A public speaking course at the Har-Etzion yeshiva
This is the 12th year that we have conducted a public speaking course for the students of the leadership program of the Herzog Academic College of Education from the foundation of the Har-Etzion yeshiva in Alon Shavuot. Since 2011, every year Guy Yariv conducts a theoretical and practical course for third-year college students where they learn to perform in front of an audience.
The program at Herzog College is based on similar courses we taught at Tel Aviv University, Ariel College, Ruppin Academic Center and more. The program also affected courses we taught at yeshiva and other prestigious Torah institutions such as the higher Yeshiva in Beit El, Lindenbaum College, Or-Torah institutions - Stone and more. As part of the course, every year we make sure to prepare the content for the study materials at the yeshiva - from preparing sermons according to the Torah of the week during the course to adjusting to the experiences of the yeshiva students.
Herzog College is a very unusual college in that it is the only teacher's college in Israel where most (in fact all) of its students are men. Also, this is a college affiliated with the Har Etzion yeshiva, one of the leading yeshiva of religious Zionism, therefore the teachers it trains come from the yeshiva's very high-quality pool - again, unlike most teacher colleges in Israel. The 'Zurim' program at the college is a leadership program for Yeshiva students with exceptional skills and potential.
As part of the course, we train the students in all the usual techniques of speaking in front of an audience, but with a twist that the emphasis here is more pedagogical, meaning that the students also have to think about how they will apply the tools they acquire in the classroom as teachers.
The college's courses are shorter than the school's regular courses for speaking in front of an audience, but are integrated into the rest of the yeshiva activities, so that the participants practice as part of the regular activity. The four lessons are dedicated to confidence in front of an audience, to developing arguments and argumentation (especially useful in Gemara studies), to dealing with questions and interruptions, and to advanced techniques for performing in front of a camera as well as feedback and self-study.