Day 340: Speeches

Lots of contests going on at work this week. In addition to yesterday's due date for the Returnee kids' Writing Contest, today was the in-class speech competitions for the Gifted & Talented kids (our fancy name for the non-returnee kids.) Every kid has to write an original story and then deliver it in a speech to his/her class. A winner is chosen from each class and then they compete against all the other class winners in the school library (in front of the whole school too!) later on in the week. It was really cool!

I love the power and authority that comes with being a teacher. You mean *I* and I alone get to choose the winner from my class to compete? Cool! (Sometimes I feel like I'm not old enough for this responsibility yet! haha!) I really enjoyed listening to all my kids' stories and hearing the ideas they came up with. I was especially impressed with the creativity that each kid had. No two stories were alike, and many of them had a lesson or moral to learn. Considering that English is the second language of these kids, I think it's pretty darn cool that they can write stories of their own and then read them aloud to their classmates.

Being the judge for my two GT classes and listening to all those speeches brought back many memories of my own speech-giving days. I've always done fairly well with public speaking all my life, I must say. In elementary school I won Second Place in the school in Grade 5 and Third Place in Grade 6. In Grade 8 not only did I read the morning school announcements on the school's PA system (along with Craig and Lisa) but I also co-MC'ed the school's annual talent show that year too. All through high school I always did really well on class presentations. When I got to university I volunteered as an Orientation Ambassador for all the new students and also worked as a university-paid Tour Guide. Later on I became employed with the OA Program and had to speak in front of lecture halls of over 400 students. I also always chose to do an oral presentation instead of an essay in my classes, whenever I was given the chance. And all this with a speech impediment that I've had since birth. I feel pretty proud of what I've been able to accomplish over the years.

Anyways, enough about me, back to my students. I had a hard time choosing my two class winners but in the end I chose Diane from my Level 2 class and Julia from Level 1. They compete on Thursday and I wish them the best of luck. Go kick some ass, girls! :-)