All in the Family: Gearing Up for the New Year
By Jana Riggins | Friday, August 27, 2010 1:18 PM
Even in the triple digit dog days of summer that linger over Austin, I feel a sense of excitement about school bells ringing again! There’s nothing like the opening week of school when colleagues renew relationships with other faculty members, students arrive to newly-painted walls, waxed floors and colorful bulletin boards alive with news of what is to come. Everyone feels the synergy!
It is especially exciting to me this year because my son Matthew takes the reigns of his very own classroom. Helping him move in and set up his room took me back down memory lane of when my husband Johnny and I started our teaching careers. Ironically, Matt will begin his career just a few miles from where his dad did, oh so many years ago. With a personality that parallels that of his father, somehow I know he will touch as many lives in an undeniable way just as Dad did. And that makes me proud. What a noble profession teaching is! Who changes the world more?
He’s not the only Riggins joining the teaching ranks. His brother Josh begins his student teaching at Anderson High School in Austin this fall, along with coaching athletics. The first day of summer strength camp when he bounced into my office to say, “They called me “Coach, Mom!”, I fought back tears as I asked, “How did that feel?” and his voice enthusiastically resounded, “G-R-E-A-T!”
Did I hear Johnny’s soft and proud chuckle from heaven? Another Coach Riggins.
Josh’s wife, Megan, is the new dance director and Language Arts teacher at Running Brush Middle School in Leander ISD. Yep, we’re a family of educators, except for the oldest and youngest Riggins siblings, both of whom we have commissioned to pay off everyone else’s student loans with their promising salaries.
I hope you find reason for it to be a special year of teaching for you, too. There are always students needing the love and encouragement of a teacher. Always debaters wanting to research after school. Always talented performers waiting to be critiqued during your lunch period. Always extempers asking to come in before school and file the latest news articles. And thank goodness, there are always UIL speech coaches willing to give and give and give!
New prose and poetry categories are released for 2010-2011. Designed to engage students in oral interpretation contests, there is lots of excitement about the two categories requiring contestants to read literature written by authors born in or after 1960. (Category A of both prose and poetry) Contemporary works dealing with contemporary issues should make recruiting students a snap.
UIL continues to challenge experienced performers by allowing woven literature in Category B of prose and poetry, although not mandating woven programs.
Perhaps most contrasting and intriguing of all the categories is Category B of prose, entitled “In the News”. This category asks the contestant to chose literature related to a significant news story and to use the introduction to establish the link between them.
Introductions have regained importance in oral interpretation. Not only do they have a traditional purpose of establishing title, author, and mood, as well as indentifying if the performance is a woven one, but the descriptor for Poetry – Category B states the contestant should use the introduction to identify the theme of the poetry program required. In accordance, Prose – Category B stipulates the introduction should explain how the selection or selections being read are linked to a newsworthy event
Every coach will need to order the latest edition of the UIL Prose and Poetry Handbook for an expanded explanation of each category and the documentation required. To aid your students in securing appropriate documentation, I have prepared a checklist for both prose and poetry. Be sure each competitor has a copy, which can be downloaded from the speech page online.
We have also designed workshops on all the new categories and documentation requirements. Since weaving is allowed in one of the prose categories for the first time, we’ve customized an instructional session on how to weave prose. You and your students will benefit by attending these free workshops that will be presented in four regions of the state as we continue to host Student Activity Conferences. We’ll be in El Paso, Tyler, Austin and Corpus. No registration or fees are required so get your students on the bus and meet us at a conference near you. See the website for dates and details.
The UIL Fall Lincoln-Douglas Debate topic was released Aug. 15. Resolved: U.S. foreign policy ought to be guided by American exceptionalism. Watch for an upcoming Leaguer article on this interesting fall topic.
Also new this year is the UIL website and URL address. As of Sept. 1, our website has permanently moved to a new address at www.uiltexas.org. Bookmark the speech page and let us know how you like the new look. We hope the design change promotes more user-friendly pages and easy-to-locate links.
Don’t forget that if you are a new speech coach, be sure to send me an email. I have designed a new coach book that will guide you through your first year of UIL.
We ask that all coaches complete the UIL Speech Coach Information Form found on the speech page of the UIL website so that your name and email will be included in our coaching database. Correct, updated contact information will ensure you will receive all of our announcements, deadline reminders and other newsworthy information.
The bell is ringing and it’s time for class – and UIL competition, too! See you at a Student Activities Conference or tournament soon! Have an amazing year and never forget: you change the world!