Area Speaking Competition
Coming off of a crazy week last week of teaching, managing a strawberry sale, and spending the better part of the week at Penn State, this week we truly hit the ground running!
When it was finally time for the actual competition, there was a lot of nuances that I didn't account for. From greeting the judges and debriefing them at the start of the day, to figuring out how and when to move students from the main room to the breakout room, there was certainly a learning curve to handling this competition. Having it all be virtual, too, meant there was even more of a learning curve, but both of my CTs were in the room, so if there really was an issue they were there to help me out.
The biggest task to tackle this week was the area speaking competition on Wednesday. My CTs are in charge of running the junior prepared competition, so I got the opportunity to also be that person in running the competition. Leading up to this Wednesday, I was working on emailing judges, setting up links for the competition, creating a score sheet, scheduling speakers, and making sure I had a plan for competition day. There was a lot of moving and working parts to this which could be overwhelming at times, but it was a great experience is understanding what its like to run a CDE/LDE.
Even though there was some issues with technology and trying to manage all of our students who were competing on top of managing the competition, the day went relatively smoothly. A few times one of us had to rush out and get one of our students situated before they competed, or just check in to see how they were doing, but the day went by quickly with only a few hiccups. Having three of us there was truly a blessing, and more times than once we said how glad we were that we had the numbers we did. Overall, this experience taught me a lot about running and coordinating a CDE/LDE and I thought it was a great way to give me another experience which I know will directly transfer to my career in Ag Ed.
Besides having success with running the competition, our students at Big Spring also did fantastic! From the prepared speeches that I helped to coach, we have four moving on to regionals for junior prepared (three in the top three, one alternate), three moving on to regionals for senior prepared (two in the top three, one alternate) and one moving on to regionals for conversation (she was in the top three). In addition, some of our other Big Spring students placed and qualified for regionals other speaking events, all of which I am so proud. It feels very surreal, too, for this to be my first FFA competition as an advisor. It feels like just yesterday I was on the other end and I was the one stressing and preparing for the prepared public speaking competition and now I'm the one coaching and helping students. This part of the experience really has me excited for what's to come when I eventually have my own chapter and students to work with.
You did a great job, and it paid off! I think running an in person event is much easier than a virtual event.
ReplyDeleteMaddie,
ReplyDeleteGreat job and it sounds like it was a great experience for you and your students! Keep up the great work and I am sure this week will be no less exciting!
-Dr. Ewing
Hi Maddie - I agree, it is tough to manage running a contest as well as all of your students who are competing in contest. In the future, do you think we could call on community members and tap into industry experts to run CDE and LDE contests? It would certainly take some pressure off ag teachers and give students an opportunity to interact with those in the agricultural community.
ReplyDeleteMaddie,
ReplyDeleteElise and I also had the chance to run an LDE! It was challenging finding judges (shout-out to Thomas, Justin, and Jenna from the '22 cohort) and getting them on the same page. On top of that, you have students that can't go at specific times because of other extracurricular activities and you have to schedule everyone based on when they are available. I also had to make sure that our students were in the competition at the right time too. Some of the competitors went during the day when I was teaching which was another challenge to tackle! It was fun and challenging, but like you, I am very thankful for the experience!