Students part of Westwood’s Texas Association of Future Educators club travelled to the College of Education at UT Austin over the break to compete in individual events that they had been preparing for since many weeks prior. Region competition was the first step for the competitors. In order for them to continue on to state, they had to win in their category. The competitors were also able to listen to multiple guest speakers and college students going through the Texas UTeach program.

Arriving at the school early in the morning, the members brought their competition pieces in hopes of beating their fellow Region 13 members. After entering the auditorium and receiving their call time, the students had to play a long game of waiting. The hosts provided a tour of the UT campus and education department for any of the members to take. All of the Westwood students had a call time in the afternoon, so as the day progressed, nerves began to rise.

“I was confident in the product that we were presenting because everyone else’s that we had seen in our event were all similar to each other,” Caitlin Dickey ‘17 said. “I really felt that ours stood out since it had such a diverse and vicarious situational approach.” However, many of the other contestants did not have the same mentality because many of them were still finishing their projects just moments before they were scheduled to present. Multiple groups practiced their project in the hallway in a mad rush before the real presentation.

The event had two different types of competitions. In the state contest, anyone who scored a 90 or above would move on to one more round. However, in the national competition, only the top 2-5 people would move on to the next round.

After all of the competitions were over, the competitors had to sit and wait for over an hour to find out if they were going to advance. Category by category, Westwood students waited for theirs to be announced.

“I was really nervous but it was fun to watch how excited people got when they found out they had won,” Sam Pearcy ‘18 said.

The club members were so thrilled because all the members of the Westwood club were announced to move on to state. Overall, the TAFE members from Westwood had a very successful first competition for this year. State competition will be held February 17-19 in Arlington. We wish them the best of luck!