February 2019 Message from the Superintendent

Carlsbad High School’s Award-Winning Speech and Debate Team

Each year, the National Speech & Debate Association puts out its list of Top 100 Schools. This year it placed Carlsbad High School’s Speech and Debate team in the top 2% of speech and debate programs in the nation. Carlsbad High’s program ranked number 50 out of more than 3,500 high schools in the country.


Under the able direction of CHS teacher Minnia Curtis, CHS’s team is 90 students strong and continues to rack up awards and honors. Most recently the team in December won 1st Place Sweepstakes at the prestigious La Costa Canyon Winter Classic. First-place winners in their events were competitors Ed Burns (Lincoln Douglas Debate), Nisha Ahmed (Congress Presiding Officer), Sofia Charvel (Informative Speaking), Sierra Vakili (Humorous Interpretation), and Arjun Venkatesh (Extemporaneous Speaking).


Should the United States federal government prioritize reducing the federal debt over promoting economic growth? Provide military aid to authoritarian regimes? Impose price controls on the pharmaceutical industry? These are some of the issues that CHS Debate team members grapple with as they face off against teams from across the region, the state, and the nation. And then there are Speech students performing Humorous Interpretations such as 10 Ways to Survive the Apocalypse by Don Zolidis, or Dramatic Interpretations like Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, or Redeployment by Phil Klay, and numerous extemporaneous speeches.


Matthew Krak, CHS’s Speech and Debate Co-President and Public Forum Co-Captain, said, “This program teaches students to speak confidently and to be informed. To be successful, students must research both sides of an issue, and be prepared to argue both sides. With what is going on in the world now, there are a lot of people who are so hung up in their perspectives. Speech and Debate allows me to converse without having to be right, and to try to understand the way people think. Maybe there is something in what they are saying. I never take a stand until I’ve looked at both sides.”


Co-Captain of Interpretation Events Sierra Vakili says, “Speech events are more like theater acting, except that you play all of the characters. Students take a published script (or write their own) and transform it into a humorous or dramatic performance, “popping” from one character to another. In the Parliamentary events, you don’t know what your topic is going to be. You have to keep up with the news, reading and listening to podcasts, and knowing the important numbers that support your argument so you can represent both sides of an issue, whether it is immigration, international trade, or the minimum wage.”


Participating in Speech and Debate involves lots of travel and plenty of hard work and preparation. But with 17 events to choose from, many students stay on for four years.


Sierra said, “With the wide variety events in Speech and Debate there is something for everyone, and there is an awesome team environment. We are all friends are on the team. When I first started I was so nervous, but I found that when you put in the work you build confidence.”


According to Ms. Curtis, “Speech and Debate is something unique—it is a micro community within the school. Team members work together. The more experienced members of the team are developing leadership skills as they mentor and support the younger students and take pride in their successes. The students are learning skills that are valued by colleges, such as how to think critically, do research, work as a team, and how to present their ideas with confidence, helping them to stand out on college applications.”


“Our world tends to be so divisive,” said Ms. Curtis. “Here you have to be open-minded, you have to look at both sides, and you come away knowing that the other side has value as well.”


Ms. Curtis, who serves as the Vice President, Curriculum, for the California High School Speech Association, wrote CHS’s UC-approved Speech and Debate curriculum. Oral Interpretation (Beginning Speech and Debate) is a Fine Art, and Advanced Speech and Advanced Debate are English electives.


Check out this extraordinary program at carlsbadspeechanddebate.weebly.com.


Minnia Curtis 760-331-5257; mcurtis@carlsbadusd.net

January 2019 Message from the Superintendent

Classroom Furnishings for the Future

When picturing a school classroom, most of us still think of a room with orderly rows of desks. And for traditional methods of instruction—lectures, exams, silent reading—rows of desks work very well.

However, when we design instruction for the entrepreneurs and employees of the future, straight rows of student desks might not always be the best option.

Today’s classroom furnishings also need to accommodate collaboration, communication, brainstorming, and group projects. One group of students might be the experts on crocodiles, while another is studying tortoises. Pairs of students might be interviewing each other about poems they are reading on their chromebooks. The team in the back might be preparing for a debate. Or a student might be demonstrating a chemistry experiment for the students who missed the lab. And others might be out in the quad testing pendulums. Flexible student furniture can help make this classroom collaboration possible.

English teacher Marisa Thompson was an early believer in adaptable furniture, so she began several years ago to search for non-traditional classroom furnishings. Her principal scoured the campus for unused tables and folding chairs. The woodshop donated some Adirondack chairs. She found some tables and bar stools on Craigslist, and received some donations. Now she has configured the classroom that she envisioned. And her students are doing lots of creating and collaborating.

“A more conversational arrangement of furniture has allowed me to change to the way I teach,” said Ms. Thompson. “Now my class is almost completely discussion-based. Discussing ideas first makes students more comfortable with writing, designing, revising. When we are more comfortable with each other we become more comfortable sharing and building on ideas. We become a team. And they are excelling at the skills they need to learn.”

A few years ago, Aviara Oaks Middle School teacher Penni Barachkov was similarly inspired to change the furniture in her classroom to encourage student interaction and involvement. She began with a budget from her principal, established a DonorsChoose.org account, and her own money. She shopped for barstools, bought erasable white board tables where students can jot down their notes right on the tabletop, and purchased some stand-up desks and some chairs with wheels. Today she feels she has a classroom that supports her engaging instructional program.

Carlsbad Unified believes that, like textbooks and technology, classroom furniture is there to support a dynamic instructional program. To that end, the district has undertaken a pilot program to place additional flexible furniture in selected classrooms to see how it might advance classroom innovation.

Jeff Brandmeyer, who runs the Film Academy at Carlsbad High School, is part of the pilot program. This summer Mr. Brandmeyer’s classroom was outfitted with individual desks that can easily be arranged in a way that encourages conversation and interaction; high cafe tables are comfortable and popular with students; a few “wobbly chairs” (stools that allow students to move around on their seats and that seem to work well for fidgety students); and a couple of erasable white board desks.

“The new furniture is working well,” said Mr. Brandmeyer. “I see students facing one another to do group work, being more productive, and interacting more effectively.”

The goal is to create an environment for inspiring instruction. As the teachers at Carlsbad Unified continue to design the classrooms of the future, we are learning how these flexible learning spaces can support the education of our students.