High School Seniors Present Their Best

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from the local high school. Students from the elementary school where I teach now will attend that high school one day. The email was an invitation, extended to various professionals from the community, to be among the judges of the Seniors' Graduation Project. I had accepted the invitation.

Since this is my first year in the school zone, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to get involved, to gain some inside knowledge and experience, to meet the teachers, to walk in the halls and sit in the classrooms. I'd have stories to tell my students about their future high school. Very important when you are a fifth grader on your way to sixth grade... changing schools and growing up is very painfully on their minds.

I am so glad I did. I had no idea what I'd be doing. I didn't know anyone who had volunteered to be a judge in this capacity. But it sounded like a little adventure to me, one in which I would have contact with senior high school students.

The people who organized and directed the event are top notch individuals, and I don't even know them except by the names I saw on the email.

It began at 4:30 pm. First, they explained what our responsibilities as judges would be, and gave us the background of the Senior Projects, its history, you might say. Not every school in our county is doing this, but I think we were told that next year every school would be expecting seniors to present a product/portfolio to represent their best work, to show off some talent or area of interest. They had to write a paper, design a project poster board (like the science project boards, only bigger) to display the process, speak for ten minutes, and present the product. The product could be anything. There were 100 Senior Projects.

This evening, I saw the five of them: a power point presentation and video of one student's car customization project; a young lady's interest in firefighting expressed with photos of her learning at the firehouse, and getting involved in some of the training; a young man's love for table tennis led him to write about the history of table tennis and to build a regulation ping-pong table, which he had brought to school to show us. It was sturdily built... I'm sure it will last him until his grandchildren want to teach their children how to play ping-pong. Another student talked about his interest in carpentry, and showed the break-away bookcase he made, his first ever carpentry experience. A young lady, who is going to pursue a career in cosmetology, researched skin care, and talked about various topics related, like make-up, nutrition, sun exposure.

I was impressed by their effort to impress us. They'd been given guidelines about how to present, how to dress, how to speak. I know they were all so nervous. Some were better prepared than others. But each and every one of them was stepping out on a limb, standing in front of five adult community professionals, four of us were strangers to them, two of us were teachers. But each student stepped up, individually, and had our attention for at least ten minutes.

They had to tell something about themselves, their families, how they chose their project, their obstacles and successes in completing it. They also had to talk about how they went about finding a mentor and advisor to assist them in professional or vocational areas, and what they learned from the experience/process.

We, the judges, were each given five grid sheets, one per student, with rubrics in all the areas to be judged. Students could be given anywhere from 1 point to 4 points for each criteria being judged. Our score sheets would be placed in a brown envelope for that student, and he/she will receive it tomorrow. Best of all, we had a comment sheet to give to each student. So each student would get five score sheets, and five comment sheets from their judging.

I made the best of this opportunity. Think about it: these are high school students. They had to stand before us and make a ten minute presentation. They had to dress professionally, talk about themselves, and talk about their area of interest. We just had to listen and watch, and give them feedback. Their project grade would be based on their presentation, and our judging responses.

When would I ever get to tell a high school student what I saw as their strengths, and point out some nuance of their personality or behavior that would carry them forward? When will a teenager be expecting me to judge something they made? When will something I write on paper mean so much to them as those few sentences I wrote in response to their project this evening?

I made every word count. Five students are going to feel good about their work tomorrow when they get their brown envelopes. I'm not the only one who felt that way... from what I heard after it was over, the other judges were equally committed to leading and guiding our youth through successful experiences.

So now I'm thinking I could do this every semester. And if I keep this up, in another eight years, I could be judging the senior project of one of my own fifth grade students. Now wouldn't that be a rewarding experience?

Final note: Day three of the Toe Story. I only felt discomfort during the Seniors Project presentation, probably from all the sitting. After I got home, I soaked it again, and put a new dressing and bandage on it... now I'm feeling good again, and ready to go to bed. Notice the bandage is getting smaller. I hardly limped all day... still wearing open-toe sandals. No one stepped on my toe... I still can't believe how almost painless it is.

The worst part is when I'm soaking it and the dressing sticks to the raw skin. That hurts a little, but doesn't last longer than ten minutes. I solved the problem though. Tonight I used non-stick gauze. I'll find out tomorrow night if it really works.