Throughout my time as a graduate student at Virginia Tech, I have also had the pleasure of being a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) for the Communication Department. Each semester, I teach two sections of Public Speaking to roughly 80 undergraduate students total.

Throughout this course, students give four individual speeches and one group speech to help them prepare for speeches and situations that they might encounter post-graduation. While I am the sole instructor that they interact with in class (about 60% of their coursework), the remaining 40% of the course is completed online. This allows for smaller class sizes, and more speaking opportunities for the students.

Feedback from Previous Students:

“She critiqued us fairly and gave good feedback. She also always made sure to leave us positive feedback. This was helpful in letting me know what I am doing well, but also what I need to improve on.”

“Ms. Baumgardner showed a lot of passion for teaching public speaking and made it fun to do so. Her enthusiasm in class and in her office hours made it easy to approach and ask questions (with which you received a good answer). She made public speaking a class I look forward to attending and created an environment where writing and giving speeches didn’t make me nervous.”

“Professor Baumgardner was a fantastic public speaking instructor and always encouraged us to do our best while offering constructive feedback after each speech. She made an experience I had been absolutely dreading into one that I honestly enjoyed. Thanks Emma!”

“She was really nice and interacted a lot with us before, during, and after class which made the learning environment much more inviting.”

Sample Powerpoint

Attached is a sample powerpoint to better highlight what my students see when they come to class for lectures.