Two days ago we attended a psi chi meeting. Dr. Erica Rosenberg Ph.d lead the meeting. Her collegu Eckman and she works on Lie to me on fox. They are a psychology consultant for the show on the facial action coding system(facts). It can be used to tell when a person is being decptive. It was very interesting, and a lot to be learned.

It was different seeing myself presenting. I got to see the things that I otherwise wouldn’t have noticed. I think that my weakness during that presentation was that I was looking up sometimes and that I would sometimes say things a bit fast. My strong points were that I was prepared although I did glance at my paper a few times. During a future presentation, I think that I will improve on my eye movements and keeping eye contact with the audience and also not rushing what I have to say.

My presentation was about Mother Theresa. I made a mistake by writing an essay prompt to read from. I should have just talked briefly about her accomplishments and goals. But other then that I thought I did fairly well. My speech wasnt that clear at some points because I had to look to at my index cards. To improve my presentation, next time i will speak clearly and make eye contact with the class. Also, stand up straight and speak with a loud clear voice.

I noticed that  I had a hard time standing still. I do remembering being nervous, but  I didn’t know that I had  so much hand gestures. I thought I could have done better. There were times when I would look up or pause whenever I didn’t know what to say. It was funny to see how my body expressed my level of nervousness. Whenever I was sure about something I moved less, and whenever I was unsure I couldn’t stand still. The video is very helpful. Now I know what to work on to better prepare myself for any other oral presentation.

The link I recieved from Patty didn’t show me the video for some reason but I did recieve my scores.  I thought I did better than the grade reflected but then again, it’s difficult to predict success when you’re in the moment.  According to the grade, I need to work on my non-verbal communication, eye-contact, and “umm’s”.  I have to admit, I could have taken my time to speak slower as well.  If anything, this activity helped me realize what I lacked in presentation skills and will hopefully help me improve on my pitfalls.  I will try to slow down, speak clearly, practice more, maintain good posture, and make better eye contact whenever the next opportunity to speak publicly comes around.

As far as community service goes, I’ve been involved with teaching Sunday school for over 4 years.  The United Muslim Association is an organization centered in central Jersey that operates religious schools for children ages 5 through 17.  I volunteered as an Arabic teacher for 3 years and an Islamic studies teacher for 1 and a half.  Every Sunday, I spend 4 hours in classrooms teaching 8th, 4th, and 6th graders.  It’s a great experience being a leader and knowing that so many young faces look up to you as a role model.  It does entail responsibility and dedication but the reward is something else entirely.  I love working with kids and every week feels like fun and hardly any work.  Teaching is a great way to do community service, whether you’re doing it for academic, athletic, or spiritual purposes.