Earlier this morning, Austin gave a short speech to all of the teachers in the Chittenango school district, to kick-off their ‘Professional Development Day’. And while Keith has reservations/concerns about using a select number of advanced students to over-inflate the confidence of teachers when they should instead be concentrating on the difficulties they have advancing the lives of children who do not arrive at their classrooms as ready to learn…it was an honor, nonetheless, for our boy to be selected to represent his entire school as a ‘presenter’.
A few weeks ago, the principal of Austin’s school had called to ask if it would be okay for Austin to participate in the event – one student was being selected from each elementary school (and the middle school) to present to the audience what they liked about their school and their own personal goals; the principal had selected Austin. This was a great honor and opportunity for Austin, so Christine granted our approval of Austin’s participation.
For the last week, Austin had practiced his ‘speech’ with Keith. Initially, he was talking very quickly, with a progressively softer voice and without clear pronunciation. After he received initial feedback and instruction, Keith would record a trial on his voice recorder and play it back to Austin, who would hear his own imperfections and try to make corrections on his own for the next recording. What you can see below is the culmination of his efforts.
As you can see/hear, he did a wonderful job and we are incredibly proud of him – not just today, but every day.