October 23, 2011- Debate speech wrtiting and practice

2h


Same as previous entry.

October 22, 2011- Speech writing for the Debate

2 h

I worked on writing my speech for the electoral college debate. I am finding some very interesting facts about the electoral college i.e. that there have been 500 attempts to change it and all have failed. It also preserves the rights of less populated states because of its minimum of 3 electoral votes. It was interesting to see that even though something like the electoral college is opposed by so many people, it is still the only viable solution to elect a president who is not based on regional power bases. This makes me ponder other similar things where there is something universally opposed yet necessary for efficient functioning.

November 12, 2011- Debate Tournament at EHS

4h

At this debate, Akash and I were ready to win because of all the prep work we had done previously. We were debating about the current system for electing presidential candidates. We were able to argue on the side of the electoral college each time we debated. It helped that we agreed with the electoral college when we debated because it allowed us to have more conviction. I was happy with our performance untill I received the ballots and they showed we had only won 2 out of the 4 debates. It was disheartening to see the judges who voted us as a loss say that we did not mention counter arguments to certain points even though we mentioned them in our speeches. It is very annoying when parent judges are unable to keep up with the flow of the debate and correctly record our points. I still gained a lot from the debate because I have a much fuller understanding of the electoral college system. The novices we trained won the novice trophy and the rest of EHS did well. It was overall a success for EHS forensics. I learned that we must be more clear in our presentation of points and perhaps tone down the aggression to make room for more argument.

November 27, 2011- Haven Hospice

3 hours

This day was pretty nondescript. There was nothing of note to be reported.

November 20, 2011- Haven Hospice

 2 h

I started my new position today. I now volunteer at the Front desk of the Haven care center. My job involves watching the CC televisions and allowing patients visitors in to the building. I am not supposed to let suspicious people in or those who appear to be homeless. My other responsibility is to greet visitors and help them locate their family who may be staying in the building. I am also supposed to retrieve wheelchairs for those who need them. I am quite happy with my job because it allows me a lot of free time to accomplish school work and music. There is no one there who I work with so its a very solitary job, however, I enjoy the smiles I get when I greet people entering and help them with their needs. The job is important for the safety of the Haven and it makes me feel very confident in myself for helping to safeguard such an important institution.

November 11, 2011-Debate Practice to train new debators

My partner, Akash, and I helped to train the new debators today at the practice party before their first tournament at EHS. We observed a debate between two of the novice teams and gave them critiques. We tried to teach them what learned throughout our years of debate. We attempted to give them wisdom from our mistakes and tell them what approaches have worked for us in the past. It was nice to see the novices look up to us with such respect because they knew how accomplished we were in the field of debate. We crossfired against a novice team and showed them how to approach a case in many novel ways. The kids all tried to grab our points and cross fire questions, but we refused to give them any points because we wanted them to learn for themselves. The activity meant a lot to me because I have never been in the position to teach other people about things which I know better than other people. I am happy to help my teammates but i feel resentful because we never had anyone showing us the ropes like these novices we trained.

November 1, 2011-NEHS

Today I helped a student at GHS edit his essay. He sent it to me in the late hours of the night and asked me to edit it before he sent to UF. His essay had a multitude of errors in grammar and word usage that I fixed to the best of my abilities. I did not think the essay as it was before I edited would have stood a chance against the admissions officers, after I edited it, I think he will fare better. I tried not to alter his meaning at all, but I suggested that next time he write an essay, he focus more on a specific expierience and not on a broad ranging topic like he discussed. I was glad to able to help a friend in the road towards making a good future.