Project topics

I survived my judge-ship. The hot topics for today, from 8:40 to 12:40 (straight through with breaks only when kids finished dishearteningly early):

• How to become a nutritionist
• How to become an architect
• Paintball [more than I ever wanted to know...]
• How to become a nurse [with the informative statement that nurses are allowed to dispense "immunizations, hepatitus B, and insulin" though hopefully not all at once!]
• Fitness and health
• Litter
• "Food" (more of the same info about how to eat better...too bad we'd already been served cookies: they are BAD FOOD)
• The Pittsburgh Steelers (or possibly "The NFL"--I'm not sure because, frankly, neither was he. This is why kids shouldn't miss several weeks of school during the school year..."I was on vacation so I didn't finish")
• How to become an architect
• How to become a meteorologist
• Skateboarding [just about what you'd expect unfortunately: incomplete work, a 3-minute mumbled speech, no visual presentation, all done while wearing pants that had to be hitched up every 41.7 seconds]
• Child abuse

My grades, in the same order:

• A+ (I found myself actually caring about the topic!)
• C
• B- (A for knowledge and enthusiasm, C- for research and fulfilling the assignment)
• B- (she was really nervous, but pretty enthusiastic and personable, but she also repeated herself three times to fill out her allotted time)
• B (I tried not to dock her for being a cheerleader...she did a decent job)
• C
• C+
• D (and, my dear, that's a gift--his parents should be brought in and forced to sit through this!)
• A
• C (points given for honesty when asked, "So, are you still interested in being a meteorologist?" because he answered, "I never wanted to be one; I had to pick something")
• F (couldn't be bothered all the way around--not even up to 3rd grade standards)
• C ("interesting" hardly covers the topic of Child Abuse, even if you use the word 17 times in 3 minutes)

So there's your bell curve in action.

I think I'll sign up to do this again. It was fun, in spite of my sarky commentary, and these kids are doing the best they can (except Mr. Skateboard) with the brains, time, and lives they've been given. How many of us would have been able to stand up and give an A-level presentation to three unknown adults at age 14?

Of the 12 kids, only one one had Attitude Issues (guess which one); all of them were nervous, and some were outright terrified. None, not one, of them was so freaked out that they looked ready to faint, throw up, or run from the room. That would have been my reaction to doing this. Only one girl asked if she could start over after "goofing up" two sentences into the speech.

I'm so grateful not to be a teacher and have to do this for a living! I don't mind listening to speeches like this once a year, but once a month or so every year? Yoicks.

One question: why is architecture so interesting to these kids??