TED Talks

The first TED talk video that I watched was "Megan Washington: Why I Live in Mortal Dread of Public Speaking". I picked this one because I hate public speaking too, and in high school I would dread it, but listening to her makes me think that some people have it worse, and if she can do it so can I. She spoke about why she hates public speaking which is because she has a stutter. She talks about how it has affected her and what she does to get through it. I really really enjoyed her speech because she was funny and made humor out of something that bothers her. She made a lot of examples and she was very smooth talking, she didn't talk too fast. She was very calm and she made you really connect with her. Washington making jokes about it made it really relaxed and it was like you knew her personally. She uses music as in escape, and at the end she transitioned out nicely and she sung a song she wrote, beautifully. It's crazy because if you just heard her sing you would never know she had a speech impediment. I think that some things she could have done better were to make more eye contact because she kept looking down at her phone which she was reading from. Overall, her speech was amazing and done very well.

http://www.ted.com/talks/megan_washington_why_i_live_in_mortal_dread_of_public_speaking#t-619212

The second TED talk that caught my eye was "The Son of a Difficult Father" by Colin Grant. He talked about how much he hated his father growing up and what he had done. He talked about growing up and how his parents divorced and how he didn't talk to his father for three decades after that. He went and found his father a few years ago and freed himself from that hatred. Some things that I liked that Colin did was that he used his hands a lot and he didn't stay in one spot. He didn't move all over the stage but he took a few steps and swayed here and there. I liked how the way he talked was smooth and he didn't seem nervous, although it did seem that he couldn't get out what he was trying to say some of the time. Something I didn't like about his speech was that it was too long, he didn't explain things and give the bigger picture of the story, he went really far into detail and it seemed like it dragged out more than it had to. Another big thing is at the end he didn't have very much of a conclusion he kind of just said his thank you's and walked off stage.

http://www.ted.com/talks/colin_grant_the_son_of_a_difficult_father#t-359580

The third TED talk video that I watched was Jarrett J. Krosoczka's "Why Lunch Ladies Are Heros". I picked this one because in high school I loved this one lunch lady so much, she was so cool and we always talked. She lived in my friends neighborhood and over the summer we'd always have block parties and she'd be there. She was a mom and wasn't older, so we really connected with her. Jerrett talked about how he had a favorite lunch lady and how he wrote a book about a lunch lady hero! His book influenced so many schools and made so many lunch ladies feel appreciated. His book did wonders. I liked how he was so happy and he constantly was smiling, it really made you connect with him and feel like he was a nice, genuine man. He also moved around and talked with his hands, and he also used different tones. When something exciting was said, he would say it louder etc. I liked how he gave a background story about when he was a kid, and I liked how it wasn't long at all, it cut right to the chase. I didn't think he did anything wrong, I really enjoyed listening to him speak.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jarrett_krosoczka_why_lunch_ladies_are_heroes