Experience #1 Speaking and Listening - The FFA Creed
One of my more fond experiences with practicing speaking and listening was my freshman year of high school while competing as a part of a popular club FFA (Future Farmers of America). The main purpose of FFA is ironically not to build future farmers of America anymore, but more of a purpose of creating and strengthening young adults in their leadership, speaking and life success.
"FFA: Develops competent and assertive agricultural leadership"
Up until this point in life I don't think I had ever really needed to do anything that tested my confidence as much as the FFA creed did. The FFA creed was created in the beginning years of the organization as has since become one of the more competitive competitions for first-year FFA members to compete in. The FFA Creed expresses E.M. Tiffany’s strong belief in the industry of agriculture and the core values of citizenship and patriotism.The creed itself is five short verses of the beliefs of the FFA organization, to compete in this you must memorize all five verses and answer several questions about the creed, its use, and its background information. Basically it's just the first experience I ever had having to recite something in front of an audience and lets just say it was very stressful. Going into this competition I remember having my advisor have everyone in our class memorize the creed and compete on a school level to see who we would be pushing through to compete against other schools at a district wide level. This is something that not very many of us cared about so achieving my spot as a competitor for districts was a breeze. I ended up only making it through the first round at the state competition but this entire experience taught me a lot about giving speeches and carrying myself through discussion on the speech. Overall this experience taught me valuable skills that I do think that I could use in my classroom to teach my students how to give a productive and knowledgeable speech. Additionally I think that speech also helped me practice skills that made me better at thinking on the spot when answering questions and better at memorization, which would both be useful to be taught in a secondary education class.
*To see Why I only made it through the first round go to the bottom*
The FFA Creed. By: E.M. Tiffany
I believe in the future of agriculture, with a faith born not of words but of deeds – achievements won by the present and past generations of agriculturists; in the promise of better days through better ways, even as the better things we now enjoy have come to us from the struggles of former years.
"FFA: Develops competent and assertive agricultural leadership"
Up until this point in life I don't think I had ever really needed to do anything that tested my confidence as much as the FFA creed did. The FFA creed was created in the beginning years of the organization as has since become one of the more competitive competitions for first-year FFA members to compete in. The FFA Creed expresses E.M. Tiffany’s strong belief in the industry of agriculture and the core values of citizenship and patriotism.The creed itself is five short verses of the beliefs of the FFA organization, to compete in this you must memorize all five verses and answer several questions about the creed, its use, and its background information. Basically it's just the first experience I ever had having to recite something in front of an audience and lets just say it was very stressful. Going into this competition I remember having my advisor have everyone in our class memorize the creed and compete on a school level to see who we would be pushing through to compete against other schools at a district wide level. This is something that not very many of us cared about so achieving my spot as a competitor for districts was a breeze. I ended up only making it through the first round at the state competition but this entire experience taught me a lot about giving speeches and carrying myself through discussion on the speech. Overall this experience taught me valuable skills that I do think that I could use in my classroom to teach my students how to give a productive and knowledgeable speech. Additionally I think that speech also helped me practice skills that made me better at thinking on the spot when answering questions and better at memorization, which would both be useful to be taught in a secondary education class.
*To see Why I only made it through the first round go to the bottom*
The FFA Creed. By: E.M. Tiffany
I believe in the future of agriculture, with a faith born not of words but of deeds – achievements won by the present and past generations of agriculturists; in the promise of better days through better ways, even as the better things we now enjoy have come to us from the struggles of former years.
I believe that to live and work on a good farm, or to be engaged in other agricultural pursuits, is pleasant as well as challenging; for I know the joys and discomforts of agricultural life and hold an inborn fondness for those associations which, even in hours of discouragement, I cannot deny.
I believe in leadership from ourselves and respect from others. I believe in my own ability to work efficiently and think clearly, with such knowledge and skill as I can secure, and in the ability of progressive agriculturists to serve our own and the public interest in producing and marketing the product of our toil.
I believe in less dependence on begging and more power in bargaining; in the life abundant and enough honest wealth to help make it so–for others as well as myself; in less need for charity and more of it when needed; in being happy myself and playing square with those whose happiness depends upon me.
I believe that American agriculture can and will hold true to the best traditions of our national life and that I can exert an influence in my home and community which will stand solid for my part in that inspiring task.
_
The scoring that goes into reciting the FFA creed with based off of a few things, accuracy of words, body language/ voice tone, completing it in the time limit and quality of answers to questions. Given that this was the first year I really had ever done any competition for speeches or really ever given a speech, it made me really really nervous to recite it and I would pretty much blackout everytime I competed. regardless I survived sub-district competitions, district competitions, and then only one round of state competition, which was still really good. BUT the main reason I didn't go past this round is actually kinda funny looking back on and was something that I was known for, for the rest of my high school days. So here it is...
Here I was in front of a group of judges and some crowd members about to start my recitement of the creed I started it per usual and kinda fell into my blacked out state of mind went something like "The FFA creed by E.M Tiffany... I believe in the future of agriculture..etc" as I approached the fifth paragraph I started it " I believe in the..SHIT..shit I said shit.." So to say the least I had royally fucked up at this point in my speech I had not only cussed THREE TIMES in front of a room judges and professionals but I had also completed murdered the score on my speech and embarrassed myself. Now if anyone was wondering adding cuss words into the creed doesn't subtract any more points than adding a non-cuss word into it and I actually only lost in this round because I had lowered my score by adding extra words in not just from the cussing and after I said those additional words I still finished the rest of the paragraph and answered the questions required.. Lol But regardless the other Ag advisors all knew who I was and used me as a great example of what NOT to do..also it was on video and my advisor still uses it..HAH
The scoring that goes into reciting the FFA creed with based off of a few things, accuracy of words, body language/ voice tone, completing it in the time limit and quality of answers to questions. Given that this was the first year I really had ever done any competition for speeches or really ever given a speech, it made me really really nervous to recite it and I would pretty much blackout everytime I competed. regardless I survived sub-district competitions, district competitions, and then only one round of state competition, which was still really good. BUT the main reason I didn't go past this round is actually kinda funny looking back on and was something that I was known for, for the rest of my high school days. So here it is...
Here I was in front of a group of judges and some crowd members about to start my recitement of the creed I started it per usual and kinda fell into my blacked out state of mind went something like "The FFA creed by E.M Tiffany... I believe in the future of agriculture..etc" as I approached the fifth paragraph I started it " I believe in the..SHIT..shit I said shit.." So to say the least I had royally fucked up at this point in my speech I had not only cussed THREE TIMES in front of a room judges and professionals but I had also completed murdered the score on my speech and embarrassed myself. Now if anyone was wondering adding cuss words into the creed doesn't subtract any more points than adding a non-cuss word into it and I actually only lost in this round because I had lowered my score by adding extra words in not just from the cussing and after I said those additional words I still finished the rest of the paragraph and answered the questions required.. Lol But regardless the other Ag advisors all knew who I was and used me as a great example of what NOT to do..also it was on video and my advisor still uses it..HAH
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