Zoe Armstrong - Teacher
"24 English speeches. 2 hosts. 6 acts. 4 hours. Some of the speeches had been copied, some of the students had obviously been told to do a particular topic by their teacher, and some of the participants were so downright nervous they were ready to pull out. It is this last category that brings me to one of my Grade 2 students, Eli.
Now I'm not supposed to have favourites but when I found out he was doing the speech I almost squealed with delight. He’s such a character, he is like a Chinese Martin Luther King Jr. Eli is a cool but nerdy looking kid who is incredibly tall and has a wicked sense of humour. His topic was "Take me to your heart" and he was so nervous he was on the verge of pulling out. Luckily he went ahead with it and he was absolutely amazing! His hands were moving, his eyes were roaming all over the crowd and his voice filled the whole place. He owned that stage! I was so proud of him that I wanted to give him hug. However Eli was not the only student that made me feel really proud that night.
There’s another student called Gin who I like to refer to as Lady Gaga due to his absolute obsession with the pop singer. Gin's speech was about English and the benefits of learning it at school. He was so natural that I swear he’s more comfortable speaking English than Chinese. He walked on to the stage and said in perfect English, "Hello guys! My name is Gin and I'm here to tell you about English." He then proceeded to walk around the stage, using his hands, his voice and his eyes before jumping off the stage and getting the audience to do things that he told them to. I wanted to hug him too, he impressed me so much.
I can't really describe these feelings but I suppose it would have to be something similar to seeing your brother, sister, son or daughter do something absolutely monumental (like graduating the top of their class, getting married or going to school for the first time). I wanted to cry, laugh, scream with delight and hug them all at the same time."