Sample Intro Speech for school events

Hi teachers, Just had a request for the great sample intro that Kate Donahue of Plymouth Reg HS shared last year. Copy the language if you like for your MC!

From Kate Donahue, Plymouth Regional High School POL Coordinator

Introductory Statements for Poetry Out Loud Competition, 2011

            Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Plymouth Regional High School’s 6^th Annual Poetry Out Loud High School Competition. The winner of tonight’s recitation contest will go up against other New Hampshire high school winners at (insert your semi final site here) on ^{(insert your semi final date here)} for the New Hampshire Semi-Finals Round. The 4 top scorers from there will compete in the state competition at The State House in Concord on Friday, March 15.

            Poetry Out Loud is a national recitation competition endorsed by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. High School students across the country are memorizing and reciting poems from a list of 400 choices. A winner from each state will travel to Washington, D. C. in April to compete for the national title.

            Tonight each recitation will be judged in 6 categories: physical presence, voice, dramatization, level of difficulty, evidence of understanding, and the overall performance.

            And now I would like to introduce our performance judges for this competition. They are:

           _______, a Pemi-Baker School Board member; _______, poet and PRHS English teacher;______, regional actor; __________, Plymouth Elementary School language arts teacher; __________, poet and PSU English professor, and _______, retired language arts teacher.

            The Accuracy Judge is _______. The Prompter is ___________. Our Scorers are ___________________. We thank them for their time and efforts in participating in this program.

            We would like to recognize and thank (list of English teachers and other teachers and helpers) for promoting this in their classes and for organizing this event.

            We also extend our thanks to PRHS Theatre for lighting and sound; NH State Council on the Arts; and The PRHS English Department for the refreshments.

            And now, to recognize the classroom winners, and to announce their competition order for Round 1:

(Read off names of students in alphabetical order)

            After a short break, Round 2 will be done in reverse order featuring the top 50% scorers from round 1. The highest and lowest scores for each performer in each round will be dropped. The winner and alternate will be announced at the conclusion of tonight’s competition and certificates for all participants will be given. Judges’ decisions are final.

            We will begin with 2 calibration rounds with volunteers ________ and _______ to recite their poems so that the judges may get used to the scoring of the recitations.

            Thank you all for coming and please enjoy the poetry performances.