Oral presentations...

At long last, the day has arrived.  Today is the day of the athlete's Interest Fair.  It's the big to do project of the 5th grade.  He has been working on this for the past 2 months.  The entire thing consists of 3 parts...

An essay on the subject

A huge, three sided poster board project

And an oral report, explaining your topic

With much screaming, arguing, and nagging from me, the essay was completed and turned in on Monday morning.

This past week we have worked for hours finishing up the final touches on the poster board presentation.  We printed, we cut, we organized, we glued, and we labeled.  The final poster ("Rocked!"), in my unbiased opinion.

The scariest part for him:   the oral presentation.  He is judged on how well he knows the information presented, how loud and slowly he talks, and the kicker...

how clearly he speaks.  Here's his dilemma:

How clearly would you speak with all this junk in your mouth?

He practiced his report over and over in front of the coach and I last night.  He was stressed to the max and worried about not getting a good grade because of the way he speaks.  (It didn't help that I started giggling during one of his practice runs.  It was really poor judgement on my half, I was only trying to lighten the mood. It backfired terribly.)  The coach spent the next half hour building his confidence back up and I helped him with his notes.


He left this morning, confident as ever,  ready to tackle the day.  I am so proud of him.  I know he's gonna knock em' dead, mouth full of metal or not!