Homework for Friday, May 15

(If you were in class today)

• Write a bulleted outline for your graduation speech, and complete one paragraph.

If you weren't in class today)

• Write an outline for each of the two graduation speeches below. Then write a bulleted outline for your graduation speech, and complete one paragraph.
  

An outline is a bulleted list of the paragraphs contained an essay, showing the main idea of each paragraph. Here's an example of how a bulleted list might look:

• Welcome
• great memories
• how we've grown
• thanks to teachers/staff etc.
• Welcome and good luck

Your graduation speech can be either a welcome speech (salutatory) or a farewell speech (valedictory). Here are two examples of a valedictory speech. (Both of them were winners!)

Speech 1:

We’ve come to the end of our graduation ceremony as well as our time at this great school. Roosevelt Middle School, I’d like to thank our faculty, family, and friends for attending this ceremony. Bear with me for a few minutes. I promise I won’t make this too boring.

I’m pretty sure that most of us shared the same feelings on the first day of middle school. The air was filled with nervousness and excitement. I scanned the hallways for a glimpse of a familiar face from elementary school. As I met new people, I wondered “How do they see me?” I wanted to figure out which clique I belonged to and cling onto that clique out of fear of being left alone. In the hallways, I felt like I was a tiny speck, zigzagging through the strong current of seventh and eighth graders, who I both feared and admired.

In the three years that we’ve been here, all of us have changed, grown, and overcome challenges. We’ve had to deal with the regular middle school problems: rumors, peer pressure, and bullying. We’ve lost friends, gained friends, and changed our group of friends. We’ve discovered where we belong, socially. We’ve become mature and open-minded, and have listened to find deeper meaning in things. We’ve learned to open up to people, listen to them, and accept them for who they are. We’ve made mistakes, regretted them, realized that we can’t take back what has already happened, and learned from our mistakes. We started this three-year journey as kids, and are about to end it as young adults.

When I really look at the students who make up the Class of 2008, I see potential in everyone. One of us could be the next George Washington Carver, who made over three hundred peanut products. Maybe someone will discover how to “fax" three-dimensional objects, as seen in the movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” I wouldn’t be surprised if one of my classmates became the next rising actor, actress, or singer. Twenty years from now, we could be telling our children that we went to middle school with the mayor or governor or president. A future doctor could discover the cure to diabetes, breast cancer, or HIV. We can do something great and change the world.

Let me take this chance to express our gratitude towards the heart of this school, the teachers. We’re grateful for the awesome teachers who really care about how we’re doing, both in and out of class. We admire the teachers that are passionate about their professions. We appreciate the teachers who make us want to pay attention to what they’re teaching and want to understand what’s going on. We value the teachers who come to school every day, knowing that they have to put up with certain pain-in-the-butts. We’re even thankful for the strict teachers who give us a lot of homework and push us to our limits. All of the teachers here have impacted our lives in an unimaginable way.

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? That’s the question that we’ve been asking ourselves since the sixth grade. I realize now that it was the journey that was important and not the destination. So, class of 2008, thank you for making this journey memorable. It saddens me to have to say that it’s time for us to go our separate ways. I wish you all the best in the years to come.

Speech 2:

Here we are at the end of the end. We’ve survived our years of middle school, and are soon moving on to things bigger and much scarier. As I look around me, I see all the different people and personalities and styles, and I can proudly say I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else but here, graduating with the Roosevelt Class of 2008.

I remember my first day of school like it was yesterday. Though I was one of those glad to be free of the “little kid” title, I saw people clinging to their mothers for dear life, sobbing “I don’t wanna go!” From sixth graders who ran to every class for fear of being late, we’ve come to be the loud-and-proud eighth graders we are today. It’s amazing to look back and see how much we’ve grown since that fateful first day.

Middle school, as I’ve learned, is full of its ups and downs as well as its sideways and diagonals. We raise money, only to find out that the school’s budget is getting cut (again). We spend hours on a project, only to earn a C+ on it. We finally gather the courage to ask that special someone out, only to learn that they’re taken. But the downs are a worthy price for the ups. We’re glad to pay for the assemblies and spirit days and illegal water fights. We fight obstacles and are rewarded with cherished memories, and I’m glad for the knowledge each has given me.

Though eighth grade is drawing to an end, we’re reminded that life isn’t. Without the experiences middle school has given me, I know I wouldn’t be able to cope with it. Everywhere I turn, I find someone who’s taught me something. Not only have I learned how to solve a quadratic equation and what Columbus was really looking for when he discovered America, but also how to deal with rejections and breakups and what to do when your closest friends are fighting over nothing. You never know what the future will bring, but armed with everything Roosevelt has given me, I’m not afraid to face it.

We leave Roosevelt with both despondent and eager hearts, sad to go, but ready to take on what’s next. We find ourselves thrust into an alien world of teachers, students, and endless hallways. People will change. Friends come and go. High school holds all the suffering, humiliation and shocking drama you can imagine. We’ll all go our separate ways, with the rest of our lives ahead of us. And as life dawns on us with the full force of one of Mr. Blassingham’s pop quizzes, we’re proud to know Roosevelt is a part of it.