Thursday, May 21, 2009

Great Experience

Yesterday I was one of the judges at CMR's Senior Project. I'm very glad I elected to participate. It took two hours out of my day, but it was well worth it.

We each judged four students. Each of my presentations had four judges, although I don't know if this was the case with all of the programs. Coincidentally, all of my presentations had to do with music. I learned about the guitar, piano, dance and music composition.

During a short judge's orientation session, we were told that students were not to be wearing jeans or to use text messaging lingo or slang. I'm happy to report that none of the above occurred at my programs, although a few times we were referred to as "guys"; do you "guys" have any questions; thanks "guys". Yes, I did mark them down for that.

There were 15 criteria on our scorecard. Categories included presentation time management, subject (product) knowledge and the flow of information , visual aids, which were required (all used PowerPoint), how the student benefited from the project, what their community service entailed, appearance and articulation. They were also judged on how well they answered impromptu questions. Students could receive up to 60 points; Outstanding, 4 points, Good, 3 points, Average 2 points and Needs Improvement, 1 point. We were encouraged to leave comments, especially if the student needed improvement.

All of the students I judged indicated they had worked on their project all year. It had taught them perseverance, work ethic and for a couple of them, helped build up their self esteem. They all appreciated how rewarding community service can be. (A couple of them weren't too sure about that aspect of the project, but quickly changed their minds).

I'm looking forward to next year. More than 100 juniors have signed up so they will be looking for a lot of community help.

I graduated from CMR 30 years ago this month. This was the first time I had been back. It was a great homecoming!

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