I love the first speech of the year! But.... sometimes my students don't! So, to try and get them to see the positive side of public speaking we do an activity called "Positive Thoughts". On (or close to) the first day of school each student stands against a white board while a group of classmates write positive comments around their heads. They are not allowed to see any of the comments until the day of their first speech in the form of a movie.
It serves as a reminder that their classmate are in fact supportive and think nice things about each other. Also, they are excited about seeing the film and forget about the anxiety of speaking, even if it is just a three minute break.
Here is our film:
