Is being successful at Forensics too “hard”?

I love speech and debate.  I loved it when I competed in it and I still love it as a coach/director.  One of the things I love about it is the challenge.  Although things have changed a lot since I competed (some things have been made easier, while others have become more difficult), I still [...]

Happy Belated New Year – Getting Ready for Spring Season…

How the heck are we already in 2009?  Time flies when you are having fun, I guess.  And, I have to admit, I am still having fun coaching speech and debate and teaching and living in Chico.  I really wish I was posting more regularly on this blog…and I’m really going to try to commit [...]

Series: Web 2.0 for Forensics – Part I

I’ve been trying to incorporate a little more of the web 2.0 programs in my academic life, and this has led me to consider the way these same programs can be used for forensics.  So, I am going to start brainstorming ideas for using different tech to make our forensics lives easier and turn them [...]

Orbitz Price Guarantee

With the additional costs of flying nowadays, it seems pretty important to be getting the cheapest price possible.  I previously posted on this blog about Yapta (read about it here) which allows you to request a refund if a cheaper ticket on your same flight comes available.  But, according to Go Green Travel, Orbitz has [...]

Discrimination and Sexual Harassment Meeting at CEDA

Saturday at CEDA Nationals we held a drop-in informational discussion on current issues in debate, including but not limited to the discrimination and sexual harassment policies for the CEDA National Tournament and beyond. The Sexual Harassment Officers (SHOs) for this year are myself (Sue Peterson) and ML Sandoz from Vanderbilt. For those [...]

Job Opportunity – Progressive Politics

This was posted on edebate and I thought I would also post it here for anyone who may have missed it:
To: Graduating Seniors
Subject: Progressive Presidential Election Campaign Job Opportunities
The November 2006 midterm election was an exciting step forward for
progressives; but much work remains. The new Congress, on its own, will
not resolve our nation’s most pressing [...]

Competition or Education – A response to SoCal-LD.net

An interesting and challenging question was posed over at SoCal-LD.net on the Teleology of Debate.  I have struggled with this in my own coaching, not only in debate but also in IEs.  After all, everything we do in forensics is highly formulaic and not necessarily what works best in the “real world”.  But, I think [...]

Flight Tracking Resource

Sorry for the slow start in the new year.  Lots of stuff going on and that whole vacation thing is happening.  But, I’m going back to class and back to a (hopefully) more regular posting schedule next week.
I came across a blog entry on Ian’s Messy Desk about this google resource for tracking flights.  It could [...]

Directors of Forensics – Making it all look easy

I just want to take this opportunity to give a “I’m not worthy” bow down to all the DOFs out there who make it look easy.  It is months like these that make me realize how difficult this job is.  There is so much to do just in managing a team, but the DOF has [...]

Rookies – The stuff of dreams

I don’t know how many of you can remember back to your first speech and debate tournament, but the follow-up from the Rookie Tournament this weekend has really taken me back.  Seeing the excitement on the students’ faces, hearing the absolute thrill in their voices as they talk about joining the team, seeing their pride [...]