St. Mark’s College

Namagoma, Uganda

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13 April 2024

USE YOUR PHILOSOPHY AS A CLUB TO ADDRESS ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES

Support Package link is HERE

St Mark’s College, Namagoma, will host the first-ever Speaking 4 the Planet competition in Uganda. The first ever in Africa!

The theme for the speaking competition is USE YOUR PHILOSOPHY AS A CLUB TO ADDRESS ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES.

 Students will participate through their clubs. Each participating club will present four items:

1. Junior speaker (12-15yrs old) Maximum time 4minutes
2. Senior speaker (16-20yrs old) Maximum time 4minutes
3. Art.  One person speaks for maximum 1minute about the artwork. 
4. One other item chosen from Drama, Dance, Poetry. Maximum time 4minutes.

Bruno Muyunga is taking the lead in making this event happen – the First Speaking 4 the Planet competition in Africa happen! He is an environmental activist and one of the school’s IT specialists. He says, 

It has always been my passion to protect the environment since I grew up seeing the natural environment. Now, sadly, it’s becoming damaged and many species are becoming extinct.

Educators, now, must take up the challenge to help children learn about the conservation of the environment.

While attending the 12^th World Environmental Education Congress in Abu Dhabi earlier this year, I realized that St Mark’s College Namagoma can make a difference. I can make a difference. And everyone in our school can be a part of a sustainability journey.  Inspired by what I saw and learned at the 12^th WEEC, I have decided to embark on carrying out education and awareness sessions to sensitize people about the natural environment and its contributions to humanity – which I think many people do not know about. I want to help nurture a young generation that can conserve the natural environment.

With support from

This year, the K4P competition asks participants to listen. To listen and hear. To hear and act. To the Earth. The Earth that provides clean air and water, good soils, and a climate that is habitable for all species. 

This year, students are asked to

• speak
• or write
• or draw
• or make videos
• or do a STEM activity

that shows the importance of listening. How to do it well. And what they hear… when they listen closely. 

Event Details

• Venue: Lakemba Public School
• Date: 27 June 2024

This event invites a handful of local schools in the immediate vicinity of Lakemba PS.  If you are in a different area – anywhere in Australia – and you want to host or participate in such an event, please contact Phil on phil@speaking4theplanet.org.au

Poster

Package link

Climate Action Burwood Canada Bay is taking the lead in bringing this 2024 S4P competition to the high schools of Burwood, Canada Bay and Strathfield local government areas.  The event will take place on Wednesday 5 June at Domremy College, Five Dock. The topic for the competition is Journey to a Greener Future. All entries and performances must be based on this topic.

Registration is essential.

Given the number of schools across the three LGAs, only nine schools can enter for the speaking and five schools for the drama categories. All schools can enter the art and writing categories.  

Schools must register by contacting Robin at footprintscabcb@gmail.com

See this information package for more details. It contains:

• Information on each competition category. 
• The judging criteria. 
• Links to relevant resources. 

Trees, the Guardians of Life

Join the 2024 national online S4P competition. The topic is Trees, the Guardians of Life. 

UPDATED: Deadline for submission is changed to 26 July 2024.

This change is as necessary because of the interest.

Trees, the Guardians of Life package: click on HERE.

Trees sustain life. Trees sustain civilizations!   

From the blue beaches to its red centre, Australia is blessed with diverse and unique woodlands, rainforests and bushland. It has 130 million hectares of forests – about 17% of its land area.  

Wherever we live in this country – near the coast, along rivers, in mountains or on plains – we have valuable trees and bushland. Trees are a part of our lives. And they matter. From the northern tropical regions down through sub-tropical regions to temperate zones, we have trees everywhere. They are a part of our lives. And they matter. Trees sustain life. Trees sustain civilizations. 

This year, the S4P competition asks participants to focus on the importance of their local bushland – for themselves and their communities and their regions. 

This topic is linked to Sustainable Development Goal 15 – Life on Land. 

All councils in Australia are invited to participate. And there are two ways you can take part in this competition.

One – register to support the online competition. In this way, all youth aged 12 – 18 in your LGA can participate.  Note that teachers are also invited to participate in this online competition!

…or…

Two – hold a live event in your LGA for your schools. 

Please read this flier.

To register or discuss the possibility of a live event, please contact Phil at phil@speaking4theplanet.org.au

Prizes 

Once again, Paddy Pallin, a competition partner, will provide very practical items for first place in each category.

This year, we have decided to add a monetary element to the prizes.  In addition to the item from Paddy Pallin, first place winners will receive $100. Second place winners will receive $100.

Submission Link

Submit your work here: SUBMISSION FORM

Closing date 

The closing date will be Friday, 26 JULY, 2024.

Winners will be announced on the S4P website on National Tree Day, Sunday, 31 August 2024. 

Here’s Support Package 

You can read the Trees, the Guardians of Life package HERE.

It contains information on the topic, links to resources, and explanation and judging criteria for each category. Be sure to contact your local council and visit its website for information on such things as bushland management, canopy cover, tree replacement policies… 

Here’s what one student said about the 2023 competition

List of registered Councils

The topic was Speaking for those species that cannot Speak. Students participated in teams of 4 and in 4 different categories: speaking, drama, art, and writing.

Vu Thi Bao Quynh, a student, said: “Due to the high profit, and personal benefits, the human being keeps being emotionless and does not care for the painfulness and exhaustion of the naive victims. Chasing the monetary benefits, human beings do not know that poaching wildlife is the first step to make their natural habitats deducing and destroyed, to destroy ecology, and that leads to consequences such as natural disasters, earthquakes, forest burning, etc. Then human beings themselves have to suffer the consequences they create by themselves. Eventually, they are their own victims.”

Thang Le, the artist, is one of the judges and he commented on the first prize: “Participants from Ton Duc Thang Highschool are very skillful in drawing, have good skills in arrangement and construction of the drawing elements. The content of the drawing shows their messages – let’s stop poaching, and trading naive wild animals before too late. Let’s together protect them, love them, and create a peaceful planet for human beings and wild animals“.

There were team awards and prizes for the best in each category.

• The First Team Award belongs to Ton Duc Thang High School.
• The Second Team Award belongs to Da Teh High School.
• The Third Team Award belongs to Thong Nhat High School.
• Doan Ket High School got the Best Slogan prize.
• Cat Tien High School got the Best Speech prize.
• Da Teh High School got the Best Drama Performance prize.
• Ton Duc Thang High School got the Best Artwork prize. To get this amazing artwork idea, 29 classes in the school had joined in the inner competition in their school and had chosen the best work for the official competition with other schools.

Mr. Nguyen Van Binh, Principal of Ton Duc Thang Highschool, said he hoped that the S4P competition would be organized annually in Cat Tien so all schools would get a chance to connect, learn, and share knowledge related to wildlife conservation all together.

S4P congratulates CTNP for the very professional way in which the competition was planned and conducted. A very high-quality event. Hard-working staff. Thanks to all the sponsors for their generous support: USAID, WWF, Bellalove Foundation, Save Vietnam’s Wildlife, HDBank, and Mernard.

The event was written on popular newspapers and national media.

The students speak for the wildlife on Saigon Tiep Thi Học sinh lên tiếng vì động vật hoang dã (sgtiepthi.vn)

Speak for species who are unable to speak, on Nong Nghiep.vn Giới trẻ lên tiếng: Nói thay những loài không thể nói (nongnghiep.vn)

Ton Duc Thang Highschool students draw artwork about condemning illegal wildlife trade, on Law and Life online magazine, Học sinh trường THPT Tôn Đức Thắng vẽ tranh lên án hành vi buôn bán động vật hoang dã trái phép (luatvadoisong.vn)

Students aged from 10-16 participated after school and on the weekend in a 10-hour course that aimed to build confidence and skills in speaking up about the planet. Each gave a talk on themselves (being able to introduce yourself to a group is very important!) and a talk on nature. Here are those second talks.

It was successful.

Phil worked in a wonderful community of learners and learning built and supported by an English teacher, Ms Ngoc Hong Nguyen. Ms Hong works with IE&Co, and English training company based in Ha Noi. The direct benefits of her energy and commitment to student learning and well-being were palpable. Students worked together, cared for each other, and helped each other improve. And behind the students are parents who value and support the work Ms Hong does – they were certainly supportive of the public speaking course! Phil is very grateful for the warmth and generosity of spirit he felt while down south in that beautiful rural area.

Future such courses are planned with IE&Co.

Councils from around Australia helped fund this year’s competition and support students in their LGAs to participate.

The competition attracted nearly 100 entries coming from 05 different States and Territories. We received:

• 33 speeches
• 36 artworks
• 08 pieces of performance poetry
• 20 writing pieces.

and here are our winners!

Read the detailed results in this Report.

SPEAKING

From amongst the 33, the judges found a winner and a runner-up. But they could not separate the next 3! After some deliberation, they agreed to award joint 3rd place.

The winner is Roseanna Huang from Brigidine College, St Ives, NSW.

The runner-up is Ashwini Aravinthan from Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta NSW.

Sharing Third place are:

• Sierra Lake from Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta, NSW.
• Avryl Bergado from Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta, NSW.
• Anthony Baaini from Parramatta Marist, Westmead, NSW.

WRITING

From the 22 entries, the judges selected two as joint winners in this category.

Aleksi Pearce and Nicolas Lecuna from Northside Montessori School, Pymble, NSW.

Reaching Net Zero Together
Recycle and reuse.
Reduce waste and emissions.
Research and responsibly make choices.
Run or ride to work.
Reach out and educate others.
R you ready? Earth is!

Mayurie Sivananthan from Abbotsleigh Girls College, Wahroonga, NSW.

Community in harmony, we embrace change,
Reduce energy, waste, and transport’s carbon range.
Together we build a city,
sustainable and bright,
For healthier lives, a future shining with light.

ART

Another tough category to judge. There were 36 artworks in total. Our judges (in three different countries) finally settled on these as the winners.

First: Isabella Wu from Abbotsleigh Girls College, Wahroonga, NSW.

Second: Meera Nirmalendran, Abbotsleigh Girls College, Wahroonga, NSW

Highly commended:

• Aaron Chevalier from Parramatta Marist High School, Westmead, NSW.
• Rafael Palad from Parramatta Marist High School.
• Annemieke Earp from Home Schooling, Alice Springs, Northern Territory.

PERFORMANCE POETRY

For only the second time, we included this category in the S4P competition. Eight students participated. Perhaps it’s a new medium for lots of students. It invites creativity in text and actions.

First place
McKayla Tan from Ravenswood School for Girls, “The Weather Report”.

Second place
Beatrice Broad from Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar College.

Highly commended
Victoria Chu from Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar School.

Thanks to all the Councils around Australia that supported this inaugural national S4P competition.

Thanks for the ongoing support from Paddy Pallin and the Sutherland Shire Environment Centre.

And thanks to the brave participants who put themselves and their ideas out to the world.

Looking for some tips to make a great video??? Let’s have a look!

CHOOSING YOUR IDEAL SHOOTING LOCATION

• Find a location that is well-lit with natural sunlight or plenty of indoor lighting
• Choose a quiet location with little background noise (street sounds, music, other people)
• Avoid spaces with lots of echo
• Turn off air conditioners and heaters to avoid fan noise
• Provide a seat for yourself that is stationary and quiet (no chairs with wheels/swivels, overstuffed cushions, or squeaky screws)

SETTING UP YOUR PHONE / CAMERA

• Set your laptop, phone, or camera on a tripod or steady surface (please do not hold your camera while shooting to avoid shaky footage)
• Shoot horizontally (use landscape mode and avoid portrait mode)
• Position camera at eye level (if you can, avoid angles where the camera lens is looking up or down on you)
• Choose a non-distracting background (avoid windows, showing other people, posters/signs that can be read etc)

LIGHTING

• Shoot in daylight if possible
• Position yourself so windows or your main light sources are facing you, not behind you.
• Avoid overhead lights
• When shooting indoors, consider using a ring light that clips to your computer/phone to help light your face

CAMERA PRESENCE

• Look at the camera at all times
• Keep your hand movements to a minimum
• Stand/sit up straight
• Keep your hands to your side or gently folded in front of you (no crossed arms)
• Keep your shoulders relaxed
• Smile, especially at the beginning and the end of each response

ANSWERING QUESTIONS

• When answering question prompts, please rephrase the question at the beginning of your response instead of jumping right into your answer (eg, “The events scheduled for this semester will be pushed to a later date” vs. simply “They will be pushed to a later date…”)
• Start and end your answers with a second of silence, looking straight into the camera
• Start and end your answers definitively (Avoid starting every sentence with “so’s” and “um’s” and ending with upward intonations, like you would when asking a question)
• Start your answer again if a noise interrupts your answer, such as a police siren or dog barking

DELIVERING PRESENTATIONS

• Direct your gaze to the camera
• Consider using a teleprompter app in order to minimize looking up and down from your screen.  A few to consider include: CuePrompter, PromptDog, and Promptsmart.

CLOTHING AND ACCESSORIES TO AVOID

• Clothing with colors that blend in with your background
• Patterns (stripes, plaids, polka dots)
• Shiny fabrics or jewelry
• Visible labels, logos, text, images
• Wrinkled clothes
• All white or all black clothing
• Noisy accessories that could interfere with your audio

A FEW OTHER HELPFUL HINTS

• If you can, ask a friend/family member to assist you while you record
• Do a short recording test to make sure you can see and hear yourself clearly
• Have water handy for clearing your throat
• A bite from an apple can help take care of a dry mouth!

TECH SPECS

• Check your video camera settings to make sure you are shooting one of three formats: 1080p at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps, or 1080p at 24fps. 720p and 4k is fine too.
  • On Android phones, the settings are usually in the main camera app behind the gear settings wheel
  • On iPhones, the camera settings are in the main settings icon in the photos and camera section
• If you are unsure, no worries, your camera’s default setting should generally be ok.

BEST PRACTICES FOR VIDEO CLASSES / MEETINGS

• Please see Choosing Your Ideal Location, Setting Up Your Phone/Camera, and Lighting Tips above
• Mute yourself when not speaking to eliminate contributing unnecessary noise
• Dress as you would if you were meeting in person
• Speak more slowly than you would in person
• Keep hand movements to a minimum
• Avoid eating during the call!  If you must snack, turn your camera off as no one needs to see you chewing
• Look directly into the camera lens when speaking and not at the video of yourself or classmates/colleagues

Source: Tips for Recording Yourself on Video (nyu.edu)

May 25, 2022

Advocates 4 the Earth

On and off for over 40 years, I have taught communications courses – including public speaking – for youth. No training or learning occurs in a vacuum. Karsten Schnack echoed that sentiment when he reminded those of us at an environmental education conference in Denmark nearly 20 years ago to… “Never teach like there’s nothing happening outside”.  My experience in teaching public speaking courses leads me to add… “or inside”.

Survey after survey tells us young people are concerned about the environment and worried about the future. A massive new study of 10,000 young people (16-25 years old) from 10 countries revealed deep anxiety.

The climate crisis is also a mental health crisis. Youth are more than concerned, they are frightened. More than half said, “humanity is doomed”. Their distress is directly affecting their capacity to function in the present. And youth said the problem is with their governments’ failures to take any meaningful action.

Youth marches and protests about climate change are expressions of their fear and demands for immediate changes in policies and practices. Youth are taking action and they want action in return. One positive thing young people can and are doing is improving their skills as advocates for the Earth and for their own futures.

I am currently in Viet Nam and running public speaking courses for youth, whose environmental concerns mirror those of youth around the world. As a direct result of this work here, I wrote the following piece (Dec 2021) for parents and other teachers of public speaking.

Why take a public speaking course?

A person has two reasons for doing something:  the reason they give, and the real reason.

Quotes of this nature have been ascribed, in recent history, to various people from different countries.

The message applies to our students. Our children.

Some students come with their reasons, and they know them – a competition, a good mark in exams, better performance in schools. For some students, the reasons for undertaking a public speaking course go far beyond achieving results or learning skills and techniques.  Important as they are, these skills are not the driving force, the motivator, the deep-down reason for taking the course. Others may not be conscious of their own ‘real reason’ when they start the course: that reason emerges as they learn to speak up.

In the course, speech topics are mostly chosen by the students themselves. Usually, they have a combination of personal and broader interest:  the challenges of online learning, the importance of science, or life in Viet Nam.

For a few young people, the topics come from a place deep within: LGBTQ, body shaming, bullying, the pressures of generation gaps and gender roles on a young woman in Viet Nam…

These young people give the speech that has been patiently waiting to be given voice. A speech they want others to hear. Close friends and family. The wider community and the whole world. In those few minutes, their screams are raw but structured, their passions demand and are given voice, their pain surfaces in detached anger, and their appeals become well-shaped, clearly-structured clarion calls to all.

If you listen not just to the structure and delivery – skills they learn in the course – but also to the content, you see a beautiful, powerful person calling for change, calling for help, calling for a better world. 

Whether they are talking about care and respect for self and others or making pleas to stop the damage being done to the planet, these young people are desperate to be heard. With courage, they step up and speak up: they want others to sit up and listen up… and to re-think, re-feel, re-do.

Yes, learning techniques and strategies matter. But the skills are not an end in themselves. They are the beginning.

The courses provide and create a safe space for these life-changing, life-beginning speeches. If the students did not participate, if they did not join the classes week after week, if they did not become a part of a community of public speaking learners, they would not have a forum in which to present and test their views, passions, needs, appeals…

The public speaking courses provide a platform, a safe space, an audience that might otherwise never exist. The pain and joy of giving voice to those inner feelings and thoughts might never happen.

For some students, the final speech is the one they have been waiting all their lives to make.

For others, their speech is powerful and moving and cathartic. For all, the final speech is a moment of change – a moment when the students stepped up and spoke up as a part of the next phase of their learning and growth.

Source: Ideas, Inspirations and Incites – with Phil Smith – New Bush Telegraph