New Year, New Debates!

Hi everyone, Happy New Years!

I hope everyone had a nice break and is ready to jump right back into things when we get back, cause we sure have a lot going on.

1) Bake Sale Jan 4th!  On the day of our first meeting of the New Year we will be having a bakesale.  If you could bring something in - home made or store bought - on that day it would be groovy.  The money we make will be used to pay our CDA dues for the rest of the year.

2) The Rotary Speech Contest will also be taking place on Jan 4th.  If you signed up to do the contest, it will take place during lunch (period 6) in the library.  You will be excused from your period 6 class.

Remember, the purpose of the speech is to choose a topic or issue that is important to you and analyze whether or not it is ethical by using these four questions:

Is it the truth?

Is it fair to all concerned?

Will it build goodwill and better friendships?

Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

If you'd like, you can take a look at a judge's scoring sheet and some other explanations here.

Here's an example of a speech on youtube. Notice how he uses the questions to guide him through his rhetoric, rather than forcing the questions onto a predestined framework.  Flow with the questions, you don't have to restrict yourself to a cutout of each question one at a time.  If you're still confused, feel free to send me an email or shoot me a facebook message, or explore youtube.  There are a bunch of speeches up there.

3) CDA Jan 7th.  So far I have 3 teams signed up. Same as usual.  This one will be at King or Fairfield Warde, whichever is closer.  The deadline for signing up is Monday Jan 2nd.

4) The Harvard Invitational is happening Feb 18-20.  The website for that is here.  We will be competing in the Public Forum section of the tournament because that is closest to what we are used to.  The registration deadline for that tournament is Jan 28, but it always fills up early.  If you are interested, talk to me or Ryan and we will work out the details.

Thanks for reading all of that!  Lets get ready for a whole new year of debate.

Mark and Ryan

Debate Results from November 11th

The whole team at New Canaan.

On Saturday November 12th the Staples Debate had another great day at New Canaan High School.  We brought 5 Novice teams to the tournament.  Max Wimer '15 and Will Vester '15 went 3-0 at their very first tournament.  Kelly Chang '13 and Neloise Egipto '13 went 2-1.  The topic was Resolved: That the US pass legislation substantively similar to the DREAM Act.  The DREAM Act is an expedited path to citizenship through the military or college for illegal immigrants who were brought to the US as minors.

3-0 Team Max Wimer and Will Vester qualified
for the Novice Division of the State Championships
In March

Doing Work! Over typical debate fare of
Chips and Soda.

"It was fun!" - Neloise Egipto '13

Getting Ready for Saturday

Hello everyone!

 

I hope everyone is excited for our debate on Saturday! I just got an email from the head of CDA saying that this is going to be one of the largest tournaments yet. All of the other schools are getting into gear and I am very happy with the amount of teams we have signed up from Staples. Just a couple of small housekeeping things to make sure everyone is on the same page.

We will be debating at New Canaan High School at 11 Farm Road in New Canaan. Dress Code is semi formal. For boys that means khaki pants, button down shirt, and optional jacket, no jeans. For girls that means nice pants or a nice skirt. Everyone who is debating, please arrive before 9 oclock. This includes parent judges. While we are researching the topic at the tournament the judges have a seperate judges workshop. If you haven't already, please send the email of your parent judge to Ms Mac (through roundcube) and she would be happy to answer any questions about what it is like to be a judge.

Next, there are a couple things that everyone should bring:

1)Notepaper. I find big old fashioned legal pads work best for flowing, but regular notebooks do the trick too.

2)Pens/Pencils - in the plural!

3) Highlighters - One for Pro and one for Con is pretty common

4) $5 for pizza and a soda or a bagged lunch. You buy food tickets in the morning that you redeem during lunch.

Assuming that everything runs smoothly, the third round of debate ends at 3:30. While the spectator round after that is optional, I do encourage everyone to attend because there is alot to be learned by watching the best of the tournament do their thing. After the varsity debate they hand out awards and distribute the results. That ends at about 5:30.

 

Good luck!

First Practice Debates Tomorrow

Hey guys!  Hope power is back for everyone and you guys are all ready to debate.  For tomorrow's meeting, just a reminder that everyone should read and make contentions for this cda packet - http://ctdebate.com/PDFs/CDAPacketOct10.pdf

Remember, a contention is just a basic argument, like a thesis statement.  It would also be beneficial if you had a supporting detail and maybe a fact or quote from the packet to back up each of your points.

 

Come in tomorrow with a partner and get ready to debate! 

 

Also, our next CDA tournament is approaching!  It is on Saturday, November 12th.  Please think about if you would like to go, who you would like to go with, and if you can bring a parent judge with you!

 

See you there,

Mark

 

PS - for all of you in players, good luck with your show!

For Next Week

Hey guys! Another good meeting today. For those of you that couldn't make it today, next week you get to try everything we've done so far out for yourselves. Please read this packet: http://ctdebate.com/PDFs/CDAPacketOct10.pdf We'd like everyone to prepare contentions for both sides of the packet with a partner before the next meeting. This will let us jump right into the debate. This is a real CDA topic, both serious in nature and with room for fun. Good luck everyone! Also, everyone please let me know if you can go to the debate on November 12th and if so, if you can bring a parent. Thanks!

Facebook Group!

Hey everyone, I'm excited to announce the new Debate Facebook group.  I know some people don't check their email or this website all that often so we have a new facebook group to keep everyone in the loop and give people to chat about debate, if the would like.

Just search "Staples High School Debate Team" and request access to the group.

I'll still rely on emails and this website as the main sources of communication, so keep checking!  Thanks guys.

First Tournament of the Year!

On Saturday the Staples Debate Team kicked off the competitive CDA debate season.  Heres how we did:

Goldschlager/Vouse 3-0
Stein/Gordon 1-2
Massoud/Susnosky 0-3
Nelson/Liberson 0-3


The topic was about the Death Penalty.  A very interesting, if primarily moral debate topic.

Saturday 10/15 Debate

Hi everyone!

We are registered and ready to go for Saturdays debate.  It will take place at AITE, which is located at 411 High Ridge Road, Stanford, CT.  Driving directions can be found here.  Please arrive between 8 and 8:45 so we can all be signed in before 9.  I won't be with you guys on Saturday, but Ms. Mac and Ryan will be there to help out.

New Members Meeting 10/5!

Thanks to everyone who signed up today at club rush!  If you are one of the super sweet members who signed up for more than the candy, (catch that?) there will be a meeting right after school on Wednesday October 5th in room 2002.

We will be doing some basic meet 'n greet stuff to let new members know whats going on, and possibly some sort of fun speech activity or introduction to the CT Debate Association style.  We might even discuss logowear? I know Ryan is excited for his casual cardigans!

Expect an e-mail from me as soon as I put the ~100 emails into the computer.  Thanks everyone!

Bake Sale a Success! And other news...

Thank you everyone who helped with today's bake sale!  It was incredibly well done and we are well on our way towards being able to pay our dues to CDA.

In other news, tomorrow we will be having a practice debate for our Novice Scrimmage on Tuesday.  Doug will have a topic and we are going to split up into groups and go through the entire process step by step.

Finally, for everyone that has not let me know if they are coming to the novice scrimmage on Saturday, please let me know tonight or tomorrow in the meeting at the latest!

P.S. Permission slips are being sent out over email.  I don't need those until Saturday morning, but please get them filled out.  Thanks!

Bake Sale Tuesday 9/27

We will be having our first bake sale of the school year next week!  To all of you who signed up to bring in food, 1) You are awesome, bake sales really help 2) Please bring your food on Tuesday morning to the English department.   Across from Ms. Mac's office is an open space for teachers with a microwave, if you could leave your food next to the microwave - perhaps with a post-it so we know its your food for the debate team - that would be great!

First Meeting of the Year!

Our first meeting of the year will be next Wednesday, 9/14, in Room 2002.  We are going to spend the first few weeks welcoming new members to the team and prepping for the Novice Tournament on 10/1.  The CDA schedule for this entire year is posted.  Ryan and I hope everyone had a great summer and lets get ready for some debate!

Staples Abridged CDA Format

1 Resolution

2 Pro Speakers
2 Con Speakers

1st Pro - 1 min
Cross-Ex - 1:30
1st Con - 1 min
Cross-Ex - 1:30
2nd Pro - 1 min
Cross-Ex - 1:30
2nd Con - 1 min
Cross-Ex - 1:30
Con Closing (1 speaker) - 30 sec
Pro Closing (1 speaker) - 30 sec

Debate Team Cabinet Positions 2011-2012

Today the Staples Debate team held elections for the two president positions, vice president, secretary,treasurer, and public relations officer.

The Executive Board for the 2011-2012 is...

Public relations: Tory Scordato
Secretary: Neloise Egipto
Treasurer (keeper of the war chest): Doug Russ
Vice President: Jacob Meisel
Co-Presidents: Ryan Greenberg and Mark Schwabacher

We bid farewell to current presidents Jeremy Rubel and Emily Harris. They've done an excellent job and put a lot of hard work into the team this year. Thanks for everything!

Osterweiss Tournament Debate Results

Staples did really well at the Osterweiss debate tournament at Yale earlier in April.
Team Jeremy Rubel and Emily Harris were the first place team at the entire event, and Jeremy was the second place speaker!
Highlight of the day: arguing that this house is justified in targeting civilians. Fun stuff!

State Finals Results!

Today's topic was Resolved: The US should ban collective bargaining by public sector labor unions.

Collective bargaining refers to the process in which union representatives (such as the teachers union) negotiate for slaries, benefits, schedules, vacation days, etc. with their emplyoers.  It is currently at the heart of a fierce debate in the state of Wisconsin.  Generally Democrats are against this resolution while Republicans support a ban on collective bargaining.

It was an interesting topic to discuss.  Personally I thought the Con side was favored with stronger moral contentions and strong rebuttals for anything the Pro threw at them.  Still, an economic argument and possible corruption ideas did exist for the Pro.

...And now, the results:


In the Varsity division - Jeremy Wrubel and Petey Menz went 2-1, as did Mark Schwabacher and Jacob Meisel.

In Novice, Ryan Greenberg and Tory Scordato also went 2-1, with Ryan winning 2nd place best speaker in all of novice.

March 5th CDA Tournament Results

Varsity:

3-0 Jeremy Rubel and Petey Menz, 4th Place Team
2-1 Mark Schwabacher and Emily Harris
2nd Best Speaker Jeremy Rubel

Novice:

3-0 Tory Scordato and Ryan Greenberg, 4th Place Team
1st Best Speaker Ryan Greenberg

Congratulations to all of our teams!  Get ready to prep for State Finals on March 26th.

CDA Tournament March 5th

The last qualifying tournament of the year for CDA is taking place on March 5th.  For all of the debaters that have not yet qualified for finals this is the last opportunity to get that 3-0.  All those who want to participate let Jeremy know by Tuesday's meeting.

Hello and Welcome!

I am pleased to welcome you to the new Staples High School Debate Team website!  This is just a test post to figure out the ins and outs of this new website.  So far I have uploaded the Staple Permission slip and CDA Tournament dates (<-- over there) and a list of our officers and a blog archive for future posts ( over here -->)

In the future I plan to update this website with information on other tournaments, weekly posts about what we do in our meetings, details on CDA, and maybe even some quick tips/angry rants about debate technique.

Hope you like the website.  I know it doesn't look like much, but hey, I've never done this before.