Verbal Skills

I am not a horrible speaker, but I am definitely not a great one either. I often get nervous when I have to stand up in front of a class to speak or give a presentation. I tend to not get as nervous when I am not the only person in front of the class, but I still get nervous. I have never had very good verbal skills, but have slightly them improved over the years.
Last term I was doing a demonstration for my T’ai Chi class. For some reason I was extremely nervous for this presentation. I got to choose to either face the class or face the front of the room, when giving my presentation. I choose to be brave and face the class. After a couple of moves, I stopped and said that I actually don’t want to face the class. After turning around, I went though the T’ai Chi steps. I did many of the moves that I knew well incorrectly, and I added an extra one. After I was done with my presentation, the class was to tell me what I did well and what I should improve on. The professor could tell how nervous I was and half was through the people telling me what I did well, and what I should work on, he told me that I could sit down. This is a good example of just how nervous I can get when standing in front of a group of people.
I have given many good speeches through out my school days, as well as a few number of speeches where I was so nervous that I did a very poor job, even on well-reversed presentations. I have no idea why I sometimes get extremely nervous, and sometimes I hardly get nervous at all. I often get nervous when talking to a cute guy or a person that I am trying to make a good impression on. I have never had very good verbal skills, but I think that I am improving every day. I think that if I give speeches more often, I will become more comfortable with them. I hope that USEM 103 will help me become more comfortable with standing in front of classes to give speeches and presentations.