[etni] Fw: presentations

----- Original Message ----- From: cindy komet - cindy@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: presentations

Every once in a while we get reinforcement that we are on the right road. That happened to me a few days ago. I was having breakfast with a friend of mine and she was telling me about her daughter, who is studying in New York.
The daughter said that although the workload was immense (lots of reading and writing) the presentations she is expected to perform were the most demanding. The reason is that she had never practiced that in school and didn't have the basic tools of presentation.
It's good to know that we English teachers do teach these skills and do demand that our pupils learn them. When I start teaching a class in the 10th grade, there is always a lot of apprehension before the first presentations (all of our book reports are presented orally). Over the years I've received reprimands about my unrealistic demands and explanations about how this task is too difficult for shy pupils to overcome. However, I stick to my guns and by the end of the year, the kids are very capable and confident. In fact, in reflections, many comment that this was the most valuable skill they'd received.
Stories like this remind me of how important the work we do as teachers is.

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