the preliminaries...

I thought that I had done a post on here about how I have three kids in a speech and writing competition for work, but I can't seem to find it. Anyway, I had three kids in a speech and writing competition for work, Cynthia, Scott and Ricky. (I feel fine using their names as they aren't their legal names anyway, just their English ones) Well, actually four, but one was through HLS which my co-teacher really does most of the work.

For my other three who are in my treehouse class, it's all me. I help write the essays, I proof-read the essays, I help them with their presentation (2 nights a week after class) and I get to go and watch their competition. Two weeks ago we had the first round of preliminaries and all of them got through, I was so happy for them! Yesterday we had the area preliminaries. They all did so well, they had so much confidence (this is a 3 minute speech all spoken in English, having to have good pronunciation, intonation and fluency, eye contact and everything else that you need to have in a good speech) I was really happy with the way they performed and very proud that since they are actually only in grade 3 (yes, grade 3!!) They were able to get up in front of everyone and say a speech in a language that isn't their first language.

Scott won the competition. I was, not shocked because my kids were good, but I was surprised and very happy for him. So now I have to get him ready for the semifinals in January.

So shout out for Scott, Ricky and Cynthia for doing a great job yesterday and making me feel validated as a teacher (thanks guys!)

(I am under no illusions that it is my doing as to why they did so well...it is all their work, I just encourage and help with pronunciation really and make them practice twice a week)