You know they say that public speaking is the greatest fear most people have....even teachers who have to stand up around adults have a ton of anxiety about the whole thing.
My suggestion to first time speakers is to focus on 2 or three key things that you'd like to get across. Talk about how great your group is...talk about your groups past contributions to the school and then do something imaginative like have everyone shake hands with their neighbors so they'll "know" someone at the school and walk down into the group and shake a couple of hands yourself. Maybe do a show of hands of folks in the group that have children already at the school that are old timers.
I wouldn't use this venue to talk about yourself or do any grand introductions. People will be less then overwhelmed...but the point of any of our groups is to get the parents comfortable and feeling like a community so let them do something to get that started. Something quick, something that allows them to smile at one another and break their "personal space". That helps tons!!!
I would give contact information like a website or a phone number for folks with questions or ideas and then end by saying that your going to be in the back of the room to meet and chat with anyone interested after the formal events.
That'll set a nice tone.
Hope this helps--keep it comfortable like these folks are old friends...they'll love it and the group!!!
Whenever I spoke to incoming parents at kindergarten roundup I would just do a brief talk about our parent group's mission and give the parents a brief overview of some of the programs and events we do. We always had a pamphlet that gave officer names and phone # and basic info on the group and a calendar of events that showed the next meeting and any events that were coming up. We made sure to invite the parents to attend the next meeting even if they weren't at the school yet, so they could see how the meetings ran and meet some people, and because round up was just a few weeks before our spring carnival, we always invited the families to attend the carnival.
Just think of things you wanted to know when you were a new parent coming into the school and what would have made you comfortable and excited about being a part of the parent group.
I was wondering if anyone could help me out? I am the president of our high school parent organization and have to give a short speech to parents of incoming freshman next month and am very nervous. I was wondering if anyone had any speeches that would like to let me borrow or any ideas.
