Reminders for your draft:

Entertaining beginning

- Lukas: catchy phrase and explanation

Personal connection/anecdote

- Landon: movie inspired me - Lukas: his brother as an example

Call to action

- What are you going to do BEYOND thinking about about it?

Ex. Lukas:

- Technology: 3D printing and modeling - How will this help you?

- Sports

- Used to play trombone - why didn't you continue

QUESTION: How much is too much? How do you know when/if to quit something?

How will people relate to your ideas?

"Mic-drop" ending

- ???

Draft is due Thursday!

Work on:

- work on intro

- edit the body

- find images for slide deck

Things to think about:

- How will you conclude the speech?

- Work on how to engage the audience so they can be part of the speech

- Read speech out loud and see how long it takes

 

          Do you know what it really means to be a risk taker? Being a risk taker is trying something that you are afraid of and don’t want to do. Risk takers do something that other people avoid doing. Being a risk taker is really important because you are more likely to succeed when you are a risk taker. Risk taker succeed because they don’t limit themself from doing things that other people avoid and also because you become unstoppable by not giving up. Even Dale Carnegie, an famous American writer and lecturer, said “All life is a chance.” The man who goes the furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. Risk taker’s are most likely to catch the chance that Dale Carnegie is talking about, the chance to success. Being a risk taker is one of the learner profiles. When I first learned what was to be a risk taker, I thought “ why is this important?” After few big events of mine, I have learned that being a risk taker was really important. My first event that I had was when a piano competition was held. The competition was optional so, I didn’t joined it thinking that everybody will laugh at me when I play piano. Many people didn’t went to the competition too. But few people did because they were a risk taker and didn’t limited themselves because of the others. They got prized even though they lost. On  another word they succeeded. Then I thought, why didn’t I joined the piano competition? I wasn’t sad just because I didn’t got the prize. I was sad because I didn’t even tried and gave up! So, the next piano competition, I joined and became an risk taker. Think that you are having the chance to change your whole life. Like, I’ll make you a CEO of one of my company if you make me a great presentation. But, if you fail to make one, you need to work on my company. Many people will say “ who will do that! That’s is a dangerous bet.”But some risk taker could jump in there and make a presentation. I’m not saying that you always have to be a risk taker. You can’t just jump in a crazy thing but, when it’s a very safe thing to do, it’s good to just try. That could be the first step for you for something great, but when you don’t catch that chance and not be a risk taker, you will become something else. That’s the reason that I am doing this talk. I thought being a Risk taker was really important and I wanted you to realize that too and be a risk taker yourself. Also in these reasons when I could talk to my future self, I will say “don’t forget to be a risk taker.” Thank you for listening to my talk.  

 

 

Beginning 

 

    Hello everyone.  I remember when I was in 4th grade, my teacher Ms Wolff told us that we were going to write stories about true things, basically non-fiction. I decided to write about “Why animals should not be kept in zoos.” I was doing research and I came across a website. It had a lot of research, so that was good but something bothered me. It wasn’t some false information in the article. It was something small that some people might care about. It was a picture. The picture had a small cage with a lot of puppies inside. And a few of the puppies heads were sticking out of the cage, and all the dogs were very squished up together. The picture horrified me and still I remember it really well, even today! But that picture wasn’t the only experience that I’ve had so far. 

My teacher brought her daughter to an animal indoor zoo close to sea world. She told me that there was a room where children were playing with turtles 🐢. When the turtles accidentally got flipped over, no one even bothered to flip them back over, not even the staff! I was mad at them, because the turtles don’t even know how to flip themselves back over. And basically they are just stuck upside down. I knew animal abuse is wrong. Animals are just like humans! They need freedom to roam around and do what they want too. Humans know they have power, so they put animals behind bars for entertainment, satisfaction or other reasons.

 

Middle

 

 I used to live in America and in America, I’ve never really seen people abusing animals. The people who I saw that had pets treated them like a human. But once moving to China I saw a lot of animals being abused. 

Like this one day when I went out with my family to eat breakfast. Right next to the shop was a animal shelter. The entrance had small, cute dogs in small cages. The cages only had the basic needs. Food, water, and a small place to sleep. THAT was it.  The space in the cage was very limited, and as I got closer to the door, all of them were barking and trying to get out. They were standing up on their hind legs and using their front paws scratching the wall and door of the cage. There was also this time when I went out to the mall. A part was a area where you could buy fish. One tank had about 250 fish in it. They we’re just swimming but crashing into each other. Both of those times didn’t look comfortable.

 

Animals could get depressed. If animals are born in captivity, they could spend their whole lives in a stupid, no good cage. They could also get a mental disease called zoochosis. Animals could get zoochosis from boredom or depression. In captivity, we humans basically control animals lives. Whether it’s when they eat or just any reason. Animals would really like to be FREE! Just like us. Imagine you were locked up behind bars for your whole life. Now obviously you would try to get out. But the cage would be made out of metal. Without a chainsaw you can’t break out. That’s probably really annoying and maybe, just maybe that’s just how the animals feel when they fail to getting out. It makes the animals depressed because they know they can’t get out and they could get zoochosis. 

 

Middle 2.0

 

The animals are not in their natural habitat. In zoos animals are not in their natural habitat. The habitat consists of friends, needs, and wants. Different visitors visit and look at animals every single day. Maybe they want some privacy, just like us. 

Every single day, hundreds of animals are abused. Abuse can include hitting, neglecting, killing, and much more.

 

End

 

 In a year already so many animals are abused, but you can help stop that. Even, just doing a little good thing to animals helps. It can go from treating them nicely, to not taking good care of them, or any good thing! If you have a pet at home or volunteer at a animal shelter or something then don’t abuse animals. For example, if you have a pet/s at home, feed them the food they need or just do something nice to them. Oh, and also don’t abandoning your beloved pet. If you adopt them then you make their life SO much better. They have someone that loves them, takes care of them, and can play with!        

 

 I want to tell my future self: Don’t abuse animals. Or in other words: say no to animal abuse. Thank you for listening! 

-potential talk focus on saving the world through using a website (“so you see, using a website can save the world”) 

-don’t focus too much on making personal experiences, you can use existing statistics (connects to to not doing a meatless Monday or beach cleanup but referencing what others did)

This is a paragraph from "Jingo" by Terry Pratchett, one of my favorite authors.

As the great Terry Pratchett says, we never want to believe that we are the bad guy, that we're one of "Them" who are destroying the planet, or starting wars or harming the health of our own bodies or those around us. But I've got some bad news, which leads to hopefully, some good news.

We ARE they. The great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area of floating plastic garbage the size of France, was not created by one person or company or conglomerate of evil. That many pieces of plastic and pollution are the result of millions or billions of people buying and throwing away the items that are now deeply damaging the oceans.

All those companies in the fossil fuel industry, those leading polluters, are selling us the gas that we use in our cars, in making our fertilizer that makes our food, in the asphalt that surfaces our roads. Without us buying their products, those companies wouldn't exist or be as profitable as they are.

But it doesn't feel good to think that we might have a piece of responsibility for the issues of the planet. Nobody wants to think that they are the problem. And this desire to feel righteous, to feel that we are the victim, and not the perpetrator, plays perfectly with confirmation bias and a social media economy that gives wealth and attention to those that want to manipulate us for their own gain.

I’m no stranger to this trap, to denying the impact of my own choices and blaming larger forces and avoiding responsibility.  For 35 years I maintained a love story, with bacon. And steak. And cheese. Vegans were a punchline in many of my jokes.  I didn’t want to hear about the harm that animal agriculture caused to the environment, how it’s responsible for between 14-35% of greenhouse gas emissions, depending on if you listen to the UN or a more recent study from the University of Illinois. I didn’t want to think about how my own consumption of animal products led to factory farming, with overcrowded animals living in their own filth.  I didn’t want to hear that animal agriculture was using 80% of all antibiotics, according to the US Food and Drug administration, basically creating labs for antibiotic resistant diseases that will make COVID seem like a fond memory.  

I ignored all of that, or discounted it as nothing I could have any impact on, until my health started to decline. After all, bacon was delicious, as was fried chicken.  But over time, and by eating a steady diet of Buffalo Wings and pizza, I could no longer ignore the damage I had done to my body. I was obese, I was pre-diabetic and heading into full blown type 2 diabetes, my cholesterol was through the roof, and a heart attack was no longer a distant fear, but one I could feel knocking on my door. Then I turned my health problems and weight problems around by cutting out animal products, and suddenly I was much more open to the facts of my own previous moral and environmental impact.  I realized I didn’t want to cause any more harm than necessary to animals or the planet. I did real research and took actions, aligning my beliefs to my day to day behaviors.  I was able to overcome my own Confirmation Bias by opening myself up to new information, by seeing the truth I had been happily ignoring and discounting, and it’s only helped my health, and the health of the planet. 

Confirmation Bias is the psychological principle that states that our brains seek out information that confirms what we already believe in, and avoid and reject any information that goes against our preconceptions. Someone tells us that our political position is correct? BING! Our brain lights up like a slot machine. Another person tells us our favorite shoe brand is the best ever? BING! Lots of people share our religious beliefs and tell us we're right? BING BING BING BING!

And those that don't Confirm our previously held Bias? NOPE. Go Away! I'm not listening! You're stupid! Or even better, organize our lives so we never have to hear those positions. That... used to be difficult, but no longer, not in the age of social media and the Algorithm! Social Media sites like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook if you're old like me, all have algorithms that pay attention to what we like and watch and follow. It serves up more of this beloved content, creating information silos, little bubbles of information where everything we see matches our Confirmation Bias, often without a conscious thought or effort on our part.

Influencers know this. They know the best way to get and keep your attention is not by challenging you, or by changing your beliefs, or by telling you any sort of verifiable and unchallengeable truth, but instead by reinforcing your beliefs. By telling you that you are right. You are Righteous! You are the victim of forces beyond your control, the victim of "They", so therefore, not responsible. Not responsible for anything. Not our own actions, not for the repercussions of those actions, whether on our own bodies, on our communities, or on the planet as a whole.

And the Social Media Algorithms load up our social media feeds with just the right mix of influencers so that we are addicted to their content. It is a constant, low level serotonin buzz that keeps us coming back and staying for longer and longer. Because who doesn't like being told they're right? That those we disagree with are wrong, that our actions will only help the world, or at least not hurt it much.

Why is this so bad? Who cares if what I consume agrees with me? If our Information Silos are too impenetrable, we may never know if we're wrong until it's too late. In my own country, the USA, many people during COVID built an informational silo that told them that vaccines would kill them. A lot of them died unnecessarily from COVID. Another group believed so strongly that Donald Trump had won the 2020 election that they were willing to storm the American Capitol, and many of them are now in jail for years. Some are dead.  Millions of people are convinced that their own actions in regards to their consumption of gasoline or meat won't or haven't impacted the world, as the effects of climate change ravage billions of people. People all over the world are told so often that they are victims that they lash out against the forces they believe are oppressing them, often leading to mass shootings. These are real problems, they affect us all.

So what can we do? How do we overcome our own internal Confirmation Bias and the Algorithms that feed on it to suck us into their ecosystems? Here are a few steps that anyone can take to help. One is a quote I got from an influencer I like, Matt Dillahunty, and he says "I want to believe as many true things as possible and as few false things as possible." Keep this in mind when you examine what you believe in or are presented with new facts. Also, and I think this is the best one that has kept me from getting swept away too often by my own confirmation bias, is when I hear something that I REALLY agree with, that makes me feel great, like I'm the smartest person ever, I will look for 2 to 3 sources that disagree with that, and I will try to give that side a fair viewing, which is fighting against my own psychology, but leads me to having a more balanced view of things. Watch videos from people on the other side of an issue, read books from people you think you'll disagree with. The third is to avoid as much as possible the social media sites that create these sorts of informational silos. I'm still working on this, and I go back and forth on how good I'm doing with it at any given moment, but a great step in this direction is to delete the apps off your phone. Make it hard to go back in them.

You can do this. Your health, the health of your communities, and the health of the planet depend on it.  You can test ideas and facts that immediately appeal to your emotions and figure out who is trying to pander to you and get your attention by telling you good things about your bad habits. After all, it’s only when we realize that there’s no “They”, but only us, that we can change our actions, and then our communities, and then our planet.   We don’t have to overcome some nefarious outside power, but only our own mind.  I believe in you, and I believe in us.  

Gender Inequality is known as Sexism.  And sexism means to judge someone by their gender. Gender is know as two groups, which is male and female. In a lot of situations, sexism related things happen very often such as “boy rule and girls drool!” Or, you can’t do that because you’re a girl. My friends have gone though this, such as at Christmas when my friends mom treats her like rubbish. I wouldn’t want me to be treated like her and I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t. 

Being biased, not my thing. Because if you are being biased based on your gender, there is nothing you could do! If you still don’t understand, think of you, yes you, being locked in a room and not able to do anything. And don’t even think about going to marothons. You won’t get 

chance to do that. Wanna vote for president? Nuh-uh! You don’t have the privilege!  And, the even more unfair thing is, that mens get to do more of the stuff than you do. Such as, going to school, voting for president, and even the smallest thing like getting your very own shop! And you  have to sweep the floor and mop the table of the rest of your life.Very Boring isn’t? Well, if we weren’t so “selfish”, this thing could have ended. Only total idiots would think that gender bias is a good thing.

Why for so long, people has not stop gender bias? Even when woman’s such as Malala, keep on trying to stop woman bias or gender bias by going against the laws, like sticking their hair out to break the laws when they said girls need to wear a hood around their hair. But, Gender bias still won’t stop. It’s totally unfair and by now, there are still lots of woman’s that are bias towards that.

So what can we really do to solve this issue or problem of gender bias? It has been going on for years and it still hadn’t stopped yet. I’m sick of getting biased based on my gender, and I’m pretty sure some of the others are also sick. So, what could we do about it? Well, I’ve gotten some ideas but it will be included with every one of you. Teachers, you can start fighting for woman education. Business man’s, you can start hiring woman for work, because they will have great ideas to improve your business! And, of course, if you really care about gender, start noticing and being aware of yourself. You don’t want you to be telling every one not to do this or that about gender and you start doing the opposite.

Even though it still happens now, it has changed a bit. Woman and girls can go to school, have bigger opportunities, and simply get your own tiny shop by the street. It is great, right? But we want more opportunities! Just because we are girls doesn’t mean no treating fairly is allowed. Why even do girls get treated like this? Just because we are girls and we are weak? Nope. 

 If you are a boy being judged by your gender , what would you feel?