TAF Students Make Us Proud

I am proud of TAF students!

Recently, Cameron Sharpe, a TAF Academy student and Speech Team member, went to the quarter final rounds at the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions (NIETOC). He made the top 24 out of 62 competitors in his category of Oratory. He then went on to make a strong showing in Poetry. Everyone who gets to the NIETOC  ranked very high in their category in their state.  Cameron earned his spot at this tournament with hard work, passion and determination. What an awesome way to end the first year of competitive speech for TAF Academy.

Last week, I observed a TechStart School Day classroom. It was interesting to see the structure of the class; the teacher shows a PowerPoint of the day’s lesson, the students review what they learned last time and prepare to continue their projects. A laptop is assigned to each student. Games, cartoons with dialogue and other fun programs are designed with the software Scratch to display what has been learned. Nutrition is currently being studied.  One student showed me a game where the apple has to avoid being squashed by the…squash. Another student made a conversation between two foods to show the effects of vitamin D. I was also pleased to see a newcomer to the class receive a lot of help from other students on how to use the software and adapt to classroom norms. They were eager to help translate for him and assist him in explaining his project to me.

Our TAF Academy and TechStart students are enthusiastic about their education and about sharing knowledge. As they get older I hope their tenacity and the drive for excellence continue to grow. I know they will show the world what they have showed me, and we could not be prouder.