Team Roster

Dear Students and Parents,

Welcome to the Digital Home of the Decatur Middle School Speech & Debate Team! The team is open to all DMS students in 6-8 grade. Below is a brief rundown of the purpose of the team and how often/when we meet.

Purpose: The Decatur Middle School speech and debate team competes against other middle school teams in tournaments throughout the year. Students can advance through 3 different rounds of competition and receive awards for outstanding performances. Students may choose from a variety of oral interpretation events, public speaking events, and debate.

Team Meetings: We have bi-weekly team meetings on Wednesdays from 7:30-8:15. Students who are unable to attend the before-school meeting are invited to a "working lunch" meeting with Miss Sims during their lunch period.

Meetings serve two purposes:

1. Informational- Any information/forms/breaking team news will be distributed at meetings.

2. Practical- Once the informational portion of the meeting has concluded, students will have the remainder of the meeting period to rehearse, research, plan, etc. This is a time for students to collaborate with group members and partners, and to use team resources to improve their events. Furthermore, certain event groups will have an opportunity to work with me and one another at select meetings, as denoted by the calendar (ex. Extemp Meet-up will appear on the calendar at the same time as a general meeting, which means after the info portion of the meeting has concluded, I will work with extemp students for the rest of practice.)

All students must be academically eligible to participate in speech tournaments. All pieces/performances must be approved by a club advisor prior to tournament. If your child is unable to make scheduled practice times, he/she must set up an appointment with me to get the selections and material approved. If the piece has not been approved by the deadline, students may be dropped from the event in question.

Thank you for your support. We look forward to a wonderful tournament season!

Sincerely,

Courtney Blanchette & Lindsay Sims

Speech and Debate Advisors

Decatur Middle School

(256) 552-3035