Five Coppell members of Texas Association of Future Educators (TAFE) competed at the state contest from Feb. 17-19 at Moody Gardens in Galveston. Juniors Nathalie Petit and Suzy Waly and freshman Eesha Jogdand qualified for The 2025 Educators Rising Nationals Conference from June 26-29 in Orlando, Fla.
Petit competed in Exploring Support Services, Interactive Bulletin Board, as well as a group event called Breakout Session- Growing Beyond the Classroom.
“I did the Interactive Bulletin Board which is a tri-fold that contains information to teach a lesson in a classroom setting,” Petit said. “For the group event, we created a way to teach other TAFE members who participated in the competition about different jobs and careers while using fun resources like playing bingo and Jenga.”
Junior Zachary Brooks also competed in the group event.
“I taught students jobs and careers that you wouldn’t normally think of, like an army recruiter or a person who works in religious services,” Brooks said. “I talked about how you can go into those paths and how you can use the information and skills they learned later on.”
TAFE prepares and inspires students interested in education through competition while elevating their skills in teaching.
Coppell TAFE members plan to utilize their teaching capabilities in their future career.
“I want to become a special education or a K through 5 teacher in the future and I definitely think that the teaching and training curriculum will really help with that,” Brooks said. “The people there are super nice and positive and I can’t think of one thing that I don’t like about being in the program.”
Petit is currently enrolled in a CTE instructional practices Practicum course, allowing her to shadow a second grade teacher at Town Center Elementary School Tuesday through Friday.
“The experience I got by observing a teacher in a classroom just made me love teaching even more,” Petit said. “I hope to teach elementary school kids someday so this opportunity will help strengthen my abilities.”
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