In 2017, Brain Power Public Speaking students attended the Speakers Idol (provincial) finals at the Toronto Centre for the Arts … and one of them won second place! Congratulations to our public speaking student, Caroline Cui (pictured left), for placing second in the 2017 Speaker’s Idol (provincial) competition! Three other Brain Power students made it to the semi-finals: Alexandra Garber, Lev Raizman, and Alicia Kogan. We are proud of all the Brain Power students who participated!

On March 26th, our book club discussed some “deep thoughts” about John Steinbeck’s “The Pearl.” Steinbeck’s classic novella asks important questions about how we determine the value of anything, whether it be a pearl or a human life. It also sheds an unflattering light on the extent to which greed influences our thoughts and actions,even when we think that we are making our choices for the best and most moral of reasons.

On January 28th Brain Power’s Book club had a great time talking about Jules Verne’s adventure classic “Around the World in 80 Days” (1873). We made the classroom into a virtual world tour with stations representing Phileas Fogg’s stops on his amazing trip around the world in 80 days, and book club members travelled from station to station recreating his whole journey in one amazing afternoon at Brain Power! Click to enlarge images

On January 25th, Brain Power’s Public Speaking students attended a live taping of CBC Radio’s hit satirical news show: “This is That”!  After the taping, students got to meet and talk with the hilarious and insightful hosts, Pat Kelley and Peter Oldring! “This is That” is a satirical take on Canadian news programs straight from the source: the CBC itself! Every week its correspondents “report” on a variety of completely fabricated “current events,” shining some very funny light on our national...

On February 8th, Jay Heinrichs, New York Times bestselling author of “Thank You for Arguing” joined our Public Speaking class by teleconference to share his vast knowledge on the art of persuasion! Having spent 25 years in journalism and publishing, Jay Heinrichs is now a highly sought-after speaker on the subject of rhetoric and persuasion. He has spoken before major corporations, prestigious universities, and this is his second time speaking to us at Brain Power!

On January 18th, our Public Speaking class had the pleasure of hosting Dave Silverberg! Dave Silverberg is the founder and artistic director of Toronto Poetry Project. He has performed poetry across Canada, including at a TEDx Talk event in Toronto, Vancouver Poetry Slam, and Saskatoon’s top poetry slam, “Tonight It’s Poetry.” He writes for BBC, Washington Post, Vice Magazine, NOW Magazine and other publications. Dave also leads workshops across Ontario on how to perform spoken-word pieces. His Toronto Poetry Slam events have been running...