Two Coal City High School seniors take first at SkillsUSA competition

Coal City High School seniors Rachel Hall and Marianna Hren both took home first place in separate competitions at the state-level SkillsUSA competition that took place April 27-April 29.

Hall and Hren are students at the Grundy County Area Vocational Center, where they take courses that prepare them for their futures in early childhood education.

Instructor Deb Eungard believes they both have a bright future, and the judges agreed: Eungard said the judges felt both students could give the same presentation to the EdTPA and receive their certification had they gone through college first.

Hall said the competition was laid out like this: She was given a class of children aged preschool through kindergarten, and given a scenario to create a lesson plan.

“The scenario was I had 10 preschool kids,” Hall said. “One was an English learner who spoke minimal English, and three of them could write their names and say the whole alphabet.”

Hall then had to come up with a strategy to teach these students based off a bulletin board she made, which was about rain drops. She had to find a weather book for children to read.

“I picked out a book that I thought would work and read the book a couple of times to figure out what I’d do with it,” Hall said. “I ended up turning it around into a social emotional lesson about how everyone is different and it’s ok to be different, because all the animals make different sounds and noises and look different, but they’re also friends.”

This strategy earned Hall a first place medal, and Hren’s portfolio she created earned her a medal.

Hren said she didn’t go in with the expectation that she’d win, since her experience comes more with children around the age of third grade and not as young as the prompt required. Hren was to make a portfolio based off a video she made.

“The first video I made, I just didn’t like it,” Hren said. “I redid it and instead reviewed what a synonym was, and gave new vocabulary words. I made it into a little puzzle piece games and the kids got into groups of two to match the synonym to the vocab word.”

Hren said the portfolio had to touch on teaching and learning, professional development and career readiness.

She then presented her portfolio, along with the video and a slide show, to the judges.

“I learned a lot about myself because sometimes, I’m not as confident as I could be,” Hren said. “I had a better mindset when I went to the competition. I was more confident and it ended up going well.”

Hall said even with a lot of hard work, the competition still required quick thinking. Her original plan didn’t work out as she expected, but she was able to rework it and finish in first place.

SkillsUSA is a state and national membership organization that prepares students for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations.