Tournament ends, teachers finish and the high school programs are over

Tournament ends, teachers finish and the high school programs are over

Photo: Last minute research

Posted by: Alfred Snider

The day featured round three of the tournament in the morning, which was power paired. Every debate started on time with very student ready to speak. The hard work of two weeks had not dulled their enthusiasm.

The morning also featured the end of the Debate Across the Curriculum Teacher Workshop as the teachers presented their final projects and receibed feedback from instructors and from colleagues. The presentations were impressive, and Bojana Skrt thought that most of them would serve as excellent examples for other teachers. This was also the morning that the debate that the teachers had filmed as an example for other teachers was released n the internet. You can see it by clicking on or you can download it by right clicking on http://www.uvm.edu/~debate/watch/wdi06dacdebate.m4v . It best watched by downloading and then watching it on the iTunes application. More on the teachers later after more video is processed. The teachers and the staff who worked with them went out for a jolly lunch to say farewell.

After their own lunch the high school debaters had round four, again power paired. The focus was intense as the students competed against people who had changed from strangers into friends. After the fourth and final tournament debate the students went back to their small groups and talked about how to take all that they have learned back with them to prepare to debate during the year.

At 4 PM the final meeting of the WDI National High School Policy Debate Workshop took place. Students filled out the assessment post-test (the same one they took on arrival) and then completed the program evaluation. The evidence and learning materials CD was handed out to everyone along with the 2006 WDI t-shirt.

Then it was time for awards. Here are the top five teams:
1. Corey Dethier & Vicente Rosales
2. Chris Giblin & Chris Guzman
3. Brittney Norman & Nathaniel Sasenarine
4. Caitlyn Carver & Kevin Bolton
5. Stephanie Mariano & Nigeria Wilson

Here are the top ten speakers:
1. Manwhi Sohn
2. Nathaniel Sasenarine
3. Matt Pesesky
4. Corey Dethier
5. Kevin Bolton
6. Habiba Iddirisu
7. Caitlyn Carver
8. Nigeria Wilson
9. Guillermina Martino
10. Vicente Rosales

Special congratulations to Manwhi, our top speaker, who is a student from Seoul, Korea. Well done!

Then it was off to dinner and a party at the dorm. Reports are that there were some awesome dance moves pulled at the party and that it went late into the night -- but everyone stayed in the dorm together and all went very well.

There was sadness in the morning as new friends said goodbye and people departed the University of Vermont that had, for a time, become their intellectual home. Sad, yes, but the future calls for this dynamic group of young people to come and do their part.

I will miss them, but I hope some will come back in other years and I hope that some will attend the University of Vermont and join our debate team.

WDI 2006 Blog

Sunday, July 30, 2006