Saturday, August 4, 2007

Thoughts

The future of debate, and in particular in Minnesota, looks very promising. The progress of the students during camp was tremendous. With this being my first year as a lab leader at a camp, I was not sure what to expect. In the end, my experience teaching the students was very rewarding. Despite a grueling 8AM-11PM day, the students would come eager to learn everyday until the end. During lectures, they were very attentive and took great notes. They asked questions if they did not understand the concepts and participated in group assignments. During the research portion, it was hard to sit in a library for many hours straight, but the students finished all the work that was asked of them.

The most impressive part of the students’ work was in the time prior to the tournament. The effort that all the teams put in writing blocks and preparing to debate in their rounds was terrific.

I had a great first experience as a lab leader and hope to come back again next summer. Most of all, the parents and the coaches of the students should be proud of all the hard work. I look forward to seeing and judging the students at tournaments this year.

-Aneesh Sohoni

Friday, August 3, 2007

End of the 4th Week

The fourth week option with the fast track/extension week and the kritik week is over. This was the first year of the institute and all students felt it was successful. Both camps ended with a five round tournament. Second place at the Fast Track Institute was Kyle and Ben (Rosemount MN). First was Kristen (Fargo Shanley ND) and Jason (Stoneman FL).

The kritik institute ended with Joe (Moorhead MN) and Amy (Bloomington MN) at second and Rebecca (San Dieguito CA) and Michelle Stanley (Moorhead MN) in first.

More thoughts about camp after the staff recovers from sleep deprivation.