20 Time Final Post: The Road Ahead

For this project, I completed half of a drawing book which documented the causes and warning signs of depression through a story about a teenage girl. I drew each scene on a piece of printer paper divided into quarters. Even though I am not very talented at drawing, I tried to make the storybook look decent. Here is one of the pictures I included in my presentation as part of my product: 

The protagonist is LGBTQ in an unsupportive environment, as I made her parents very religious and conservative. In addition, her parents are overloading her with work and difficult classes.
The story I wrote is about a teenage girl who initially has many friends and a balanced life but soon falls into the academic pressures coming from her parents and the pressure to fit in with everyone else at her high school. She is also LGBTQ in an unsupportive environment, as her parents are highly religious; the girl is aware that she cannot come out to her parents. Also, she is not performing as well academically as her peers, so she feels out of place and that she is slowly falling behind. Here is a screenshot of my storyline on a separate Google doc:

Screenshot of part of the story I wrote during 20 Time in class.
For my final, I conducted a presentation on my topic and learning process in a TED Talk format in front of the class. The video for this is at the top of my blog post. I thought my TED Talk could have gone better; I felt that I rushed through it and as a result, I was looking off of my notecards the majority of the time. Knowing that my presentation was barely inside the time limit, I tried to speak quickly in order to fit all of my presentation into the time constraints. I did practice the presentation a few times at home, so I thought that my delivery of the content was smooth, but I feel that I still could have slowed down to make the talk more natural. Watching my video, I would give myself the following scores:
Attention: 3/5
Voice: 5/5
Verbal Communication: 5/5
Purpose: 5/5
Examples: 5/5
Evidence: 5/5
Product: 5/5
Learning Process: 5/5
References: 4/5
Enthusiasm/Passion: 5/5
Awareness: 5/5
Timing: 5/5
Authenticity/Integrity: 5/5
Works Cited: 5/5
Images: 5/5

Preparing for the talk was quite nerve-wracking, since I have never delivered a TED Talk before, and I was scared that the story about my depressed friend at the beginning of my presentation would scare people. While making my "script" for the presentation, I again wrote too much content and when I timed myself, I went over the time limit by about 2 minutes! Because of this, I had to cut down comments that weren't completely pertinent or necessary to the presentation, and I was finally able to reduce my presentation time to within the time constraints. I also tried to practice presenting without looking at my notecards too many times, and I succeeded. However, during the actual presentation, I was nervous that I would forget something (which I did), so I was glued to my notecards. This project has made me realize a lot of issues that I have with time management, so it made me reflect on those problems and eventually try to fix them by the end of the project process. I also really enjoyed the creativity aspect of the project and how we were allowed to choose any topic we liked. It was very intriguing listening to other people's presentations and what they chose to give their presentations on; it made me realize that everyone has their own hobbies and interests that might not be apparent on the outside. Overall, this was an awesome project and it really allowed me to grow as a person and grow my knowledge as well!