The Power of Service and Innovation

The Midd-West FFA Parliamentary Procedure Team invited me to complete my service project in the classroom with them. Little did I know, was that I would learn more through the creation of my innovation project than the students I was teaching. It took me multiple tries to get the perfect mix of fun and knowledge in my innovation project, but I believe I accomplished just that when the six students joked with each other over who would be winning the grand prize in Jeopardy.

I created a Jeopardy game for the 13 Ranking Motions of Parliamentary Procedure. The activity began with a preview of materials that the students would be covering. I was shocked when right off the bat, they began asking questions to pick my brain about the 13 ranking motions they struggle with. Before they could have fun though, they needed to add in some extra work so they knew every answer to the Jeopardy. I utilized the charts that Dr. Foster provided for us, and handed out blank copies that they would fill out for future reference. After allowing them time to search through RONR for about 10 minutes, I reviewed the answers with them to make sure they had the correct answers moving forward. The students by that point were itching for a fun, competitive game of Jeopardy. As we moved from question to question, each student group of 2 built up their own stake of points until there was a defined winner of bragging rights until the next fun Midd-West FFA Parli Pro competition. The game was followed with review, where the students still had more questions to ask exploring the 13 ranking motions as deep as they could to understand them the best.

As I grew throughout the Midd-West FFA, we did not push the need for the 13 ranking motions for business meetings. I feel extremely confident in the power that these young members now have to correctly and efficiently run business meetings, and compete in the competition at a higher level. This experience really opened me up to the power of education in activity form, and I am thankful that they allowed me the time to work with them on the 13 ranking motions.