Individual Oral Presentation

I presented my IOP today in class! I had decided to do a dramatic monologue as Liesl discussing Faustus Legrand's transformation into Magnus. I had written it last weekend and got some peer editing done by a couple of friends in my class. I left it at that, even though I still needed to rewrite the intro and the conclusiion. Unfortunately, I pushed it off until last night, so I rewrote those parts of it and edited the rest. I got some more peer editing, this time from someone who did the IOP last year. And when I was finally done, it was about midnight, so I stayed up until two in the morning to memorize it, and now I'm tuckered out. I actually had to make cold tea (recipie: put a tea bag into a water bottle, close and shake vigorously), because my mom was asleep and our kettle has a whistle, to keep me awake and focused.

I wasn't nervous before hand, I rarely am, but when the presentations started I began to feel a little uneasy. The first was really good, incorporating visuals, group discussion, and analysis, and I was afraid mine would not be sufficiently formal. Once I got up there I introduced what I was doing and went right into it. I had a shakey start and had to keep reffering to my script. I realize now that I should not have brought it up with me. I'm always tempted to read when I can, instead of talking from memory, even if I know it down pat. So I moved away from the podium, and that really helped. I didn't have the crutch of the script, and I really grew in confidence. I did ocassionaly refer back to it, but not as much as I had to begin. Despite the fact that I've been with the same 40 or so students for over two years in the IB, I was still shaking up there. But I feel it went well overall and I'm glad I've got it over with.

Now I can focus on my Historical Investigation! All I've done so far is read the Communist Manifesto and written my Plan of Investigation. I've got a lot more work ahead of me and the early deadline is Monday. We've got a week after that before the final deadline, but we won't get the bonus marks. I'm still aiming for the final deadline, as this is officially being sent out to the IBO and the bonus marks are only for the course, not for anything in the "IB world". I do hope to get a lot done this weekend though.

Actually, on that day (Dec. 15th), I'm going to be at the University of Waterloo. Sunday afternoon we're leaving and comming back Monday afternoon. The teacher at Night Math invited me and I'm all signed up and ready to go. The trip is open to all the students who attend the School of the Mustangs (as I have mentioned previously, I'm not posting school names) which is famous in the city for their math. I'm the only Raider going, though there might be students from a few other schools going. In any case, I only know a handful of people at that school, so it may be a little akward.

In any case, that's all I have to report for now.
Goodbye,
Ace