Project Phoenix
When DFWSD began as an organization, clubs around the nation had few options for speech and debate curriculum. Armed with an unrelenting drive for excellence, our founder Suzanne Nasser compiled years of speech and debate experience into written Tools for Policy Debate and Tools for LD Debate curriculums for club use. These curriculums were used as a guiding influence for speech and debate camps and private coaching. As time went on, these curriculums refined themselves into a proven resource that birthed national champions.
Written curriculums for clubs, however, intrinsically create several challenges for club leaders.
Is there a person to teach the curriculum? Clubs must find individuals that have time to understand the content along with a gift to teach the content. The problem recreates itself every few years as student leaders or parent leaders move on to other stages of life and are unable to continue serving their previous roles.
Is there time to teach material in club meetings? Club meetings are huge time commitments. Gathering students in one place is challenging and should be dedicated to discussion, practice and drills, not sitting behind a desk listening to lectures.
I would like to publicly announce our solution to both challenges in the form of Project Phoenix.
Project Phoenix is a collaboration between DFW Speech and Debate and Flashbang Productions, a filmmaking company created by NCFCA alumnus Cody Dedon. This summer we are transforming our previously written curriculums into video-based instruction. We will bring to life our Tools for Team Policy Debate curriculum and debut our innovative Tools for Speech curriculum.
Our team policy debate curriculum will change the game for club leaders. Split between Intro to Team Policy and Advanced Team Policy and totaling (conservatively) over 8 hours of video content, these curriculums cover the entirety of our previous club curriculum, our camp curriculum, and the coaching expertise we regularly pour into our own private students. Taught by myself (James Russell), you will have the same enthusiasm and knowledge that we have brought to over 1000 students through camp, club and private coaching across the nation to all levels of debaters - novices to national finalists.
Our speech curriculum will fundamentally change the landscape for speech instruction. We have created an innovative speech curriculum focused on the core principles of public speaking. We are working in collaboration with nationally-recognized speech coach Heather Neumann from Lasting Impact! to forge an iconic and engaging approach to public speaking. Real-world skills are placed front and center. Featuring instruction from DFWSD Director James Russell, Lasting Impact! Director Heather Neumann, and multiple-time national champion Cody Dedon, this addition to our coaching resources will be a must-add for speech clubs across the nation.
These curriculums are geared to solve both challenges discussed above. Our retooled curriculum will be taught by those who know it best and who have a proven track record of high-quality instruction. Because all lectures are in video form, clubs can easily assign watching lectures as homework outside of club. Videos can be paused, re-wound, and re-watched as many times as needed. Club leaders can re-purpose club time to discussion and application.
All told, we are combining over 40 years of speech and debate coaching experience with cutting-edge video production quality. When I say you don’t want to miss this, I mean it - this resource will be unlike anything previously available for speech and debate competitors.
Stay tuned for pricing details!
James Russell
Director
DFW Speech and Debate
@coachjames99