I found the video very interesting. I am still unclear on my decision about the actual debating team .... I do however believe that debating should be incorporated into the classroom. Debating would give the students an opportunity to research both sides of the debate and they are given the chance to state facts and express their feelings concerning the topic. Debating would serve as a good tool to be used when questions arise in the classroom that would serve better to be debated. Even though the debating club in the video served a good purpose and did very well for the students, most high schools do not have a cop that made the club what it was. Overall, debating is a good tool to incorporate into the classroom.

I also found the debate team video very interesting. There's definitely no denying that kids were going from careless about education to completely enthused. I really enjoyed seeing how much debating sparked their interest. I'm all for it in the classroom, because I believe it shows people that we can agree to disagree in a reasonable fashion. The reality that it introduces individuals to two or more sides of an argument is also a very postive aspect. I have to say I don't think all kids are going to get as into it as the warriors, but they should certainly be given that oppurtunity. We need more caring folks like the coach/cop guy. More debating in classrooms seems like it is the way to go to encourage eagerness to learn.

The Warriors debate team was a very positive thing for those students on the debate team. I just want to put a focus on how it was a team event. Team work and being a part of a team has alot of positive outcomes for most students. i do believe debate to be a very affective tool. I do believe that debate should be encooperated more into the classrooms, but even if you don't use debate in the classroom I believe that making an oppurtunity for students to feel like the belong to a team will have a positive effect on student learning.

I'm really happy for those kids, to able to have something they love so much and care so much about to stick to it. Even when everyone else thinks that it might be a big joke. I'm sure it takes alot out of the officers day to come to these kids when theres so much else he could be doing. Kudos to him too. I think that the debate team is a good idea to have because it helps the kids prove to themselves that they arent dumbies and they do have brains and are smart like everyone else.

I did like the video also. Speaking for myself I have had many class experiences with debate. In high school and college several of my classes incorporated debates. I think just letting students discuss how they feel is debate, not formal debate. If one student states a feeling or belief and another student challenges it respectively then I think it is debate. The hard debate is when a teacher assigns a student to what side they should debate. I know when this has happen to me and I recieve the side I have to support that I actually do not support this is when I have learned the most about the topic and myself.

I am up for anything that got the results this debate team had on the students. When children that were cast into a drastically low reading grade and were able to go to college within a few years as a result of something, sign me up. When students are that active in learning and enjoy school as much as they did, how can it be wrong? If I knew with unwavering faith that I could do something that gave me the return that the debate team had, how could I not do it? If there was reliable research that said if the teacher jumped up and down three times before every class, their students would dramatically increase in participation, engaged learning, and self-esteem, you know I would be a jumping fool. I see this the same way. What could be wrong?

Not all schools will have a debate team, nor should they, but the skills learned through an experience such as a debate team should be made available to all students through their regular classes. The skills to research and discuss should be a regularly achieved skill. The debate goes more into why the students felt neglected in the first place instead of how they found their outlet in the school system.. i think that it is obvous that a student, given the right opportunity can achieve well in any setting, wether it be innner city or rural private schools. it depends on us as teachers to give our students the opportunities without having to have a phenminal debate team, or a super program. It can be achieved on the classroom level every day.

These students were given the chance to do something above and beyond their normal school classes. It doesn’t matter that it was a debate team. What mattered was that the students were comfortable and accepted in a classroom. For me, my ‘debate team’ was a scientific and creative group called Odyssey of the Mind. It was a place where I was free to be myself and know that I would always be accepted and have someone to talk to if I needed to. I think that it is more important for a student to feel included than it is to be in just a debate team.

I think the debate team is a great thing for this particular school, but I don't think every school would be this successful. Every school could probably have one of these, but I feel that the majority of them could be taken over by the "smart kids", unless you somehow stop that. I enjoyed watching these students succeed, especially the student that had previously been in special ed classes. He had probably never had an interest in reading so he had never tried this hard to succeed at learning how. I like the fact that this encouraged him to want to read.

I enjoyed the video, and the debate was an important part of the video, however I agree with Tate, there were many other elements present such as a mentor, team work, support.... along with several of the ideas we talked about in class. I liked the fact that these students educational and carreer goals were changed because of this teaching style. I have a friend who is working on his doctorate at the moment at ASU, and he told me that in one of his classes he is learning about the educational systems of other countries. At the moment they are discussing Japan. In Japan students are allowed to drop out of school in the ninth grade, however a very low percentage of students drop out and almost all of the high school graduates choose to continue their education. In the United States for many students, my brother included, it is all you can do to keep the students in school for twelve years, and the drop out rates for sixteen year olds increases every day. What are the Japanese doing to get students excited about education and willing to continue their education that the United States is not doing?

When I teach, I want to have debates in class. I think that it's a good way for kids to say what they are thinking without having to be worried about saying the wrong answer, which most are. I want to take something that we are reading, divide the class in two, and have them debate for and the other for against. I like debating in class. You can hear both sides, and it's an opportunity for kids to learn information.

The most important part about this video was that theses students have become invovled in an activity. How many times have you talked to someone in trac or on the wrestling team who ad become totally devoted to that event and it has improved their academic life as well. Most of the people I talk to or know who are involved in an extra-curricular activity have become devoted to academics, if for no other reason than GPA requirements for those activities. The only reason I did half-well in school was so that I could participate in all of the music activities that I did. It is not importqant that it is debate, it is important that the students find their niche. When my sister started high school, I knew that it was important to find her nich before she could fall through the cracks. Luckily she found that nich and had a sucessful high school career. I think that as teachers, we can help our students find their nich and thereby help their etire education.