I shared this on Facebook and Judy Finkelstein asked me to share it here as well.
I wanted to share something here. It is a big thank you to Mr. B. and to the amazing speech students who went before me and those who competed in IHSSA with me. Last week I had my biggest speaking gig ever. I am a teacher and I speak to groups all of the time through organizations that I am involved in. I was the program chair for a regional foreign language teachers conference in Minneapolis. I ran the opening session beginning with the welcome, the conference theme, introductions and thank yous and then I introduced the keynote speaker. I congratulated award winners, thanked the keynote speaker, and then gave general announcements and officially started the conference. There were about 1200 people in the audience. It went very well! I got lots of compliments. One of my best friends said that what always surprised her about my speaking to groups is that it never seems like I'm speaking to a big group, it seems like I'm speaking to a small group of friends. My mom said that I learned that from Mr. B and from watching my older brother David compete along with amazing speakers/actors like Doug Wood, Jenny Doud, Lee Potter, etc. Running this conference was the single largest thing I have done professionally and I know that my being able to run that opening session was thanks to Mr. B's teaching and the amazing example set by the NUHS speech contestants. I just wanted to recognize you all and to say thanks!
