Learning is fun??

Well..Hello Again! I hope that everyone is doing fabulous and enjoyed their January! I know, I've had a crazy and exciting month but enjoyed every second of it!

This past month, I participated in my county's annual officer training day. Every year I have gone as an officer of my 4-H club to listen to the presenters and to absorb as much information as I could. But this year, something different happened. Instead of listening to the presenters, I became one of them. My county's educator asked myself and my fellow council members to help teach the group of officers from my county the officer positions and responsibilities, the Leadership Ladder, and talk about state 4-H events. Unfortunately, only one other council member was able to attend with me but thankfully our adviser was able to come also!

The day finally came and I was definitely a nervous wreck! I keep telling myself that I shouldn't be nervous and that it isn't that hard because I've done it a million times, but for some reason I still can't control my nervous! Even though I was presenting to a group members that I knew. I mean they are from MY county. I guess I should take into consideration that it was my first time ever teaching a workshop. I would say it started a little rocky in the beginning but after a couple slides **meaning like 10 or 20** we finally got the hang of it! And my nervous even died down a little. Halfway through the workshop, we played the Oreo game, where you put an Oreo on your forehead and by using only your facial muscles, get it in your mouth. Everyone loved that game! We then, showed the group of officers a video from National Conference, talked about statewide opportunities, and finished with a couple of team-building activities. All in all, everything ended up going great and I even heard from the some members of the group that we had the best workshop! Not only because they got cookies, but because they did learn a lot more about officer duties and opportunities that 4-H offers, that they didn't know before.

This experience taught me a lot. One being, you have to have confidence when speaking or else it may sound like your not sure about what your talking about. It won't be believable. No one wants to listen to someone that isn't sure of themselves. Another lesson, control the room! Do so by speaking loudly, clearly, and confidently. Oh, and don't look at the slides..

Truly,
Liz McAndrew
State 4-H Council Vice President of Operations and Events