My tendancy to get extremely nervous has definitely improved since our first speech. I would really like to improve my terrible memory, my mind always seems to go black the second I'm at the podium. To help this I plan on just memorizing my speech until my brain goes dead. Not really, but you get my drift. I really just need to take a few big, deep breaths before I get to the podium to calm myself down. I think I'm just naturally a very nervous person so this could help me in all aspects of life. There are so many other ways I could improve but this seems to be my biggest problem. My eye contact could also use some work along with my speaking.

I basically learned my speeches by repetition. I would memorize things by sections. I would memorize the first two paragraphs for example, and then move on when those are engraved into my mind. I would keep going until I got to the end of the speech. Then I would memorize it as a whole. I mainly just practiced with myself except for when we would practice with a partner in Sims' class. I really don't have any tips except to practice, practice, and practice some more. You also need to make sure you don't forget about the speech and wait until the day before to learn it.