Last year I helped Pamela as a chaperone when she took her students to GCU and then to Minneapolis for the State and National FEA Competitions/Conferences. This year I am doing it as the advisor. What a huge difference!
This conference has had a lot of challenges for our chapter but I am happy to say that we rose up to the challenges and proved that they were just opportunities.
The students have worked very hard on their respective competitions and I am excited to find out tomorrow if we have anyone qualified to go on to Nationals. Regardless I am proud of their hard work.
Weather has thrown up some road blocks. I was told last Monday that we would be given an extension on the Spotlight on Special Education Competition till Wednesday. School was cancelled on Monday and Tuesday due to mud. Then on Wednesday I took my wife to the hospital. I asked the Vice Principal to take care of it for me. She attempted to contact one of the participants only to find out that she was missing, no one, not her family or friends, knew where she was. Needless to say Wednesday became a man hunt.
Thank goodness we had this extension given to us, since it prompted the Vice Principal to investigate and ultimately find the young woman who thankfully is okay. We were given another extension, we had until the end of the day on Thursday.
Thursday became an all day competition ordeal. Since the prize was a scholarship I pulled two young women out of all their classes for the day. I spent the entire day helping the students, giving them advice, and reading up on competition guidelines. I spent quite a bit of time doing some running around to get quotes, updating my wife and getting her help with editing; it was very stressful but it was worth it. (Today I found out that they hadn't gotten the submission. I frantically resubmitted it. Hopefully it works out!)
On top of this I also found out that there was a problem with an invoice and PO not matching, our transportation department did not know anything about the trip, and the school district cancelled one of our meals for the students that we needed. Worse of all we found out that no one had actually made a reservation with the hotel yet! All of which I had to resolve in a very short amount of time. All of which required me to run around like a mad man. Somehow I managed to get it all done and teach my classes. Of course a lot of help and understanding from fellow employees and from the hotel was invaluable.
On Sunday it snowed in Pinon and school was cancelled for Monday. One student, unsure if we were still going would end up following us down. One student would be unable to leave because of the mud on the dirt roads. Another student was in the dorm but no one could get a hold of her. Everyone else came. Since we could not take the dirt roads our arrival was later than planned, we missed our lunch. The students and I were very hungry when we went down for dinner.
Today I looked over the competition schedules only to see that students were not on it! This was something that I was able to work out with the FEA Assistant Director. Both students were able to compete in their events!
There were a lot of fantastic presentations today. My students decided to spend the day working however. They helped one another, gave each other feedback, and asked questions. I am so proud of their commitment and teamwork.
Tomorrow will decide if we go to Arlington, Virginia or not. Here's hoping. No matter what I am very proud of their hard work and dedication.
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