When we attend a tournament, all our students compete at the same time, spread across the school. While we compete against School A in front of a judge from School B, our judges will watch Schools C and D. We have to bring a number of judges based on the number of students we bring to the tournament to cover all those rounds that our kids are not in.
Any high school graduate can be a judge. We often target these messages at parents, but older siblings, neighbors, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and whoever else can come, too!
No experience or special skills are required to start judging. And just like competing, you get better the more you do!
It varies by event, but the basic idea is that the judge sits in the back of the room, observes the performances of the students, keeps time, and writes comments on a ballot for each student/round. At the end of the round, the judge votes for one of the teams (in debate) or ranks the performers (in speech). The judge does not take any active part in the competition, and the judge does not discuss the decision or rankings with the students.
Yes! You can (and should)! You will never judge your kid, and only in the very strangest of circumstances will you judge someone from Strath Haven. It is actually a good idea (though not required) to judge your kid's event! You can help them understand what it looks like from the judge's perspective, and make sure we always have a judge when they want to compete.
There are no special skills that make a good judge. Anyone who listens to the students and evaluates their performances while holding out their personal beliefs is a fine judge. As you gain experience as a judge you will become a good judge! Students will always disagree with their judges, but you can't really be wrong - there is some subjectivity here, as it is their job to persuade or impress you. If you do your best and then give feedback, you are a good judge.
We will have to cut students from tournaments. If this becomes necessary I will try to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone twice. However, in fairness, the first cuts will be students who have not contributed to our judging needs. At present, we are bringing about 25 students to each tournament and need 6-8 judges. That should make it possible to take turns and not overburden any one person, though of course feel free to join me every week!
I understand that our schedule just does not work for some people. It is a requirement of team membership that all students contribute to our supply of judges. However, there are some occasions where we can hire judges, and you can contribute to the team's judge budget by sending in a check (to WSSD) to me.
Fantastic resource about all aspects
Documents you can bring with you:
Judging Guides for various events
Resources and Videos
Tabroom.com: set up an account | judge with e-ballots
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