The Outcome of My TED Talk

Today, I finally presented my TED Talk after nearly five months of research and preparation. Going into this presentation, I was extremely nervous as this is probably the largest group that I have spoken in front of. In grade 11 I had wanted to take the Leadership course, but after hearing about the TED Talk project, I had decided against it. This year I thought I would push myself outside my comfort zone and fully embrace everything the Leadership course has to offer, despite how much the final project scared me. While the experience was truly nerve wracking, I am proud of myself for taking such a large step towards building up my confidence. Overall I felt that my topic was well received. I tried to insert some humour towards the beginning to engage the audience and it seemed to be effective. As my presentation progressed I had minor moments of being a little bit tongue tied, or accidentally flipping the slides prematurely - it wasn't perfect. Despite these moments, I was satisfied with my presentation, how I used my slides, my volume, and my interactions with audience. I was also proud of myself for hardly referencing my script, as I think talking without it made my presentation seem a lot more natural and gave it a better flow.

While my own experience with this genius hour project was interesting to follow over the last five months, it was also interesting to see how my classmates embraced the process. I watched many of them switch topics, some multiple times, and heard about their progress from their pitch's back in November to their final presentations between yesterday and today. It was fascinating to see how many different topics were covered by our class - sports, language, happiness, devices, etc. In addition to the variety of subject matter that we all chose to investigate, I found it interesting how we all had different approaches in terms of our presentation styles. Some of us chose to use lots of visuals, or fact based research, or even personal stories to accompany our message. Prior to the presentations starting, I know that a majority of us were extremely nervous. However, I don't think that those nerves showed through in any of the TED Talks. Over the course of the last five months, our class has grown pretty close and I can honestly say that I felt a sense of pride watching my classmates present, especially when I knew how scary it was for some of them to get up there.

Overall, I think that these presentations really brought out the best in our class (despite the nerves). Everyone was extremely supportive of each other, cheering out from the front row and congratulating the presenter when they had finished. The moral support of my classmates made me feel far more secure leading up to and during my presentation and I hope that my support did the same for them. So, in conclusion, my experience with the Leadership course and more specifically the genius hour project, was one that resulted in significant personal growth. I not only overcame a considerable fear that had previously held me back, but I also got to be a part of a wonderful community consisting of students from so many different backgrounds. The diversity and the quality of the relationships I have made through this class have undoubtedly made period 3 the most enjoyable part of the day over the last five months.