Connie Gibson has always been known as a great tremendous English couch, but as one of her speech students, I’ve had the opportunities to be with her and know that she is MUCH more than that to her students. She is an amazing person to start with, and has the incredible power to inspire people for what she does in a natural and reachable way.

Connie has a great heart and personality. With limited income, she is very generous to students and constantly helps them with tuition and clothes. More importantly, no matter how busy she is, she always spares her precious time to listen to students and provides help accordingly. She organizes after-school free classes all the year around. She devotes most of her time and energy and money to students and prays for them everyday ……

Connie is very knowledgeable and yet she never stops absorbing new ingredients. She makes the best of teaching materials and simplifies them in a logical way for students to understand and learn. She has thousands of books and movies that are shared with students. She studies many books and recommend good ones to students. She plays educational movies in the library every week and discusses them with students afterwards. She gives students new topics regularly and shows them how to spice up the essays. She speaks very clearly and explains things in great necessary detail. She trains students to think out of the box by completing various group projects that are well-organized and full of fun.

This is how I feel about Connie mum: she makes me smile and believe that we can always go beyond what we are. She teaches me always learn from the mistakes and be strong and confident with life. She shows me how to present myself professionally and develop myself spiritually. I respect her to the max, as all the other students.

If you can make the students feel the same about you, you are very successful.

Mum, I am not sure if this is what you asked for. Let me know.

Yours truly,

Tricy - 2006

Being in Connie’s speech class had turned out to be an eye-opening, and mind-opening experience for me. I didn’t only learn the skills in writing and delivering good English speeches, but how to think in English as creatively and critically as possible. Her speech classes as well as her living example as a teacher have always inspired me in my English study.

I find Connie’s way of teaching really helpful and interesting. Her personal charisma never fails to grab the students’ full attention, be it in her class, or her lecture.

She reads a lot in her spare time and shares with us the information that she thinks is helpful. Besides, she encourages us to read as much as possible, too, as she offers us a library of original English books that she brought back from the States.

She takes time to watch English movies with us whenever she has free time. And we will usually have a discussion with her about the movie afterwards, or even be asked to write down our thoughts and opinions. I enjoy this very much—because it’s totally helpful to train our ability of thinking in English, and at the same time, full of fun!

Connie also makes sure that our speech students will get enough chances to give English speeches to a different public audience every month, which helps us fight the horrible feeling dreaded by every public-speaker-in-training—the stage fright. We all found ourselves more and more comfortable speaking in public. And we know that we owe this to Connie’s speech class.

I have been teaching young English learners part-timely myself for almost four years. And I have found practicing what Connie does for her class really a benefit for my young students. I encourage my students to speak in front of the whole class as much as possible and give them assignments like writing a book report and a small paper after a movie. And I make the young kids to debate in English on given topics to train their ability of thinking in English critically. This practice has worked out really fine with the kids. Many of my young students have won provincial and even national English competitions. And they feel more comfortable and free to use English to communicate.

Connie’s speech class gives me this impression: learning English can be fun, and more effective!

Alisha - Lisha ai - 2006

Dear Mom,

I just can't wait to share my excitement with you. As you suggested, I texted a message to Vivian about the improvement of her speaking ability by the help of the story telling techniques, You know what? Her reply was so thrilling. She said "I'm more than willing to tell you that it really helps, A LOT! By telling stories I find my passion&energy which are badly needed in public speaking and it made me discover another side of myself!"

Though I'm at home, far away from the campus, I do have close contact with Vivian by mobile phone. And I have noticed her change recently, that she had become more optimistic and delightful. So I'm surprised at the trememdous effect the story-telling practice could have on a person.

Though I do not connect with the other girls as frequently as I do with Vivian, I do believe that they've improved as well in the same way. Congratulations to you, Mom, for successfully probing such an effective method to train the students to better themselves, which makes me have more confidence in them to attain a good result in the coming competition as well as in their future lives as public speakers.

And the best of all, I feel the utmost happy for you, my dear Mom.

Yours with great bliss,
Christina - 2006

Story-telling gathering turned Mom’s living room into a Broadway stage. The kids just knew a little English, so in order to draw their attentions, we scanned the children’s books and printed them out in separate big sheets in color, and Lotus even wore a cute plush rabbit headband.

With the lovely props, everyone performed with great passion. We used different voices for different characters, varied facial expressions, and exaggerated body languages. We didn’t have adult judges, so what we should do was just to amuse the kids. The more dramatic the storytelling was, the more kids were attracted.

It was fun to see sisters demonstrate diverse sides of them. For example, Vivian, the most mature and rational girl, surprised us by her cartoon voice; Catherine, a graceful girl, showed her naughtiness for a character in her story; Emma, a fast-speaking girl, manifested her ability to control the narrating rhythm.

I liked storytelling a lot, for it made me feel like an actress, playing various kinds of roles. In this way I could practice displaying different emotions on the stage. What was more, kids’ eyes and behaviors gave me instant response, which helped me adjust my speaking to find the best way to arouse their interests.

Every body likes hearing stories, but not every one wants to hear speeches. But how can we make our speeches as interesting as stories? Maybe we should all try storytelling.

Having been a university teacher for 20 years, I recently read Connie Mum’s book this summer. The book is not only for teachers who want to coach their students how to deliver public speeches but also for those students who are willing to improve these skills. While benefiting those who are interested in public speaking, it is of great value as well to those who are willing to improve their English.

More importantly, I was deeply touched by her love for her “adopted kids” and respect her for not only helping the students with their English, but also for encouraging them to be confident, passionate, excellent and realize their potential. How lucky her students are!

As a fellow teacher, I also try my best to help my students, especially when they going through difficult times. So I can totally understand why her students usually call her “Connie Mum”. While our parents give us life, a good teacher can give us spirit and instill a sense of love, passion, persistence, confidence, which are all so vital in our lives.

Connie Mum is the kind of teacher who can kindle sparks in her students’ souls. She teaches in a normal university and later after graduation, her students will go on to be teachers. I really believe that they, in turn, will pass on Connie Mum’s spirit to their future students.

Lei Xiaomin Ph.D
Secretary of the Party Committee
Vice Dean - Surrey International Institute
Dongbei University of Finance & Economics. - 2010

Lotus

   2010-10-22 – Letter from Past Speech Student, Lotus to New Speech Class –                                                                                (Wangshuoshuo),

 

Dear New Speech Class,

            First of all, please allow me to apologize for my absence today. If it were not for my recent injury, I would be more than happy to be there with all of you and get to know you. I told Mom that I would like to take a rain check, and will go visit in person when I get better.

            My name is Lotus, as some of you may know, and I am a senior student of Foreign Language College, majoring in English. Being a member of speech class is the best thing that ever happened to me during my college life. I would never imagine how different my life would be if I had never been in it. Have you read the book entitled, ‘Tuesday’s With Morrie?” I used to refer to speech class as ‘Friday’s with Connie.’ These five-hours every Friday spent with Mom is only too rich and too valuable to be defied as “class time.”  Now that I think of it, it’s full of laughter and tears, wisdom and knowledge, confidence and encouragement, nervousness and relaxation, friendship and occasional fight, and of course, great movies and free dinners (LOL, just jokingJ As for Mom, believe me, she’s going to be the most beautiful and intelligent human being you will ever meet. She is an educator, a musician, an artist, a creator, a gourmet and a cook. She is a beacon no matter where you are or what darkness you are in. Mom invited me to visit and share, due to my failure to be there myself, I can only use my own experience and stories to “share.”

           Many of you might have thought that speech class is all about giving speeches and strict training, but it is not. Improving your public speaking skills is, admittedly, important (I’ll get to this later), however, during my two years there I came to realize that being a member of this special family is actually on top of the list. Don’t limit yourself to your partners only, try to blend in with the whole family, I promise you will learn a lot from each other. We are brothers and sisters rather than competitors and opponents. I made some of my best friends in speech class I bet you will too.

            As for writing speeches, don't take it as an assignment, but a great chance to express yourself. Fortunately enough, Mom never uses boring speech topics, so you’ll always have fun improvising a speech that combines your thoughts, your emotion and your story. I myself have always enjoyed giving speeches that are not like everybody else, for surprising your audiences in your speech is by far the most interesting thing I’ve ever experienced. After all, “It’s no use doing things you like, you’ve got to like the things you are doing.”

            Impromptu speeches are not as scary as you thought, as long as you stay a rapid reader of books, magazines and newspapers, and have the confidence to pull it off. If it is possible, have some stories canned beforehand, so you will always have something to say when you meet a speech block on the spot.

            Last, I have a little tip for the girls. Since Mom will take you out to speak every month, it is better for you to have one or two nice dress or outfit prepared. High heals cause agony, but you definitely feel better in them.

            Be prepared for the amazing days to come. Never ever give up your dreams. Work hard, work with passion, work for yourself!

            That’s all for now. I hope we will meet in the near future.

Yours,

Lotus

P.S. Do practice five times a week, half-an-hour each time. Because you know what? Mom truly really does KNOW!!!

P.S.S. Take good care of Mom and make her proud!