"Make the World a Better Place" Speeches

I had a communications class this morning.  Thankfully I'm the teacher. Their assignment was to give an informative speech in four to six minutes about something they think makes the world a better place. This is like winning the lottery for me.  Speech days are the best.  I love what I do.  Topics range from the very serious to the silly.  Usually, we get to learn a little about what makes these students tick.  Sometimes that gives me an opportunity to figure out how to better help them get to whatever they think they want to be next.  Sometimes they are just checking the boxes of the assignment sheet.  Whatever the case, it is still a fun time for me.

Topics range from the practical to technical to silly and all have value.  This morning I've had lessons in how dialysis works, why locally grown food is beneficial to our bodies, what to do when you hear an ambulance when you are driving, how to grow grapes in an Alabama vineyard, and how veterinary medicine helps our pets and food supply.  And that was just a small sampling of the topics.

These students all have remarkable stories.

One student discussed the importance of caring for your neck and back.  She had been in a car accident her senior year in high school.  She lost her scholarship because of a broken neck.

My student that discusses different kinds of dialysis watched her aunt and grandmother go through dialysis.

The student talking about how to become certified in scuba and the underwater world you gain access to gave a small glimpse of that world to 20 others who might have never considered scuba.

Maggie (name changed) who talked about kindness as a choice we can consciously make every day hopefully influenced a lot of others to choose kindness today.  And she was a winner.  Because she wasn't even sure she would come give the speech at all.

Those kids did it.  They taught each other about something positive they might not have known about otherwise and got a little public speaking experience in the process.  They were all winners today.