The end is only the beginning

The third week at the 2006 UNT Mean Green Workshop comes to an official end Saturday as students depart. Over the past week, students have debated numerous practice rounds, refined cases, and improved on all skills from researching to giving the perfect 2AR. With a teacher to student ratio of 2:1, all of the students were constantly working with coaches and former debaters who have worked at the highest level of competition. The past three weeks have been very rewarding and the staff is very confident that all of the debaters will accomplish their goals for next season given the amount of time and dedication that all the students put in over the duration of the Workshop. Good luck next year and we hope to see you again next summer at UNT.

As the third week winds down

Students have stayed busy the past two days meeting three times per day with their labs and participating in numerous practice rounds. In lab, the students continue to do work on rebuttals. Lab leaders have stressed the importance of clearly articulating voters, crystallization, winning the standard, reading evidence against the opponent's case, beating the spread, and issue selection. Students have also written new cases from the research they collected during lab time in the library and computer lab. Time was spent this morning explaining how to properly cut and cite evidence because of the lack of properly cut evidence even at the highest levels of competition. On Wednesday night, students were shown Arnold Schwarzenegger's first movie from 1970, Hercules in New York, as a break from debate for a few hours. Hopefully, the debate skills learned in the third week will stick with the students as long as Hercules' fight with "the wild zoo bear."

Time for refinement

Students have spent the past two days in lab writing blocks, writing new cases, researching, brainstorming arguments, and giving rebuttals. During the third week, labs meet three times per day and work on improving arguments based upon constructive criticism received during practice rounds. Students have been debating "stop/go" practice rounds where extra time is allotted to give students the opportunity to redo speeches during the practice round, so they are given an opportunity to fix their shortcomings immediately after they make them. All of the students have shown tremendous progress in terms of argument variety, depth, and effectively debating standards. They will continue refining their cases, writing new cases, and repeatedly giving rebuttals over the next week.


Complete results from the Workshop tournament that concluded last Friday:

Octos
1. David McGough Greenhill byes to Quarters
8. Rahim Sayani Colleyville def 9. Laura Rau Marcus
13. Patrick Keating ALJ def. 4. Ryan Bennett Southlake Carroll
5. Anthony Godfrey Burleson def. 12 Khurram Ali Colleyville
14. John Monagle ALJ def 3. Akeel Rangwala Plano West
11. Danielle Beaury Flowermound def 6. Marlaina Montoya Ronald Reagan
7. Danielle Smogard Southlake Carroll def. 10 Kevin Martin Mesquite
2. Arti Bhatia Collevyille def. 15 Travis Brown Lake Travis


Quarters
1.David McGough def. 8. Rahim Sayani
5. Anthony Godfrey Burleson def. 13.Patrick Keating
11. Danielle Beaury def. 14. John Monagle
2. Arti Bhatia def. 7. Danielle Smogard


Semis
1. David McGough def. 5. Anthony Godfrey
2. Arti Bhatia def. 11. Danielle Beaury

Finals
1. David McGough def. 2. Arti Bhatia


Top 5 Speakers
1. Anthony Godfrey Burleson
2. David McGough Greenhill
3. Edward Witliff Regan
4. Arti Bhatia Colleyville
5. Jackie Allgayer Cinco Ranch

The Beginning of the Third Week

Although most of the students left the Workshop after a busy two weeks, ten students remain for an additional week and will have the opportunity to take full advantage of the 5 remaining staff: Aaron Timmons, Sam Duby, Neil Conrad, Gary Johnson, and Katherine Thompson. With a 2:1 teacher to student ratio, the third week students will be guaranteed more attention than offered by any other comparable institute. The additional week includes 12 more practice rounds, which would give students attending all three weeks over 23 fully-critiqued practice rounds. On Saturday and Sunday, the students spent time in the library compiling an extensive brief on the healthcare topic, met with their labs, and attended a lecture on formulating standards. On Sunday night, the students were treated to Thai food for a special dinner. Stay tuned for a daily update everyday on the happenings of the third week. We are very excited about the amount of personal attention that all the students will receive over the next week.

The Conclusion

Students showcased the skills they had learned over the past two weeks at the Workshop tournament which concluded this evening with a demonstration debate between Colleyville-Heritage's Arti Bhatia and Greenhill's David McGough. Before the tournament broke to elimination rounds, students attended electives and had one final preliminary round, which guaranteed every student at least ELEVEN fully critiqued practice rounds with many students getting more than thirteen practice rounds because of extra time spent in lab debating. The 2006 Mean Green LD Workshop has been an extremely rewarding experience for both the students and staff and we encourage all of you to consider joining us again next summer at the University of North Texas.

Stay tuned for updates throughout the next week about the happenings of those students staying for the third week. And check out the pictures link on the right sidebar for pictures from the Workshop tournament.

Only one more day

The morning began with an elective where students chose between five different options. Then the Article Groups met for the final time and discussed Rawls' Theory of Justice, which sparked many debates on what people are due. The fun part of the day was when many of the labs had lunch together or got coffee at one of the superb pizza places immediately adjacent to campus. After lunch, it was back to debating two more rounds to bring the total to TEN so far. The night concluded with a demonstration debate between Katherine Thompson and Shane O'Neal on the Eminent Domain topic where Katherine ran a "performance" to give the students an idea how to run and handle unique case positions. Tomorrow's schedule consists of electives and one more preliminary round before the Workshop tournament clears to elimination rounds tomorrow afternoon.

Some Friendly Competition

The Workshop tournament, consisting of five preliminary rounds, began this afternoon with the first two rounds occurring after students met with their labs and did rebuttal redos and blocked-out common case positions. Six practice rounds preceded the Workshop tournament with the last of the six rounds taking place this morning. All of the students were very ready to engage in a little healthy competition with the other students they have become friends with over the past ten days. Article Groups also met this morning with the last of eight Article Groups meeting tomorrow morning. The students will be spending the rest of the night working on revisions for the third and fourth rounds being held tomorrow.

And the Practice Rounds Continue

Labs met to start the morning off where students conversed with their lab leaders about their first two practice rounds and undertook drills to get them ready for the three practice rounds that occurred today. All students debated three more fully critiqued practice rounds today with one final practice round tomorrow before the five round Workshop tournament begins tomorrow afternoon. All students will end up with at least 11 fully critiqued practice rounds by the time they leave the Workshop. Article Groups met after dinner and discussed an article from Robert Nozick about side-constraints. Finally, labs met at the end of the evening where they signed up for their last five electives and compiled evidence for the Workshop CD that will be given to all students at the end of camp. The students had a busy day debating today and will continue to stay busy until the final round of the Workshop tournament on Friday night.

Practice Rounds Begin

Students began the day meeting with their labs to go over final case revisions and hold drills before the official practice rounds began at 11am. Today two practice rounds were held where students were fully critiqued and given ways to improve. Also, all students sat in on rounds they weren't debating, so they had the opportunity to hear multiple cases and suggestions for improvement from the judges. In addition, students chose between electives today before they recessed for dinner. After dinner, Article Groups met and discussed Peter Singer's writing on the obligations to aid others which the students easily tied to the Workshop topic. The night ended with a lecture on Tournament Preparation given by Aaron Timmons and time for students to work on their cases for three more practice rounds tomorrow.

The beginning of electives

Organized activities began at 2pm today with Article Group in order to give the students Sunday morning off. The Article Groups discussed whether the government should provide healthcare or leave it up to free market forces. After Article Group, students were given their first opportunity to choose elective lectures to attend. Since the first week covered many core topics in lectures, the second week of the camp will offer electives so students can choose topics in which they want to improve. During the first elective slot today, students attended lectures on Topicality, Flowing Tips, Processing Evidence, Preparation at Tournaments, or the Marketplace of Ideas. The second elective slot gave the choices of the 2AR, Pre-Modern to Post-Modern Thought, Big Picture coverage, Golden Rules of Case Writing, and Adapting to TOC Style. After the special pizza dinner, frisbee, and volleyball during dinner, students met with their labs and put the finishing touches on their cases in anticipation of their critiqued practice rounds beginning tomorrow morning.

And Everything Comes Together

The morning began with lectures on both Rebuttals and Weighing Arguments followed by a lab where students practiced giving rebuttals with a different set of lab leaders providing constructive criticism on presentation, issue selection, and time management. Before lunch, all of the students attended David Wolfish's lecture on International Relations, which is applicable to resolutions every year. The afternoon brought meetings with lab and article groups. In lab, students continued work on cases, gave rebuttals, and ran complete practice rounds where they were stopped by their lab leaders and required to redo parts of their rebuttals so that they had the opportunity to correct problems immediately after problems occurred. Article Groups discussed whether health care protection is relative to specific societies because every society affords different opportunities to their citizens. Students argued for and against the thesis presented in the article and provided many arguments that could be very useful in further developing cases. After dinner, students were treated to a demonstration debate on the Workshop topic, A just government should provide healthcare to its citizens, between the once very successful former competitors David Wolfish and Tanya Choudhury. In the debate, the students were exposed to strategy and case positions that largely had not been discussed thus far at the Workshop, so the demonstration debate was very valuable in that it brought everything from the past week together. Labs met at the end of the night to discuss the demonstration and to allow students the chance to sign up for electives that begin tomorrow afternoon. The students have Sunday morning off with activities beginning again at 2pm and practice rounds officially beginning Monday morning.

And check out the "Pictures of Camp" link on the right sidebar for updated pictures from the weekend!

The intensity continues

Friday morning began with lectures on Presentation and Ethics and Vocal Theory followed by a "Drill Lab" where the students read their cases using the skills they had just learned. In this lab, where lab leaders rotated to labs other than their own to maximize student exposure to all of the staff, students were critiqued on their speaking and presentation. After the Drill Lab, students met with their normal lab leaders before lunch to continue work on cases. After lunch, students spent their time until dinner in the library researching and consulting staff about their cases. Friday night after dinner meant an organized break for the students but many took advantage of the time to continue their debate work. Options for the free night included a demonstration debate between Shane O'Neal and Josh Meah on the January/February topic, a moderated discussion of the 2003 NFL Final Round in LD, time to work in the computer lab with a staff member, and basketball with Matt, Gary, and Josh. While the free night provides a break in some ways, students will be up tomorrow morning back at full speed.

As the cases come together...

It's fairly commonplace to wake up to an argument about cold pancakes, missing socks, and broken Pop-Tarts, but only at UNT did students begin their day with a lecture on advanced argumentation about the merits of providing healthcare. Thursday began with lectures on both Rebuttals and Advanced Argumentation followed by lab where students were given the opportunity to prepare cases using the skills from their morning lecture. Before lunch, the students met with their Article Groups and discussed whether people had a right to a decent minimum of healthcare. The students were given an extended period of time after lunch to do focused research in the library with all of the lab leaders available to answer questions and guide students in the right direction. Library time was followed by lectures on Distributive Justice and Communitarianism and their applications to debate. After dinner, labs met again with many utilizing the computer lab to continue research and continue working on and finishing their cases. Students will spend the next two days finishing their cases before practice rounds begin on Sunday.

Wednesday at the Workshop

The students were greeted once again today by the shining faces of their lab leaders bright and early at 9am where they met in lab and continued the process of formulating cases and ideas for why a just government should provide healthcare to its' citizens. Before lunch, students were given an opportunity to enact the the skills of a good cross-examination that were demonstrated in the lecture given right before, which served as a valuable lesson to how debaters should carry themselves in the three minutes that can make or break a round. After lunch, students met for lectures on Dignity and Social Utility or Consequentialism, Deontology, and Relativism where they examined how philosophy can be used not only to encourage critical thinking but also to win ballots. Students explored the vast resources of the UNT library today where they had access to floors of books and electronic resources such as JSTOR. The evening began to wind down with lectures on Contractual Justice and Critical Theory before labs met for one final time. Almost all of the students continued to work on debate and their cases with the lab leaders who made themselves available even after all formalized activities had ended. Students and staff worked together up until the very last possible minute when students were sent upstairs to get some well earned rest.

Independence Day

The second day of the Workshop began with some of the students attending lectures on Logic and Casing with another group of students hearing lectures on Burden Theory and Advanced Casing Strategies, which gave students the opportunity to attend lectures that were catered to their level of experience. Later, the second session of the Article Groups met where the students discussed whether a government has an obligation to provide basic healthcare considering governments spend so much money on national security even though more people die from disease than war. Before the students took a break for the evening, lab groups met one final time where they began to develop case positions based upon the focus of their lab. Since today is July 4th, the students were given the evening off with activities such as an ice cream social, a movie night, and of course the option to get a headstart on their cases.

Day One Concludes

Day one at the Mean Green LD Workshops has finished after a long day of intense introductions, lab meetings, lectures, and article groups. The day began with labs meeting for the first time where students met, received their university ID cards to access UNT's numerous resources, and began discussing the resolution (A just government should provide health care to its citizens). After lunch, students met for a lecture on research techniques and with their article groups, which are small groups dedicated to discussing resolution-specific literature. The 80 students were also treated to a demonstration debate between Liz Mullins, who recently placed 2nd at the National Forensic League National Tournament, and Matt Levinson after dinner. The first day was largely a success with all of the students enthusiastic about spending their next two or three weeks working on improving at debate and being challenged to expand their horizons as both students and young adults.

Registration Begins!

Welcome to the 2006 Mean Green LD Workshop

Welcome! We will use this blog to keep you up to date about what is going on at our LD camp. We will post information here about the various lectures and workshop wide activities. You will also find links here to blogs for each of our various labs.