Thank you all for your encouraging words.
The tournament has past. As I said to one of the parents after she inquired as to whether or not we were ready, "This tournament is a bit like Christmas; it will come whether we are ready or not."
I will say one thing; I teach in the ultimate environment. Although the pre-planning was up to my partner coach and me, we received a mountain of help from our friends in the actual execution of the plan. Six of our colleagues stayed to help. Some of them stayed and helped for 6 whole hours. Now, that's support!
Every time I started to do something, someone would miraculously appear to ask,"What can I do?" I hardly had to finish anything. I would turn around, and someone would be well on the way to finishing what I had started. Because of all of the help, the tournament was a great success.
The tournament was also a family affair. Main Man helped judge, #1 filled the role of moderator, #2 acted as a time-keeper, and #3 held the door open for the lady who delivered the supper pizza. Everyone pitched in, and I am grateful to my clan for all of their help.
Our team did quite well. In both age categories participating in the tournament, one of our kids got the gold medal for top speaker. In the beginner category, one of our teams got second, and in the intermediate category , we placed second and third.
It still amazes me how brave these kids are. Most of our kids are in the fifth grade, and I think it's marvelous that they can stand in front of strangers and assert themselves in such an organized, poised manner.
It's debatable whether I could do the same.
7 comments:
Good for you, Library Mama. Sounds like everything went smoothly and now you can put your feet up and relax a bit.
Glad it was a success. Woohoo for you and those that helped and participated..
Booklogged - Thanks. You're right. Everything did go fairly smoothly. And I did relax a bit today. Back to routine tomorrow.
Happy - Thanks. Yeah. My colleagues were a big help, and the kids were amazing.
Hi LM,
I thought it was to be a quiet Saturday.
Tournament?
What tournament?
love
Susan - My group hosted a debate tournament Friday afternoon/evening. It seemed to be a huge event, although in the grand scheme of things, I suppose it wasn't that big.
And yes, Saturday was quiet. It needed to be quiet, after the week I had had! :-)
Karen - Hard to say. He does seem a little more forgiving since the event, though. (However, I'm a bit more sane since the event, too.)
This sounds like it went great! I think Brain would do very well at something like this. He DOES have to give a presentation in his Science class next week and is a bit nervous about that. I reminded him of all his "Book Report Lunches" and he said yes, but it has been a while.
During all our years of homeschooling, all our homeschooling friends and us would meet at a pizza place once a month. The kids would stand up and give reports, recite verses, do show and tell, just talk to us, whatever. We called it "Book Report Lunch". The goal being to get them comfortable speaking in front of a group. I am not sure why I am speaking in past tense! When Princess gets out of school, she, Clown and I rush over there and join our friends. Of course, Brain and Jock can't come until next year, when they are HSed again.
I am extremely impressed with grade 5 kids DEBATING!?!? I know Brain would really enjoy that, I wonder if they have something like that at his school.
Don't you love it when things just fall into place and people are in the right place, at the right time, helping you out?? LOVE IT! Glad you are feeling better!
Lowa - yes, everything went very well. Just goes to show - I remember hearing this quote from a speaker about stress - 95% of what we worry about never happens.
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