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Belarus.
By Vera Beloshitzkaya
I have been playing debates for 4 years. I’ve never thought that debates will turn to be my life-style. And not only mine, I suppose. I have been to many debate clubs and everywhere the newcomers are welcomed with the following words: “Welcome to our debate family. Do not be afraid ‘because everybody is a bit crazy here”. I was also welcomed by these words. And by these words I welcomed my pupils. And they are beginning to understand the real meaning of them. By the way, I am a new-beginner in couching. Since my first year in debates I have been dreaming of creating my own club. It has been my burning desire for 4 years. It seemed to me such a long way to go but… But fortunately dreams do come true. So I was suggested to start a debate club in one of Minsk lyceums. Sparkling eyes, witty thoughts, readiness to work…and still a long way to go to become a brilliant debater. And then one more miracle happened. I was invited to a scientific conference, which lasted for 3 days, October 3-5, in Stayki, a picturesque place not far from the capital of the country. The conference was dedicated to the role of debates in education. We were able to participate in several sessions. For instance, in some sessions on the rules of British Parliamentary (on how to judge it, to be exact; what does words “points of information” really mean,etc.), in a workshop during which we were doing different exercises aimed at the development of critical thinking, active listening and logics. In my opinion it’s extremely important for a coach to do all the exercises himself (herself) in order to understand whether the exercise will be interesting or not for children, whether it is really so effective as it has been described. We had a great fun solving the case of murder, for example. The other session of great use for me was the one dedicated to the exercises, which can be held among the newcomers. I consider the Mock Trial to be the most appealing one. While participating in different debate forums I came across such an interesting fact as ice-breaking and team-building activities. Now I can’t deny the fact every coach should devote an essential part of his (her) first lessons’ time at the beginning if he (she) wants to be a success in future. So during this session we were given a number of fine ice-breakers, which do really work I should say. During this conference we also “unified” (if it is possible to say so) our understanding of corruption for the motion for the next national tournament is “Governments of CIS should increase the fighting with corruption”. The session on new Karl Popper rules which were introduced to debate community in international debate forum in Slovenia were discussed late at night. Some coaches were shocked, others were really delighted, still others were trying to imagine how they will explain this purely logical format to there pupils-philologists but everybody was ready to try, I guess, and the results will be seen in the next international forum, I suppose.
The readiness of every well-matured coach to share his or her experience meant a lot for me.
The last day of the conference coincided with Teacher’s Day (the official holiday of teachers). It was marked by a great party. Our teachers were congratulated by three Muses (boys were them) in a funny way. Everybody had a nice time. All of us returned home with renewed strength and optimism. So did I.
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