Debates, Speech Contests, Mid-Term Exams and Computer Crashes

Last week, my work computer crashed. Luckily, I back up my data pretty often, so I really didn't lose very much, but I spent a LOT of time reinstalling all my software, tracking down registration keys, updating software, recalibrating hardware and so on. I had to remake a couple of things, but luckily most of my data was okay. I lost some things that hurt, like the next entrance exam and some school videos, but I'll live. Luckily, most of the photos were saved! Here are the most recent photos.

All of my classes did debates last week. In first grade, our debate topic was: Schools should stop having tests. Needless to say, the students had very strong opinions FOR this one but not much for the status quo. Here are some photos.

In Special Projects we're building up the Time Capsule. Students right now are making profiles and writing letters to put into the time capsule. We'll open the time capsule in 2014 when they are 3rd grade students. The students are also working on a video project. I'm not sure about the storyline, but it has something to do with Disney Princesses!

The second grade debate topic was: Smoking should be illegal. Again, we had a lot of good arguments AGAINST smoking, but not many arguments against making it illegal. Still, both sides argued aggressively!

The third grade debate topic was: We should live in a paperless society. Again, both sides had some great arguments. They've also really improved at asking questions. I was REALLY proud of the third graders.

I also took three NELP students and a SELP student to the Takamado Speech Contest in Okayama. I'm sorry to say that my 3rd grade student who gave an original speech didn't get a prize. She did really well! My 3rd grade student who did a recitation got one of many recitation prizes. I was really proud of her! Unfortunately the 3rd grade SELP student who also did a recitation did not get a prize, even though she delivered with a lot of passion. My first grade NELP student (the only first grader in the Original Speech section) got 6th prize, which is quite an achievement at such a difficult contest.

Even though we didn't win many prizes this year, I'm still extremely proud of my girls. It was a tough contest with a LOT of really strong speeches that were delivered REALLY well.