Institutes
Both the student and teacher institutes are hosted on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. Payment information is at the bottom of this page.
Student Camp: June 17 to 30
Registration for the 2012 Student Institute is now Closed.
For those not requesting a scholarship, the cost of the camp is $1000 for boarders, and $700 for commuters.
We will continue to offer a two-week student camp that will build on the successes of our 2011 summer institute. As always, a significant number of students will receive full or partial need-based scholarships.
Our staff features accomplished instructors from around the country, many of whom have extensive teaching experience at national-caliber debate institutes or public schools. Students attending the institute will participate in learning labs, lectures, and practices to hone their debate skills and knowledge of politics, philosophy, and law. Each student will be assigned based on skill level and experience to a lab of approximately 12-14 students led by two or three skilled instructors. Labs and lectures are geared around five central tracks: casing, meta-ethics, empirics, and theory. Each of these tracks is broken into multiple individual, in-depth lectures followed by extensive discussion and drills in small-group settings. Students work with instructors to develop their own specific goals and rigorously pursue them— in that spirit, staff are available every evening of the institute for office hours to assist students with additional discussion and practice until room check at the end of the night.
In addition to providing a rigorous education, TDC is also fun and safe. One day of camp will be a dedicated “fun” day, in which staff will accompany students on various activities around Austin— the city has lots of fun, safe activities to offer, including bowling and other activities on the UT campus, swimming at Barton Springs pool, art and cultural museums, and plenty of great shopping districts. Our camp also has a dedicated administrative staff and dorm director, who monitor student behavior and are available to answer any concerns raised by students or parents.
Teachers Institute: June 17 to 24 (to 30th with optional practicum)
Registration for the 2012 Teachers Institute is now closed. If you would like to be added to our waitlist, please email Kris Wright at kris@texasdebatecollective.com
The Texas Debate Collective is now ready to move into the next phase of our strategy to attack the achievement gap in debate. Running concurrent with our student camp, TDC will host a two-week teachers’ institute that will set the standard for professional development for debate coaches. Our goal is to make a big impact on middle and low-income debaters by offering opportunities for their coaches to become increasingly empowered to teach the range of advanced skills students need to successfully compete at the highest levels of intellectual and competitive rigor.
The Texas Debate Collective Teacher’s Institute offers a flexible professional development program for debate educators and those wishing to learn about debate education. The eight day institute will run from June 17 to 24, followed by an optional practicum from June 24 to 30.
The institute offers the opportunity to experience debate camp from a student’s perspective while collaborating with fellow professionals about the best ways to teach critical debate skills. The program will aim to comprehensively cover and drill the skills most used in Lincoln Douglas debate. There will be lectures on these skills followed by practice with actually doing relevant drills. Such practice will be followed by learning how to implement these drills with students, including work on developing targeted and comprehensive lesson plans for building debate skills.
The continuing practicum will offer opportunities to practice both debating and coaching debate, working with other teachers in the program as well as students attempting the camp.
The program also offers some additional perks. All participants will receive free membership in the National Forensic League and gain an invaluable opportunity to network with fellow coaches— including the opportunity to identify and access the educational resources of other coaches who serve key roles in various debate institutions.
We will work hard and play hard: a free night is built into the schedule. Multiple former Longhorns will provide a free tour of Austin nightlife and a sampling of some of the best Tex-Mex food Austin has to offer.
Payment
You may pay in two ways:
1) Use your credit card to make a secure online payment by clicking below. You do not need a PayPal account.
2) You may make a check out to “Texas Debate Collective” and mail to
Texas Debate Collective
attn: Russ Wright
1245 Hershey Ln.
Lewisville, Tx 75077
