Today I had the privilege to speak to two groups of students at Adrianne Clarkson Elementary School. My topic was giving them 10 ways to become a Champion in life. These 10 lessons were what I’ve learned in my last 15 years of Taekwon-Do. All the lessons can be applied in any area of your life. I think it’s really important that these lessons are taught to very young children before a lot of bad habits or inhibitions are formed from peer pressure as they get older
The first group was two grade 3 classes. One of the teachers was my previous grade 5 teacher, Mme. Morel at another school. There were about 40 kids in that group of students. I’ve never talked to a group of students this young before so I had to completely revamp my presentation, use different stories, examples and different pictures on my slide presentation. I think it went very well and they understood the messages that I was trying to get across.
Where there was a questions and answer period they all couldn’t wait to tell me how they have already applied a few of the lessons by giving me examples. It was so cute how open and eager they were.
I was so touched when they thanked me and a few girls presented me with a bracelet they had made me. It was awesome that if was in my favorite “hot pink” colour.
The second group was to four grade 4/5 classes. There was about another 90 kids or so. Once again one of the teachers was my previous grade 7 teacher in Middle school. It felt strange being the one in front of the class instead of them 🙂
I basically did the same presentation but went into a little bit more detail and gave examples that would be more appropriate for their age group.
I have to admit I was completely blown away with all their very thoughtful questions at the end. We went way over our time frame but they just kept asking questions and the other teachers let them keep talking. All the questions were very specific about the 10 lessons and they also wanted to know more about my training and my future goals.
All the students in both groups were extremely respectful to me as well as to each other during the presentations. Thank you so much for inviting me into your school. I am so pleased that I am going to be going to university in Ottawa next year so I can continue to do these presentations. It’s such a rewarding way to give back to the community after they have supported me in so many ways.
Thank You!