Prepping for Jenks

I hope you all have been watching the news and looking up articles -- there is a lot going in politics, like START, DADT, tax cut extensions, and more. We need updated link and uniqueness cards for all of our disads. It is a lot of work to do in one week, so get started now. I've noticed a few new files on the dropbox -- keep it up!

Team Brings Home Medals from UT Classic

Casady Debate brought home 6 medals from the UT Longhorn Classic, which is among the top ten tournaments in the nation. We had three teams break to octafinals and one team made semifinalist. We won over half our rounds and had four speakers rank in the top 20 in speaker points.

We traveled to Austin along with the team from Heritage Hall, whose a-seed varsity team dropped in finals at 1:30am Sunday after debating for over 17 hours straight. We debated for 12 hours on Saturday and 5 hours on Friday night. We are exhausted but happy with our experiences and wins.

We learned that...
The UT campus is cool.

Debating this tournament requires extreme stamina and directional/navigational wherewithal.

The UT tournament isn't the UT tournament if you don't come home with at least half a dozen stories that begin with "there was this homeless person who..."

The marines PIC Counterplan is a dirty trick and we can beat it next time.

We got better at the T debate.

It helps when OU wins the Big 12 Championship and we get to see it while at UT.

The Libertarian Party of Texas headquarters is a sketchy place.

It is cool to run into the UT football coaches and take pictures with them with our Sooner caps and shirts on.

When you face a K Aff and have no idea what to say, it might be best to tell the judge "okay, well, let's be frank, here... We have nothing on that" and then try to win on framework.

We love our assistant coaches who jump files to us when we desperately need them.

We have a lot of homework to do this week and we are very tired. There must be a K we could run on that.

UT-Austin Tournament Itinerary

A detailed itinerary and information sheet is now posted under attachments on our website.

Success at UNT

I'm so proud of you all for the quality of your individual and team achievements at the UNT tournament, our second tournament of the year. The team of Eihab Khan and Survaish Khastgir brought home the semifinalist trophy after seven rounds of debate in a pool of 45 teams from several states. They were undefeated coming out of the prelims. Wow! What an accomplishment in sheer intellectual strength and debate skills. I thought it was particularly awesome that the entire team voted to stay to watch the K-K team to the finish, even though it meant spending the extra night. We learned so much from the experience, not the least of which is the power of team spirit!

The Casady team overall had a winning record at the tournament, which is outstanding given that this was our first tournament on the Texas Forensic Association circuit. Congratulations to you all!

It was a fantastic experience -- exhausting, but amazing, too. We learned how to cope with adversity, how to apply ourselves to overcome weaknesses, and how to keep on fighting, no matter what. We learned that the guys can eat more Jack in the Box food in one day than is physically possible outside of the world of debate, and that we can all put away Chili's grub like champions, even at midnight. We learned that we don't like 8:00am rounds, but with multiple Monster drinks, we can debate for at least 14 hours straight. We prefer that our judges stay awake during rounds, and that they vote on what is actually on the flow rather than what got kicked three speeches ago. We learned that we learn a lot from critiques, but we still would rather win than lose!

We learned that we know what we know, but what we don't know is what we don't know. In other words, we did great at UNT, but now we know what we don't know, so let's get to work to get ready for UT!


Go Cyclone Debate!

Getting ready for UNT

Our next tournament is this week! You should be reading files to familiarize yourself with your cards. Be sure to read the itinerary and give a copy to your parents. It is available on our class website. Travel and computer forms need to be signed and turned in before you can travel. Let me know if you have any questions.

Your Name in Lights

Jake & Eihab and Catherine & Layne have now taken their places on the NDCA Argument List Wiki for 2010-2011. This means that Casady's aff and neg strats are now going to be posted (I'm working on this) amongst all of the cases being run by policy teams across the country, from our own rival up the street to our friends in Texas and schools from Pennsylvania to California. 

This wiki was created to support the full exchange of information between debate teams in order to encourage quality clash on ideas and evidence in rounds. I know it seems counter-intuitive to give all of your evidence to the other teams, but the idea is that the better prepared we all are, the better debates we are likely to have. Now, your job will be to "scout" teams in advance and prepare as thoroughly as possible for your rounds. As we branch out and add more varieties of our own aff and neg strats for each team on our squad, I will add your names to the wiki.

Casady Sweeps Novice at Edmond North

We brought 6 teams to the novice division at Edmond North this weekend, and there were 24 total novice teams. Four of our teams broke to the out rounds, and three of the four went undefeated in prelims. All total first night we won 18 rounds and lost 6 our first night. Every team won at least two rounds out of their four. At the end of the day Saturday, we can report that Casady swept the novice division. Our two teams went undefeated today through quarters and semis, and then since they would have had to debate each other in the finals, we called it and walked away with gold and silver. Overall, Casady teams won 22 rounds of debate this weekend and lost 6. We garnered the attention and respect of the teams, coaches and judges. I am proud of how our students conducted themselves. They brought honor to Casady and clearly promoted our school's reputation in the community. Congratulations!

We have a lot of work to do to get ready for UNT, so this coming week we will be cutting cards, working on the aff, learning how to run and respond to T arguments better, working on internal links to adv and disads, and, for those moving up to JV, adding CPs and Ks. Woohoo! Bring it on!

Read and Research

The tournament is coming up fast, so make effective use of your time to read through all the case files you will use in your rounds, write 2AC blocks for possible 1NC arguments against the aff, and practice speed reading out loud. Practice reading your speeches in the 8 minute time frame so that your mind will have a sense of what that feels like. I know that in our limited class time we have not been able to give most of you time to practice full rounds, so you will have to practice on your own. Let me know if you have questions or need help over the break. You can also email Dillon from the Gmail.

Practice, Practice Practice!

Two things to work on this week:
1) Choose a 1AC from the Afghanistan, Iraq or Japan files. Read it and write an outline of a 1NC in response. Bring to class Tuesday. Elements you should have in your 1NC:
-topicality (an option)
-case arguments (directly oppose the 1AC advantages, one by one)
-disads (at least one, maybe two)

2) Practice reading your speech in front of a mirror, and time yourself. Give yourself 8 minutes. Highlight your cards so that you can read them all in the time allowed. Don't read too much of each card. Practice reading tags and cites clearly.

This week in Debate

Check the Gmail for research assignments. We are starting to build out our squad neg strats and to research the other countries in the resolution. Mr. Wiley will talk to us on Monday about North Korea. Be prepared to share information in a concise, organized manner with the squad when you are called upon. Check with the officers to get a country assignment.

Upcoming Graded Assignments

This week you will be graded on the following assignments:
1) Register your email address with the gmail contacts list (DUE WEDNESDAY)
2) Turn in contract (DUE ALREADY.. you are losing points now)
3) Register to "follow" the blog and Twitter (DUE WEDNESDAY)
4) Turn in typed cards, properly cut and tagged (DUE TUESDAY)
5) Mini ADV debate (on your assigned day)
6) Turn in travel permission form to UD office (DUE ALREADY)

Failure to complete any of these assignments on time will result in a zero for the assignment. If you are not in the class, you still need to complete the assignments to continue to be a member of the team.

Great job today!

You all worked hard today and proved that research and writing sessions can be filled with excitement, fun, artistic expression, and an awful lot of good food! I can't wait to do it again.

ADV Minis This Week

Don't get caught unprepared! Check the pairings for the advantage mini-debates to be held this week in class. If you are not sure about your topic, ask someone. The advantages are econ, prolif, war, and soft power. Each ADV file should include arguments and cards for: uniqueness, links, internal links, impacts, extensions, add-ons, and answers. If you are neg this week, your files should include non-unique cards, link turns, impact turns, aff won't solve, and stuff like that. (You can look the terms up in your handbook if you get confused.) Now is the perfect time to send Dillon an email if you need help! Of course, your friendly team officers are here to help, as well, so don't be afraid to ask. (Minis are 4min-4min-2min-2min with 2 minutes of cross-ex after the first two speeches.)

First Tournament: October 8-9

Our first tournament is October 8-9 at Edmond North High School. We will leave school after lunch on Friday and will return to school some time around 11:00pm or later Friday night. Teams who advance will meet to return to ENHS early Saturday morning for the out rounds. You must have a travel permission form on file with the school in order to travel with the debate team. Participating teams will be announced soon.

Two New Officers

Catherine White and Layne Turci have been named Operations Co-Captains, reflecting their tireless work in keeping the debate team on-track and organized in the planning of upcoming events. Jack Maxwell has been named Communications Co-Captain, reflecting his role in updating the blog and Facebook pages and in helping facilitate PR for the team.

Thanks also go to Andrew Clements for taking on the role of videographer. Thank you, Mr. Varela, for helping us get started on our video journal of the life and times of Casady debate.

Debate This Week - 8/30/10

Throughout the week, the debate class has been learning terms and also learning to flow a debate round. We have been watching a debate round from the Emory Debate camp and learning about advantages, turns, etc. Next week, the class will ensue in mini debate rounds between groups of two and hopefully learn, through experience, what to do and what not to do in a debate round. Some members will meet this Sunday at Dr. Gerard’s house from 1-4 p.m. for a research session. -JM

Welcome to the New School Year

Debate team has begun in full force with our first ever daily class. With 22 students at varying levels of experience, we are splitting into groups to get our work done.
Our first tournament is October 8-9 at Edmond North HS.