2015-2-9 RNN

♪ ["Cinema (Skrillex Remix)" by Benny Benassi]

♪ You are a cinema

♪ I could watch you forever

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Hello. Welcome to this week's RNN.
I'm Eric.

And I'm Chloe. The debate team is on a roll this year taking three teams to state.

Here is Mr. Holmes with more details about their success and what it takes to become a successful debater.

Eric: How is this season going for debate?

Mr. Holmes: It's going pretty well. We've been to about 10 or 11 tournaments this year.

Right now we're getting ready for our state tournament for CX Debate which is coming up March 20th and 21st

and also preparing for another UIL district tournament we have coming up in April.

It's gone pretty well. We've had a lot of students compete this year.

We probably have about 20 to 25 active members of the debate team

and I would say this year has been pretty successful.

Eric: How do you join debate and what does it take to be successful in it?

Mr. Holmes: Basically you take the class and you go to competitions.

It's an expectation as being a member of the class that you go to weekend competitions.

We have anywhere from like 20 to 15 competitions a year.

That doesn't really even include the district and state level type events that we go to.

You really need to be comfortable getting up and talking in front of people.

You need to be able to think on your feet, come up with arguments,

be able to support those arguments and be able to ask questions of your opponents

in a way that would benefit you strategically.

I think of debate for the most part as kind of a strategy game. It's also a speaking competition

but it involves a lot of strategy, a lot of thinking,

and if that's something that students here might enjoy they should probably consider signing up for debate and seeing what it's all about.

Eric: The art team is expanding their talents by making the school their canvas.

They'll be painting the stairs by the auditorium making it their new masterpiece.

Here is Mrs. Botello and students for the reasoning behind it.

Cici: What is the purpose of painting the stairs?

Ivan: I guess just to make the school look a lot nicer than just plain old white to support our Rattler colors I guess.

Jojo.

Jojo: It makes it look everything better, like we're truly Rattlers.

Jackie: The background is going to be purple and they haven't decided what they're going to paint over it yet.

Cici: We're here with Mrs. Botello, the nicest and best art teacher at SMHS.

Okay, what is the point of painting the murals?

Mrs. Botello: I teach Painting and Public Arts here at San Marcos High School

and we don't have a bunch of solid wall space so we decided to go vertical and paint on the stairs.

Cici: What inspired you to do the murals?

Mrs. Botello: We're using purple so that's keeping it with the Rattler theme

and we don't have a final design quite yet.

Cici: What students are painting them?

Mrs. Botello: Students in the Painting in Public Arts course

and a few volunteers.

Chloe: If you have a story you would like to share on RNN, email us at [e-mail].

Chloe: Well that's it for this RNN.
Eric: Join us next week and have a great day.

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