Academics News
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Riggins Awarded Prestigious NFHS Citation
By Jamie Oberg, UIL Intern | Friday, March 01, 2013 10:55 AM
Jana Riggins has been the UIL Speech and Debate Director for the past 16 years.
Photo by Jeanne Acton
Jana Riggins, Assistant Academic director at UIL, will receive the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) prestigious Citation Award this summer in Denver, Colorado.
Designed to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to high school sports and performing arts, the NFHS Citation is one of the most highly regarded achievements in high school activities. Citation Awards are issued in six categories, including Speech and Debate, where it is the highest honor possible.
When first notified of her recognition, Riggins said she felt “very humbled.”
Documentation Details for 2012-2013
By Jana Riggins, Speech and Debate Director | Wednesday, February 06, 2013 2:17 PM
As you prepare for competition, one of the most important things prose and poetry performers must do is to secure appropriate documentation for the performance categories.
Securing documentation is not a task that can be left until the last minute. The categories were designed to document easily, but you should secure proper documentation in advance of invitational and district meets. Do this before you put your heart and soul into analyzing and rehearsing a literary work for competition. If documentation is insufficient, you won’t even get to compete, so knowing the requirements and making certain you have met the contest rules is an integral part of preparation.
The Constitution & Contest Rules require all coaches to read the 2012-2013 edition of the UIL Prose and Poetry Handbook, which should be ordered from the state office:
UIL Computer Applications Update for 2013
By Linda Tarrant, Computer Applications Contest Director | Tuesday, January 29, 2013 11:35 AM
Being a contest based on Microsoft Office, Computer Applications will continue to make incremental changes to keep abreast of the changing technology. Again this year, competitors will be using only Office 2007 or Office 2010. The format of these two versions is fairly consistent.
In 2012, we created an Access file with multiple tables that we posted on the UIL website. We posted an exercise for practice using such a downloaded file. The State test last year utilized a downloaded file from the UIL website as well. The consensus of using this type of data was positive. This year, both the Region and State test will use the same 2013 Starter Files that we are posting to be used with a practice exercise.
Academic Deadlines Are Near
By Dr. David Stevens, Academic Director | Thursday, January 24, 2013 2:37 PM
Ready or not, deadlines for academic district meets are upon us. We are available to answer any questions you might have about the online system, but urge you to read the excellent help instructions before you call.
Setting Up the Academic District Meet
If you are in charge of setting up your academic district meet and have not done so by the Feb. 1 deadline, you will be hearing not only from our office, but also from the coordinators in your district trying to enter their contestants. Many academic district directors or meet hosts have already entered meet information, but some have failed to click the correct ‘Status of the Meet’ link from the pull-down menu on the meet setup page. ‘This meet is closed to schools and public’ is the default setting, which you would use before you are ready for schools to use the entry process. However, meet directors must change the status by Feb. 1 at the latest to ‘schools may enter contestants in the meet’ to allow academic coordinators to enter students in events. Some meets that have been setup online do not yet have scheduled times of events, so meet directors will want to check this, too.
Theatre Director’s Play Invited to International Festival
By Jamie Oberg, UIL Intern | Thursday, January 24, 2013 1:21 PM
Texas students will perform Coram Boy in Lincoln, Nebraska, this summer at the International Thespian Society's 50th festival.
This summer and fall Theatre Director Luis Muñoz spent several weeks and many weekends directing a group of 90-plus students from around the state in the production of Coram Boy for the All-State Thespian company. The hard work paid off with a successful performance at the state theater convention last November and an invitation to perform at the International Thespian Society’s 50th festival this summer in Lincoln, Nebraska.
“When I got the call, it was like I was going to state for the first time again,” said Muñoz, who began directing at age 17 and has served as UIL Theatre Director for the past 10 years.
Debate Season Underway in New Year
By Jana Riggins, Speech and Debate Director | Thursday, January 24, 2013 11:13 AM
The dawning of a new year begins a fresh semester. Some of you will get a whole new crop of students in your classrooms. The anticipation of spring just around the corner brings with it zeal to polish those oral interpretation pieces, attack the recently-released Lincoln-Douglas Debate resolution with fervor, beef up your extemporaneous files and design new CX plan attacks.At the League, it means the beginning of Cross-examination Debate district meets and heavy preparation for the state debate tournament. Deadlines loom just around the corner.
Your district entries are due no later than 10 calendar days prior to the scheduled meet. You must input those entries into the UIL Spring Meet Online System. There’s a link to the system conveniently located on the home page of the UIL speech/debate section of our website.
In the excitement of competing at district, if your teams place, don’t forget to pick up your winning coach packet from your district contest director. This large white and red envelope contains details about the state tournament and reminders about critical deadlines and responsibilities you as a coach have if your teams advance to the state tournament.
Entry Forms and Instructions for Essay Contests Ready for Students
By David Trussell, A+ Director | Thursday, January 24, 2013 10:46 AM
Entry forms and instructions are now available online for the Barbara Jordan Historical Essay and Latino History Essay competitions (http://www.uiltexas.org/academics/essay-contests).
The entry process is fully digital, with interactive PDF entry forms and dedicated email addresses for submitting entries. Students must attach their essay and completed entry form to an email message and send to the address indicated in the instructions. Some important points to keep in mind:
• Each entry must be the work of only one student. A student may submit one entry (per competition) per school year. The entry deadline for both contests is March 1, 2013.
Journalists Need to Slow Down, Re-Visit Ethics
By Jeanne Acton, Journalism Director | Thursday, January 24, 2013 10:32 AM
Pregnancy. Child Abuse. Suicide.
Pretty heavy topics for a high school newspaper. But back in the late 1980s those were the topics we covered.
At first glance, the topics may sound a bit sensational. Maybe even shocking.
And perhaps they could have been if we didn’t have our journalism teacher who drilled the importance of ethics and compassionate reporting into our heads.
“You don’t do a story to shock,” she used to tell us. “It must have purpose.”
So with every story idea, we discussed the purpose, the reason and need for doing the story. Would it help someone? Would it offer important information? Would it give voice to someone who had no voice?
Big Changes on Horizons for OAP
By Luis Muñoz, Theatre Director | Tuesday, November 20, 2012 1:35 PM
There are moments in time where we experience a quantum leap in the status quo. That type of catalyst for change in the One-Act Play Contest was provided at last month’s Legislative Council meeting. There were five amendments to the Constitution and Contest Rules and one pilot program that were unanimously approved. Each of them will impact OAP in its own way.
Conference 6A
Say goodbye to five conferences and welcome a sixth. This amendment creates a six conference alignment by renaming the current Conference A Division II (Six Man schools) to Conference A, current Conference A Division I (11 Man schools) into Conference AA, current conference AA schools into Conference AAA, etc. This change takes place beginning in August 2014. This will have at tremendous impact on our overcrowded 1A districts. In 2012, 1A had 309 schools enrolled in the contest. The change would split that total into two conferences. This would reduce the size of most 1A districts to 7 or 8 schools rather than 11 to 16.
Suggestions for Coaching UIL Academic Events
By Dr. David Stevens, Academic Director | Tuesday, November 20, 2012 11:33 AM
Sponsoring or coaching UIL academic contests is both challenging and rewarding. Here are some suggestions that have proven successful for coaches of academic events.
One of the initial objectives is to recruit team members for your activity. Although entries are limited to a maximum number in district competition, recruit more team members for several reasons.
It is inevitable that someone will get too busy, lose interest or not show up the day of the meet. It is important to have back-ups who can fill in.
Healthy competition for positions on the team is normally a good thing. Use competition to encourage each student to push harder to earn a spot on the team.