Anna's CPR for Amanda

Amanda seemed to take the podium tentatively. After a couple deep breaths she began her speech softly. At first, I wondered if it was because she was nervous – perhaps it was – but I later learned that her tone and way of speaking was actually very beneficial to her speech and gave it much more emphasis and authenticity. The simple way she spoke of her former teacher and the personal stories that she gave were not only easy to picture but almost made me feel as if I was there.

I wasn’t there

When your teacher tackled you for a donut

Or how he opened up to the class

I wasn’t there

When the news of his death arrived

But after your speech

I felt like I was

Amanda did an excellent job with her speech. I remember most of her first speech but this one just felt much more authentic than the first. She brought a different kind of tone that the previous people didn’t necessarily bring. She did a really good job also at sharing personal and funny stories. I recall at one point in her speech where she was reminiscing on how her teacher once tackled her for her donut that she smiled to herself. In that sense, I really admired how authentic and genuine her speech was.

There were not a lot of moments of distraction, but I would definitely say that her volume was a distraction at least in the beginning. Her tone goes both ways, however. I do feel that the way that she was speaking really contributed to the speech, but at the beginning she was very soft and it was almost challenging to hear. I think that there was a pivotal part in her speech though where she seemed to gain her momentum and the speech seemed to flow better and was a little easier to hear.

 Alexander advocates for using poetic/artistic responses because he feels that by doing so we can see the nature of their reports, performances, etc. more clearly. It also forces us to look at the subject in a more abstract manner, making us not just look at the facts, but the reactions that we feel from these “performances”. Looking at performances like this helps us analyze better and in a new light as well as having the potential to look at our own performances in a different way and perhaps even alter or improve them.