Teacher’s Charity Debate for Nepal

On Wednesday, May 20^th, six of our 8^th grade ESL teachers debated for a cause, raising 2,403 Leva to send to disaster relief in Nepal.  Ms. Allen, Mr. Bleiweis, Mr. Deegan, Ms. Ivanova, Ms. O’Hara, and Ms. Zmolek-Smith all performed in a World Schools Debate for the ACS community to see. The idea came up as a response to the 8^th grade debate project where all ACS 8^th graders learned this format of debate in their classes and debated. “Debating is hard and we wanted to show the students that we too, as teachers, are willing to put ourselves in the same situation even if it was uncomfortable” said Ms. Allen. None of the teachers who participated had ever debated in public before, but motivated by their students and the cause, chose to debate.

The resolution of the debate was: “This house believes that Disney Princesses are bad role models.” The teachers wanted to pick something that was more fun for the audience and since the topic is quite debatable, they all agreed to do it. Some of the teachers even dressed up to make the debate even more engaging. The proposition team had Ms. O’Hara as “Bell” from Beauty and the Beast, Miss Ivanova as “Elza” from Frozen, and Mr. Deegan as “Snow White” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The opposition team included Ms. Allen, Mr. Bleiweis and Ms. Zmolek-Smith. Adelina Ivanova, 12^th grade; Stoyan Trenchev, 11^th grade; and Evgeni Marchev, 10^th grade; three varsity debaters from the ACS Speech and Debate Club judged the event. Upon the conclusion of the debate, Stoyan Trenchev, the current president of the ACS Speech and Debate club, declared that the winner of the debate was everyone who was present at the event or supported the cause in some way.

In addition to the debate, Ms. Zmolek-Smith organized a “Banitsa Challenge” wherein she agreed to make two pans of homemade Banitsa to the 8^th grade section who collected the most money for Nepal. All and all, 935 Leva was raised and section 8/6 won the mini-competition. Also, the ACS debate club is currently holding a “stotinki war” to collect even more for the cause. The idea of this fundraiser is that each grade level is against the others and each grade level has a jar representing their grade. In order to win, students have to “attack” the jars of the other grade levels by donating to their jars. The grade level that has the least amount of money at the end of the competition will be declared the winner. Students are encouraged to participate and protect their grade levels’ standing in the competition by donating!