In the video that was recorded of our groups final debate on Plastic Bags, whether we should or shouldn’t ban them, I think that in general we were all really well prepared, but I think the executing aspect of the debate (when I refer to debate I mean the final one in the video) wasn’t very good. Here are my reasons why:
Our debates didn’t show much energy:
I think that the debate didn’t show much energy because mostly we all were very nervous, I mean I know I was nervous, but I anticipated that the other group members (Ben, Emma, and Ayyan) were nervous too because it was an appearance. On camera, which initially does put a lot of stress on the reader, because it brings the mindset of them needing to be perfect, and not mess up on absolutely anything. Their were things that I noticed from all of our group members. I don’t want to give the input that I am criticizing anyone, I just wanted to remark different things that I noticed, to hopefully help those people, and me improve. I was personally “stealing the show”, because I barely let Ayyan speak because I had so much to say, and more things that I wanted it say. I felt bad for him after the debate because I feel like I stole a lot of the things that he initially was supposed to say. I also want to give a lot of credit to Ayyan because he decided to speak up a lot more than he usually does, although it wasn’t as loud as I hoped for, but it was a massive improvement, and I also understand that there was a lot of pressure because this debate was being recorded. Their were a couple of times that I noticed myself hesitating and not knowing what to say, especially when Ben brought up the point that people were losing their jobs because of the banning of plastic bans in some countries. I actually knew what to say in reality from some general knowledge and creativity, and a little bit of thinking on my feet, but when I paused for a couple of seconds I got terrified because of the camera, and was stalling by saying, “You mean the people that are losing their jobs are lowing their jobs because of the banning of plastic bags in certain countries?” (Which is exactly what he said and I already knew that) I also was thinking about saying, “Well then they can go get a new job like flipping burgers or something, but that would have been off topic. Another thong that I noticed is that Emma was extremely quiet, which was very unusual, but I think again that it was the pressure of the camera. Ok, so in general our debate didn’t show as much energy as I initially hoped for, but it got pretty elaborate at some points and I had a lot of fun. That’s what counts!
This debate unit was really fun and required some deep concentration and thinking in order to get the job done, and I also generally like debating because I have an opportunity to win with words, which I have discovered I have a big toolbox to refer from. Anyways, this unit was really fun and I wish we could do more of these related things. I loved this unit!

Here is the video of our debate: