Speech with Mark M.

My greatest passion is teaching. I love to help people learn and grow. My teaching style is always personalized to the learning style of my students, with a focus on helping them to experience lots of those epiphany/discovery moments (when the lightbulb goes on and knowledge becomes understanding) that deepen their own appetite to learn. Although I have a degree from M.I.T., I’m far from your typical M.I.T. grad. I’ve been a news anchor, a radio disc jockey, a missionary, a pastor, a corporate trainer, a consultant, an executive officer, and a business entrepreneur. I would love to share as many of my experiences as can help you in your particular subject of interest. Regarding Speech and Public Speaking, I've been a public speaker, teacher, and presenter to groups of three to three thousand for over twenty years, and have coached students from five to sixty-five in how to confidently connect with people in a broad range of contexts, from very private to frighteningly public. But my lessons are about much more than saying the right things in front of people. Life is about relationships and all relationships start (and sadly often fail) with communication. Being a great conversationalist, story teller, or compelling public speaker is all about connecting with your audience, whether with one or one thousand. My goal is to help you learn to confidently listen, express yourself, and connect at a heart level. In our times together you'll learn things like: • Organizing your thoughts in a way that resonates with your listeners • Actively engaging with people and not just transferring information • Turning fear and timidity into powerful tools for connecting • Cultivating approachability and confidence with your audience Regarding Math, some people are naturally good at math and some are like deer in the headlights. Studying Physics, Engineering, and Architecture at M.I.T. meant learning and doing *lots* of math. I find the greatest delight helping those who aren’t naturally good at math learn to appreciate and conquer it in the context of their regular, day to day lives. My greatest accomplishment in this respect has been teaching one of my daughters who hates math to embrace it as a wonderful, dependable, and mysterious, faith-building part of life. My approach is to make math real, that is, to connect math to life so that not just how to do it, but why doing it, is valuable and makes sense. Regarding Art, I began drawing in three dimensions at the age of two (it was a stuffed panda bear doll if you must know). I am a keenly visual person, and began winning awards in art in elementary school, and eventually went on to become student artist of the year in New York state while a sophomore in high school. That same year I had a show in a gallery in Manhattan. The following year I made my own short animated film and was hired by a private academy to do all their creative print marketing. My approach to teaching art is similar to my approach to teaching communication. Sometimes art is about telling a story. Often it can be about making a point (even if that point is just about beauty or dysfunction, or beauty in dysfunction). But whatever its purpose, art is *always* about seeing, with more than your eyes. The best forms of art capture and captivate all of who we are and how we perceive, whether we’re talking pencil sketches or making movies. While I teach lots of different styles, techniques, and media (including pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, pastels, watercolors, acrylic and oil painting, graphic design, and print forms, among others), this fundamental how you perceive approach to the creative process is what I strive to teach when I teach art. Regarding the Bible, I have been an exhaustive student and teacher of the Bible for 32 years and would welcome the opportunity to help you either learn it, teach it, or both (which is what often happens). Nothing that I have taught in my life is as important as the truths and life lessons I have learned and taught from its pages. It is scary and funny and crazy and tender (among many things) but most of all it is more than what most of us have heard (especially in church), and it will change us if we let it. Our studies would include language, history, culture, geography, and even science, combined with lots of thought provoking questions, and creative insight. We won’t shy away from the difficult topics that often cause doubt or division, but we will certainly avoid the canned, off-the-shelf answers that do more harm than good in helping people digest this book. This is not a safe class. If you already think you have a pretty good handle on the Bible, then this class is probably not for you. But if, like me, something about the profession and practice of Christianity around you seems terribly off, or missing, then this may be exactly what you’re looking for. Expect that much of what you thought or believed (but perhaps never really read or studied) will likely be challenged. This is not an academic study, but rather an upfront and personal interaction with The Truth.