As HF-L inducts new members to its Alumni Hall of Fame, it reminds me of that pleasant fall day in 2009 when Gates-Chili honored me in a similar way. The district asked all inductees to address the senior class in a special assembly. I thought the speakers would probably talk about either why education mattered to them or how their time at Gates-Chili helped them in their jobs.
In short, they’d be bland bios.
I didn’t want to bore the kids. I wanted to leave them laughing in the aisles with self-deprecating humor. At the same time, I wanted them on the edge of their seats, enthralled by the dramatic arc of a true-life story.
Of course, I’d abide by tradition by acknowledging the importance of education, but let’s be honest, what did they care about my career? So, I left that out.
I knew I was coming out of left field, but, in the words of those 20th-century British philosophers, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.”
Because of this daring, I suspected the students would become unsettled. I hoped they would Continue Reading “How Math Saved My Life: From High School Disappointment to Hall of Fame Speech”
The Compliment That Caught Me Speechless
Then I remembered. We had only one microphone. It was on a cord. My vision for the panel was more of a conversation than a series of mini-presentations. Passing a mic between each panelist would stunt the informal back-and-forth I wanted to achieve. What could I do?
When the panel began, I asked each person to speak without a microphone to test if the audience in the back of the room could hear us. They could, so I told everyone we wouldn’t be using the mic. That’s when a lady sitting in the front said, “Will you be able to keep your voice loud? Whenever a presenter decides to go without a mic, they start loud, but their voice invariably gets quieter as the presentation goes on.”
I stopped dead in my tracks, looking at her straight in the eye. Then, channeling my inner Continue Reading “The Compliment That Caught Me Speechless”