the Woodman strikes again
Every year (6th through 8th grade) the youngster's school does this thing called "the Woodman". I blogged about it last year when he did it, and I'm doing it again.
The Woodman is an exercise in public speaking. The students are given a general subject and they pick something specific within that subject to speak about, for between three and a half and five minutes. They have to memorize the speech they do. Beyond being an exercise in public speaking, one or two from the school that do it very well move on, where it's a competition in public speaking, between schools. Last year he was told he would move on to the competition, but got edged out and was seriously bummed about it. Two years ago the subject was great moments in American History, and he did the moon landing. Last year it was American States and he did Florida. This year it was great American Presidents, and he did Dubya. (Just kidding, as JessieE either rolls on the floor or goes into shock. I do, however, believe history will be far kinder to Dubya than current public opinion would have us believe, but that's another story.)
It is great American Presidents this year, but his class integrated it into a few other requirements. They had to read a biography this year and do a research paper, so the biography had to be a great American President, and that was also the subject of the research paper. (I told him he could do it on Clinton, but the library didn't have that issue of Hustler....ba da bing.) He picked Franklin D. Roosevelt. I didn't object, but you can imagine, he wasn't exactly my choice. We went to the bookstore to get a biography, but everything on Roosevelt was about 3 or more inches thick, and he found a slim book on Thomas Jefferson...so the subject immediately changed. Out of the New Deal frying pan and into the flaming commie liberal fire. A few deep breaths and I was OK with it. I figured Declaration of Independence, Lewis and Clark, Louisiana Purchase, there ought to be plenty of speech-ifying material in that choice. (Before you get all impressed, yeah I knew the Declaration of Independence part, but the rest is only fresh in my mind because I'm up on my 8th grade Social Studies.)
The due date was originally the 7th, so over Christmas break, we made him write and start memorizing the speech. The deadline got moved to the 21st, so over the last couple of weeks, we've been working on it. By Sunday night, he had the thing down. He's not one for volunteering to go early, but I told him, "You know the thing. Why not go first and get it out of the way. That way you can relax while everyone else does theirs, and...the teacher grades easier on those that volunteer to go the first day. You could benefit from that too."
For once, he listened. He went first and nailed it. He got a very good grade and depending on how everyone else does this week, might be moving on to a competitive level. He's crossing his fingers.
Yeah, I'm pretty proud....and so is he.
The Woodman is an exercise in public speaking. The students are given a general subject and they pick something specific within that subject to speak about, for between three and a half and five minutes. They have to memorize the speech they do. Beyond being an exercise in public speaking, one or two from the school that do it very well move on, where it's a competition in public speaking, between schools. Last year he was told he would move on to the competition, but got edged out and was seriously bummed about it. Two years ago the subject was great moments in American History, and he did the moon landing. Last year it was American States and he did Florida. This year it was great American Presidents, and he did Dubya. (Just kidding, as JessieE either rolls on the floor or goes into shock. I do, however, believe history will be far kinder to Dubya than current public opinion would have us believe, but that's another story.)
It is great American Presidents this year, but his class integrated it into a few other requirements. They had to read a biography this year and do a research paper, so the biography had to be a great American President, and that was also the subject of the research paper. (I told him he could do it on Clinton, but the library didn't have that issue of Hustler....ba da bing.) He picked Franklin D. Roosevelt. I didn't object, but you can imagine, he wasn't exactly my choice. We went to the bookstore to get a biography, but everything on Roosevelt was about 3 or more inches thick, and he found a slim book on Thomas Jefferson...so the subject immediately changed. Out of the New Deal frying pan and into the flaming commie liberal fire. A few deep breaths and I was OK with it. I figured Declaration of Independence, Lewis and Clark, Louisiana Purchase, there ought to be plenty of speech-ifying material in that choice. (Before you get all impressed, yeah I knew the Declaration of Independence part, but the rest is only fresh in my mind because I'm up on my 8th grade Social Studies.)
The due date was originally the 7th, so over Christmas break, we made him write and start memorizing the speech. The deadline got moved to the 21st, so over the last couple of weeks, we've been working on it. By Sunday night, he had the thing down. He's not one for volunteering to go early, but I told him, "You know the thing. Why not go first and get it out of the way. That way you can relax while everyone else does theirs, and...the teacher grades easier on those that volunteer to go the first day. You could benefit from that too."
For once, he listened. He went first and nailed it. He got a very good grade and depending on how everyone else does this week, might be moving on to a competitive level. He's crossing his fingers.
Yeah, I'm pretty proud....and so is he.
Labels: Family Stuff, Politics
John put this out here at 11:32 AM
1 Comments:
I rolled on the floor AND went into shock, and after I swallowed my tongue, I spit on my keyboard from laughing at the Clinton/Hustler comment. You are clearly in rare form this week. What a delight!
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