The phone sat upstairs on the counter while senior co-president of Teaching Internship Madihah Ashroff-Khan helped her mom set the table for dinner. When she went upstairs to check her phone, she opened the conference app and saw the words she had been waiting for.
“It was like national qualifier for not one but two,” Ashroff-Khan said. “So I low key started tearing up.”
Teaching Internship students competed at the Texas Association of Future Educators Teach Tomorrow Summit and state conference from Feb. 26-28 in Dallas where five students qualified for nationals.
Ashroff-Khan qualified in Exploring Non-Core Teaching Careers and Lesson Planning & Delivery – STEM, sophomore Olivia Jackson qualified in Children’s Literature Pre-K, senior Chloe Grimes and junior Joanna Jiang qualified in Public Service Announcement and freshmen Lance Lassiter qualified in Public Speaking.
Students presented projects, delivered lessons and competed in speaking events against students across the state. The conference gave students the opportunity to compete in front of judges while also attending breakout sessions and meeting other future educators from across the state.
Junior Breanna Juarez competed in professional development alongside her partners Jaydan Gould and Clay Herring. They created a presentation board that explained leadership opportunities and programs that support students interested in becoming teachers.
“We had to lay our plans for the board and decorate it with the events that we would be choosing for leadership, and we had to make up a summary for that,” Juarez said.
Juarez said the state competition felt more structured than the area competition, which meant students had to pay close attention to the schedule throughout the day.
“Everybody has a certain time that they have to be at events,” Juarez said. “Some events only last for an hour, so you really have to check your schedule.”
Students used an app provided by the conference to track their event times and announcements. The schedule changed throughout the day as competitions finished and results began to appear.
Senior Carla Zagala competed in children’s literature Pre-K Spanish and Project Visualize Teacher Appreciation. She studied her children’s book carefully and practiced the presentation she planned to give to judges.
For the visual project, Zagala created a display board and memorized the speech she would present.
Even though there was strong competition, Zagala said the experience helped her grow more confident speaking in front of others.
“I’m really proud of myself, because I feel like TAFE overall made me really outspoken,” Zagala said. “I feel like it’s easier to talk to people now.”
Ashroff-Khan competed in multiple events, including STEM Lesson Planning & Delivery and Exploring Non Core Teaching Careers. Her STEM lesson involved teaching a science activity to the second grade classroom where she interns.
She said preparing the lesson required planning activities ahead of time and making sure students would understand the material.
Ashroff-Khan said competing at state carried even more pressure because only the top ten for each event qualify for nationals.
Ashroff-Khan said qualifying for nationals made the moment even more meaningful because it represented years of her work in the program.
“I want to end my senior year strong,” Ashroff-Khan said.
