world? Whose your favorite character? Does the film inform the audience or persuade them? What is the film saying about money? What is it saying about values? What is it saying about friendship? What does it say about college?  In our book, chapter 23 on informative speaking talks about the analogy as a great way to establish common ground for understanding: Audiences can grasp new ideas best when they have something they already know to relate them to (163). The team sport of Crew at Harvard is used as a kind of analogy in the film--what is it being compared to? Is it effective? Is Facebook good or bad? Helpful or dangerous? Inquiring minds want to know!

Demonstrations for Dummies

Hi There Everyone--After the midterm it is time for us to work on Informative Speeches--You will speak for 5-7 minutes on an unusual or "revelatory" topic, sure to WOW the crowd! Don't say the word SHOULD or else you've crossed over to the "persuasive" side! You may choose to demonstrate something or even make a How-To speech (ie: how to set up a facebook page or how to plan a train trip....) Pick a topic that excites you, or else we will ALL be bored and have to paint fake open eyeballs on our closed eyelids so you won't know we are SLEEPING....zzzzzzzzzzz.......So for this week's entry, let's start with really BAD topics so we know what we DO NOT want to hear about....Post here, the very WORST possible demonstration topic you can possibly think of...what would be just awful to watch, just painfully dull or straight up rediculous--why would that be abad choice? ...I'll go first: I would not want to hear a demonstration speech about sleeping. Why? Ummmmm.......YAWN....it is making me drowsy just thinking about it!!!!

Lady Gaga is Speechless?

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/l/lady_gaga/speechless.html

Visit the link above and read the lyrics to Gaga's tune "Speechless"--What does the concept of silence mean to you? Is it effective as a tool of communication? Is silence powerful or weak? As a "public speaker" how does Gaga challenge gender roles and encourage diversity? The "generalized other" is a communication term we can use to talk about societal/cultural and gender norms and behavioral expectations. The generalized other points a critical finger at difference, so how does the song Speechless either react to or ignore the generalized other?

Speaking for the People: President's Holiday

Hello and remember everyone: No class meeting for Comm 301 this week on Feb 17th! Start Presidents' Day festivities a day early! Also Feb 18th and 21st are campus holidays for Presidents' Day fyi. We start with group speeches the following Tuesday--In the meantime, please email me at wheeleS@crc.losrios.edu if you need any group speech help! Each member of each group is required to submit their own individual copy of the group outline. This week here on our blog-o-rama, I need you to look ahead to spring break! Get excited, it is just around the corner! Woo-hoo!  April 18th-24th! Once we make it to that it is downhill friends! Okay, think about it, get motivated and then blog here: Every good speech should have a clear thesis--the main point of your speech, right? The book calls it your 'central idea!' Chapter 8 reminds us to creat thesis statments that are relevant and motivating--Use key words in your claim to make it POP! (p. 54). Construct a great thesis statement here and use high energy, key words and active language to state something about spring break, make a thesis statement about anything to do with planning, scheduling, destinations, instructions, what to take, when it is or should be, where not to go, how to make it until then, ect. Kep this blog short, direct and super powerful and creative: Let the thesis's begin!!!!!

Mine: As concerned students, we must band together and create a giant count-down to spring break calendar for the fountain quad of Sacramento City College. Wouldn't this motivate everyone to push through until break???!

Groups and Bands

Hi Gang--we are 25% of our way through the spring semester! Hooray for you hard working students! Those info speeches were so interesting--Thanks for the great enthusiasm! Now...this week we'll start on your group speeches...and bands are my favorite kinds of groups to observe! There's always a leader right? Oh, and there's always drama! Sometimes they break up and one goes solo, one hits rehab, one ends up in reality TV...It's always a suprise! As we prepare to write and present group speeches, think about your favorite band. Tell us who they are and what kind of music they make--How long have you been a fan? What's ONE THING we thing we can learn about public speaking (or performing) from your favorites? Or what can we learn from their mistakes? Rock on people!