News – Page 290 – Quixotic Pedagogue

Electives

I am currently teaching two elective classes, Debate and Speech.

Debate

Debate is an elective open to students in all grades. My goal is to help you become a more critical consumer of argumentation and someone whose insight is not limited to sound bites, but in-depth understanding. We are going to learn about the foundations of argument, techniques for persuasion, and tools for evaluating the advocacy of others. In the mix, we might also throw in some philosophy, ethics, current events,great films, and more.

Speech

Speech is an elective open to students in all grades. There will certainly be more to come later. The primary purpose of Speech class is to provide students will the opportunity to improve their public speaking, organizational, and argumentative skills. In the course of the semester, we will work on speeches that require short-term preparation and those that require careful revision and delivery.

In addition to presenting speeches, students will be expected to be good audience members, paying careful attention to the speeches that other students present and offering constructive feedback.

November 30, 2008/by dpogreba

Site Updates

Latest

As you may have noticed, I have made a few changes to the layout and functionality of the site. The new appearance, while simpler, should be faster loading. I’ve posted a poll on the right hand side of the site for you to indicate your preferences, if any. I’d appreciate it if you took a second to answer the question.

I’ve also added a completely new section. If you are logged in, you will see a menu item at the top called “Community.” What it does should be familiar to most of you. I’d appreciate it if you played around with it and saw what worked and didn’t.

Finally, I have tried to clean up all of the links on the site. If you notice any errors, drop me a line.

I hope you’re all enjoying your break.

November 28, 2008/by dpogreba