Teamwork is fun (and V is for VICTORY)

        Over the past semester I've had the opportunity to work with some pretty awesome new people. We were assigned groups at the beginning based on our "personality colors." Mine was gold-- I am all about being in charge and over organized. Through our two group projects, I had the chance to get to know Cole, Christian, Lindsay, and Taylor and can honestly say I enjoyed working with all of them. We had a really great group dynamic and no one was pulling another's weight for them. Best of all, both of our projects went extremely well!

       From the "Know Your Role" project, I learned that doing anything different, even just a little different, goes a long way with keeping the attention of college kids. We turned our presentation into an informational skit and I think that it worked really well to keep everyone focused on what we were saying. Taylor also summarized all of our arguments when she was "deliberating" on what to do with her farm so even if people zoned out, she was there for them. Personally, I think having a skit role worked well for me. I was acting out a worried mother and somehow that was easier for me nerves-wise than getting up and talking about something in front of the class. I did get a little nervous toward the end and started to speed up. Talking too quickly is definitely one of my weaknesses. The most important thing that I took away from this project was the lesson of practice. We practiced more than a few times and I think it made all the difference. Practice is key because it helps you get comfortable with what you're going to say and makes it harder to forget things. I will definitely always practice before speaking in front of people from now on.

      From the Debate project, I learned that preparation is important but definitely not the most important aspect of a debate. To me, the most convincing people weren't necessarily the people with the most accurate facts. The people who were confident, passionate, and who threw in some statistics were the most convincing to me. I was definitely more nervous for this project because I was speaking for a longer period of time and because I was presenting something that I had written. I think I maintained relatively good composure with some shakiness to my voice at points. However I think the points were well written and I did a decent job of acting confident and passionate about the issue at hand. The lesson of practice is definitely what I would take away from the debate project as well. I think I could always practice more when it comes to public speaking.