Practicing Public Speaking from Home

With the spread of COVID-19 and the cancellation of in-person meetings, some Toastmasters have been wanting to keep up their skills while on break from regular meetings. There are a variety of ways to continue practicing your public speaking skills at home. Here are five ways to keep your public speaking skills strong during the break.
1. Join an online Toastmasters club
There are several hybrid clubs and online clubs that you can attend while your traditional club is on break. Additionally, your home club could consider moving online during this pandemic.
To look up online Toastmasters clubs, follow this link:  https://www.toastmasters.org/Resources/Online-Clubs-List
2. Start a podcast
One of the projects for Pathways is to start a podcast. This would be a great time to look into how to complete that project. What topic would you want your podcast themed around? How long would you want your podcast to run? The possibilities are endless!
You can see the official Toastmasters podcasts to get some ideas here: https://www.toastmasters.org/resources/news-and-announcements/podcasts
3. Start a blog
While on this break, you could start a blog or a vlog, which is a video based blog. The Toastmasters blog project requires 8 posts within a month. With the break from in person meetings, this is a great time to get started on your blog so you have time to reflect on what you learned.
You can find information on how to create the blog on Pathways.
4. Record Live on Social Media speeches
If you are still on the Legacy program, you can work on the Interpretative Reading manual by reading your selected pieces live on social media, such as Facebook. For the Pathways program, level four has an elective of creating a social media presence.
You can find information on how to use live to continue giving speeches in Pathways or on the traditional program.
5. Write speeches to give to your club later
While on break, you can use this time to read through different projects and brainstorm speeches that would fulfill them. This is a great time to explore the Pathways platform and plan out which speeches you would like to give to complete them.