This is something, I admire about Ms. Smith in which she strives to create a connection of CDE's into our classroom instruction, and she does a great job of this. This is a quality I hope to take with me to my own program someday.
Ms. Smith was unable to attend this event, so I as well as a teachers-aid took our 5 students to the contest.
This was one of the most impactful events of my entire student teaching experience. At this event, I had the opportunity to lead our students and to encourage them, maybe when they needed it most. Ms. Smith and I had worked with our 5 students to help them select a topic for their speech as well as guide them in preparing and practicing their speech. I felt confident in our students when we left for the competition on that Thursday afternoon.
When I speak publicly, I am always nervous. I get nervous about little random things everyday, so I could only imagine the nerves that our students were feeling on the van ride to the contest. As we were driving I felt it was important to pump our students up and to make them feel confident in themselves by praising them and giving them positive reinforcements before they gave their speeches. We were ready to go! Our students were ready to go and to share their voice with others.
When we arrived at the contest, I guided our students to the proper room and we all signed in and were all ready to go. This is when the nerves really set in, when we just sit and anxiously wait for each contestant name to be called. I continuously told our student "You got this! You are ready! You WILL do great!" As each of our students went one at a time to give their speech, I felt like an anxious mother (how about older sister) waiting to hear good news. Anticipation gets the best of me, dang-it!
Finally, all of our students were done giving their speeches and it was time to get results. We had 3 students in senior prepared, and two students in conservative speaking. So I went with our students to hear the results and as they were standing up front, I could see the anticipation getting to them as well. Finally the results were given.
In senior prepared out of 6 total contestants, first place was earned by our student Lydia. Fourth and fifth place was earned by Jenna, and Bailey. I can not express the happiness I felt when I heard their names being called in that order. They did so well!!
In conservative speaking, Brooke earned first place and Shayna earned second place. Again, the proud teacher moment took over. So Lydia, Brooke, and Shayna are moving on to the next contest on April 5th.
I'm not sure who was more relieved when the speeches were over. Either myself or our students giving the speeches. I was anxious for them to find out how successful they truly are.
As we left the competition with our heads held high, I have to say how proud I am of our students in which they congratulated the other contestants in each of their categories as well as thanked the judges for their comments and feedback. (Again a trait of Ms. Smith's leadership that inspires me each day)
On our way back to school, we had family conversations. Family conversations are conversations we always have in the van or when we are all sitting at the dinner table together. It is just a time of reflection as our little family and a time to just be in the moment with each other (again credits to the wonderful ASmitty). This particular family conversation was really beneficial to me, because I was able to lead it and guide our students to really reflect on their experience and see the value of winning and losing.
This was a turning point for me, because reflection is often an item on my "to-do" list that sometimes gets missed. However as an instructor and a leader to our students I want to demonstrate to them the importance of reflection, refinement and changing the future.
I'm proud of our students. And at this point, I feel as though they are changing my life as much as I am hoping to be changing their lives. They make me love what I do each day. They make me find the confidence in myself. They make me strive to be a better leader for them. They make me better in everything I do. Mostly, they make me want to keep changing lives each day!
I feel truly blessed to be at Kennard-Dale with Abby Smith and to be learning from her, with the hope of being half the amazing agricultural teacher she is one day!
~Ms. Jenna Timmons
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