Speech Club Builds Good Communicators

The Iowa High School Speech Association believes "good communicators equal great citizens.” In October, the IHSSA held its 51st Annual Speech Coaches Convention and JCSD speech coaches Katie Johnson and Kimberly Cavalier had the opportunity to attend. Their goal was to gain more skills as speech coaches.

This is Coach Cavalier’s second year as a coach and it is Coach Johnson’s first. JCSD offers Large Group and Individual events. The most popular events that students like to participate in are short film, group improvisation, prose interpretation, and storytelling, just to name a few examples. Altogether, there are 10 Large Group events and 13 Individual events available for students.

The coaches attended a class for novice coaches to help build the program, a keynote address entitled Communication as Connection: How Our Stories Shape Us, and breakout sessions that focused on writing or finding performance pieces for each event.

Coach Cavalier states, “I would say my main takeaway from the event is how valuable speech can be for every kid! For so many kids, speech is a fun, low pressure activity where they can come hang out with friends and express their creativity. I think it is so important for adolescents to have that space, whether they see themselves going into a creative field in the future or not.”