As I walked into my English class on the first day of sophomore year, I didn’t expect it to be any different than the classes I had taken in the past. Reading novels and writing poems and stories were never my strong subjects. I wasn’t excited to be in the class, but I soon found myself enjoying English class.
Before explaining the curriculum, Mrs. Markano told us about her life and family and then she had us tell her and the class something about ourselves. Not only did this help her to get to know her students, but it also helped us to learn about classmates we didn’t know prior to her class.
Besides the normal English subjects—like reading and writing—we also had to do a few speeches. Going into the class, I didn’t realize I would have to face one of my fears. Just seeing the word “speech” written on the board made me nervous.
But before discussing what the speeches would be about, Mrs. Markano asked us to raise our hands if we didn’t want to do the speeches. Everyone in the class, except for a few, raised their hands. We all were nervous to speak in front of the class. She then asked us what we thought the number one fear of Americans was. Spiders, death, and heights were just a few of the guesses we blurted out. But we all were wrong. The number one fear was public speaking.
“No matter how experienced they are, everyone gets nervous before doing a speech,” was one of the first things Mrs. Markano mentioned. That was when I knew it was okay for me to feel nervous, just like everyone else in the class did.
Mrs. Markano knew we were all afraid, and she did a great job making sure we would be comfortable speaking in front of the class. We did different activities with the class to gain each other’s trust.
In the class, especially during the speech lesson, respect was the number one priority. She made certain that during the speeches, there would be no phones or talking while someone was presenting their speech. During the speeches, we would all listen. She also told us whatever we heard in the class would stay in the class. This was important because we felt comfortable sharing things we wouldn’t regularly want everyone to know.
After presenting the speeches, Mrs. Markano would make a lot of comments on what she liked and on how we could improve. This pushed me to be better. After we were done with speeches, I wanted to push myself further and take the Advanced Speech class.
Junior year passed, and I was still too nervous to take the class. When senior year came, I knew I had to take Mrs. Markano’s Advanced Speech class. And I’m so glad I did because it ended up being my favorite class in high school.