BALTIMORE INFORMATION

Hey kids! I'm reposting Dr. Bob's email here for point of reference. Information on Baltimore!!

"What follows is travel schedule, housing information, and some basic guidelines on our participation in the conference. For those of you flying to Baltimore, I will send you a separate e-mail tomorrow morning; I'll also send some suggestions/guidelines for the final steps in preparation of the posters.

Travel schedule for folks driving to Chicago on Tuesday, Nov. 2. We load the two 15-passenger vans and the two automobiles (my Honda Odyssey and Jacquie’s vehicle) at 12:00 noon. Meet at the Writing Center, and we’ll load in the loading dock driveway. Our goal is to be on the road by 12:10. Be sure all Baltimore support materials for poster presentations are packed and ready to go by 11:00 a.m. Each team will be responsible for getting their poster materials to the conference. We will not stop to eat after we depart, so be sure you have either eaten before hand or bring food with you.

Luggage and clothes: everyone can bring one small travel bag and one book bag or school bag. If you need a pillow or sleeping blanket or Teddy Bear to help you sleep at night, be sure those items are packed in your travel bag. There may be instances when you will have to walk some distance with your bags, so travel light. There’s also a chance we can be walking in rainy or inclement weather so plan accordingly. And we could enter some fairly chilly weather so bring clothes that are appropriate for early November. With regard to your choice of clothing at the conference, we do want to give a good impression so nice, casual professional clothing. If possible avoid clothing with insignia or advertising (exception: items with Coe College; it would be okay to wear Coe Writing Center shirts/sweaters at some points at the conference).

Travel Schedule on Train
When we arrive in the Chicago area we will park our vans & autos (at a place not yet determined) and then take the train (or some other public transportation) to Union Station. We are all traveling by train on one group ticket (Reservation # 10BFF7). Our travel schedule is as follows:
Depart on Train #30 out of Chicago at 6:40 p.m.
Arrive in Washington D.C. on November 3 at 1:10 p.m.
Department on Train #198 from Washington, D.C. at 8:45 p.m.
Arrive in Baltimore at 9:26 p.m.

Between our departure at noon on Tuesday and our evening meal in Washington on Wednesday, you will be responsible for your own meals. You will each receive $10 to help cover your food costs; food will be available on the train, but you might also want to plan on traveling with some food to prevent starvation.

We have dinner reservations in Washington, D.C. at 6:00 p.m. at the White Tiger restaurant, an Indian cuisine restaurant about two blocks walking distance from the train station. At the dinner we will be joined by some Writing Center alums and perhaps my son and his wife. I think there should be lockers at the station where we can check our bags so we don’t have to carry them while walking around D.C. It’s not likely the train will arrive exactly at 1:10, but I trust we will arrive early enough that folks will have several hours for seeing the sites. You will be on your own schedule while in Washington, D.C.: we will make no effort to travel as one large group so you will be free to visit what you want to visit. I would recommend that you travel in small groups and you might want to do some planning ahead of time. It will be your responsibility to at the White Tiger at 6:00 p.m. That meal will be paid for by Coe.

When we arrive in Baltimore, we will go to the Mount Vernon Hotel, located in the historic Mount Vernon District at 24 West Franklin Street. Their web address is www.mountvernonbaltimore.com. For a web tour, you can visit www.easyviewmedia.com//Mount-Vernon-Hotel/index.html. This is a 2 ½ star hotel so it should be okay but not luxurious. It does come with complimentary hot breakfast, and it’s about half of the cost of staying at the conference hotel. We have 10 rooms reserved: one room for Singleton and Marrs, one room for the other three men on the trip, and 8 rooms for 32 women (I’ll let you ladies decide how you want to divide yourselves up).

The conference is at the Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel, just a few blocks from the Inner Harbor. Here’s the web site with full information, including the schedule of presentations for the conference: http://www.mawcaonline.org/iwca/index.html. The conference begins Thursday morning at 9:00 a.m. On Thursday you will be on your own for the noon meal; the Friday schedule includes a luncheon at the conference. Conference events are over by 6:30 on Thursday and 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both evenings you will be free to do whatever you wish in the evening; on both evenings we will arrange for a group meal in the area for folks who want to eat a meal paid for by Coe.

Our poster session is scheduled for Friday afternoon, 2:10-3:10. There are no other sessions scheduled at that time so we should meet a lot of people.

With regard to participating in the conference, here are the basic ground rules:
• Everyone is expected to participate fully in the conference and attend a broad sampling of sessions. In addition to keynote addresses and our poster session, you need to attend a minimum of six sessions–which will ensure that you have time for escaping the conference and doing some sightseeing in the daylight hours.
• Everyone is required to keep a detailed journal during the conference and submit a report on your conference experiences. That report should be submitted no later than midnight on Sunday, 7 November to a forum on the Writing Center Moodle site (same site where we keep the database). For those of you in Topics, this trip and report can take care of your “publication” assignment.
• During the conference, please divide into small groups; except for meeting for evening meals or preparing for our poster session, there should be no big mass of Coe consultants traveling around together. This includes spreading yourselves out during the Friday luncheon. A major reason for going to this conference is to meet as many people as possible from as many different Writing Centers as possible. It’s okay to talk about Coe if people ask, but my advice is to ask people about their Writing Centers and about their programs. Ask questions during presentations. When presentations are concluded, go up and talk to presenters. Pick up handouts. Be active participants, looking for ideas and practices that might be applicable to our Writing Center. Prior to the beginning of each day, we will distribute groups to different sessions so we ensure a broad sampling of presentations.

Our train (#195) departs Baltimore at 1:40 p.m. on Saturday, so we will be leaving the conference at approximately 12:00 noon on Saturday. Our return trip will go through Washington, D.C., but we only have about 90 minutes before our train departs for Chicago. We are scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 8:45 a.m. on Sunday morning, November 7. Depending on the time of our arrival (and how people feel), we will have a final group meal in Chicago–and then drive back to C.R.–or drive part of the way and have a noon meal (paid for by Coe) somewhere between Chicago and C.R. Assuming the train is not too late and we don’t have any other unforeseen problems, we should be back in C.R. before 5:00 p.m. If everything went perfectly, we might be back as early as 3:00–but I wouldn’t count on it.

Tomorrow morning I will send out a travel information e-mail for the folks flying to Baltimore and send another e-mail with updated information concerning final preparations for the four presentations." - Dr. Bob

Baltimore Preparation

Hey gang!

As November 2nd draws nearer, I can't contain my excitement for the Baltimore conference. I'm psyched for the night train, time in Washington DC and then the conference in Baltimore. Right now my group, Do We Practice What We Preach, is working hard to get our project done. Big meeting on Sunday to finish the presentation up. I have never been to either Washington DC or Baltimore so I'm excited to explore both cities and see all they have to offer. Well, off to work on Baltimore preparation, I'll will write more later, maybe an update from Baltimore!

Hailley

PARKA

Beth, another consultant in the parka! I think is catching on!

PARKA

Karin C. Writing Center Consultant in the parka!!

the winter cometh

Folks, maybe you haven't noticed, but it's getting cold outside! I even see snow in our near future! What does this have to do with the Coe Writing Center, you ask?

The answer: THE WRITING CENTER PARKA.


(Me. In the parka...)

Getting cold just means getting warm in the Writing Center. Come drink coffee, tea or cocoa. Cuddle up with your papers and a consultant AND get work done! And, if you have the guts, try on the parka! (If you try on the parka, take a picture and send it to me. It may appear here!)

- Taylor E.

"Take a Loaf Off!"

Hey everyone!

It's Hailley, a newbie consultant, writing my first blog post of this school year! Today was priceless and showed me why I love the Writing Center so. I came into the WC around 12:15 to wait for my roommate, Heidi, to finish her shift before heading to the caf for lunch. Ashley C. and Jon A. were also working with Heidi. We were all just relaxing and catching up on some homework when Heidi informed me that someone had put some bread it and it would be done soon. After confirming with the Speaking Center it was our bread, Heidi and I waited, somewhat impatiently, for the bread to be done. The buzzer rang and Heidi took the bread out of the bread maker. Then came the challenge and the fun part. I tried to pry the bread out but couldn't since the bottom was attached to the spinner. After a few unsuccessful tries, Heidi and I switched places and she too couldn't get the bread out of the bucket. By this time, bread crumbs were everywhere and Ashley came onto the scene. She tried to pry it out but she also failed. The three of us were now laughing at how hard it was get the bread out. Finally Heidi used her big muscles to pull the bread out. Success (finally). We put the bread on a plate and gathered around the table near the coffee. Jon joined us and we chowed down, devouring the bread like there was no tomorrow. The bread was delicious and the four of us thank whoever made it because it was WONDERFUL. In my slightly crazy mood I imagined a scene where a student would come in, looking for a conference. We would tell them to "Take a loaf off and have some bread!" When I told Heidi, Ashley, and Jon this I truly believe they thought I was crazy because that was definitely a horrible pun. But horribly funny as well.

Well there's your random story of the day! :)

- Hailley

writing center minutes

September 27th WC Meeting

The meeting was only required for those going to Baltimore on the conference, where we are responsible for four different poster presentations. A two-page handout that summarizes the information on the poster will also need to be made for each poster.

The four different posters that will be presented at the conference include:
1. Tybee Island Staff Development Course (a.k.a. The writing center beach orgy)
2. Moodle as a Writing Center Management System
3. A Writing Center Assessing a WAC Program
4. A Writing Center Staff: Do They Practice What They Preach?

We broke into semi-equal groups to discuss plans for the poster presentations. One group member was selected to communicate the group plans to Dr. Bob, and he would like to hear sometime this week about any plans that have already developed.

If you were not at the meeting and you are planning on going to Baltimore, you need to talk to Dr. Bob about being placed in a group. Work has already started on the plans so doing this sooner rather than later would be appreciated by the rest of the group.

Dr. Bob will be sending out an email to staff and faculty, excusing those going on the conference from class November 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. If you encounter any problems with staff or faculty just let Dr. Bob know and it will be taken care of.

ringing in the new year (on the blog)

"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said."

A man by the name of Peter Drucker said that. When I stumbled across it, I thought about how well it sums up our jobs in the Writing Center as consultants. We are, after all, communicators. We are listeners. We are fellow classmates, searching for what isn't being said.

The fun part has been learning how to listen for it and what to do with it once it's been found.

On another note - this is officially the first posting of the 2010 - 2011 school year. May many more follow after.

- Taylor E.

On Coffee and the threat of Disestablishment

February is already half over... time flies by. There was a Cosmos article recently talking about the different organizations that all sat outside the Cafeteria in Gage fund-raising over Valentines day. From the FDAC's breakfast in bed for Flunk Day activities to Choir's singing Valentines to support a tour to Thailand, the diversity of the petitioners was rather spectacular. The appeal of such an organizational drive is also difficult to match; choir, for in stance, made over $2oo alone. Why do I bring this up? I bring this up because I fear that this is the way the Writing Center might be forced to conduct business in the future.

It is a relatively open secret that the Writing Center is willing to lose money to keep providing its food and coffee services, and recent signs put up around the Writing Center seem to suggest that people are willing to take full advantage of this generosity. The message I would give to those people: Stop. The Writing Center offers these functions on an honors system of payment, and when you choose not to pay for your daily cup of coffee, you jeopardize that. You jeopardize the legitimate use in providing beverages, which we would like to have at least break even. Free drinks with a conference or one during your hour of work are one thing, and you are entitled to that. Outside of this case, however, and in the words of the handbook (p. 8, as a matter of fact) "you are responsible for paying for your drinks--just like everyone else."

- Ben B '13

A Play to Remember

"It looked like a writing center conference up there."
The words of Dr. Bob Marrs when he spoke about "She Would if She Could" at one of our Monday meetings. Featuring notable WC consultants Katie Blanchard, Nathan Raymond, Britt Anderson, and Andy Johnson among the principals, it was a three hour romp through all of the lewdness of a restoration comedy, and one of the funniest stage shows that I have ever seen.

I'd go see that again, and I have already seen it thrice.

- Ben B. '13

MWCA CONFERENCE

Hello all! Fifteen hours after leaving Cedar Rapids and one lost shoe later, the Coe Writing Center has made it to Rapid City, South Dakota for the Midwest Writing Center Association Conference. Woohoo! For the next two days, we'll be here giving presentations on wonderful subjects such as, Writing Center as an NGO, the 15 committees, and Writing Across the Curriculum Research. (We also got to explore the Badlands, caves and Deadwood.)

Here's a picture of us hard at work:



That's enough fun for now.
-Taylor

Ah, will you look at that; fall break has come and gone. How quickly time passes when you're hard at work at Coe. However, fall break was convenient in some respects: I figured out what you, the reader of this fine blog, are entitled to next. Namely, the results of some thinking inflicted on me late one evening.

As it turned out, on that rather dreary Minnesota night, a friend of mine asked me over the internet to take a quick glance at a paper he was working on. This wasn't a particularly unusual request; I've done quite a few things like this for my friends in the past, but on this particular instance, I had some new abilities available to me. Or at least a new perspective. In helping Thomas fix his paper, I this time took a more backseat role and focused on helping him make the paper better rather than on editing. As the paper was going to be subjected to a class workshop the next day, I focused on the type of criticism and commentary that we so often fall back on in the Writing Center here at Coe. It made me think, "I really do belong in the Coe Writing Center."

- Ben Buckmaster '13.

Ladies and Gentlemen...Andy Johnson

 
- Chris Hughes

They Call Me "Swine Flew"

2814 11.1282

We had a great time on our annual WC retreat a few weeks ago. Returning to Wisconsin (where our retreat was held my freshman year) and the American Players Theatre was a great throw-back for me, but the real treat was the opportunity to once again drive a 15 passenger van. I drove one of these beast my first year at Coe on a going to a Writing Center conference in Houston, and that was quite a trial. At 5’1” I am barely able to see over the steering wheel, and also have to take a running start to get into the driver’s seat. This particular road trip had been very Little Miss Sunshine with each of us stoically playing our parts. I of course got to be Olive, the little girl. But that isn’t so important.

We were driving through the boonies of Oklahoma in the middle of the night. Rob Synovec and Catie Stienman had both gotten too tired to drive, so it was my turn to take the night shift. Driving through the plaines of Oklahoma in the middle of the night is a dull experience, and so Malyssa Oblander was put in charge of keeping me awake. She failed miserably at this job, and about 2:30am Rob switched with her and took up the post of navigator and driver’s entertainment. Around 3 am we decided it was time to stop for the night, and pulled off of the main highway headed toward a town that had signs for hotels. Driving down the unlit road leading from off-ramp to town, a figure suddenly appeared in the road. It was large and bulbous and rather lifeless, but I did not have time to think or react much less slam on my brakes. Instead I proceeded to straddle this creature with the tires of the 15 passenger van. After passing over it, I came to a stop and looked at Rob. I thought I was hallucinating, of course as it was 3 in the morning and I had been going crazy in that van for the past twelve hours. The look on Rob’s face confirmed my sanity when we both realized that I had just run over a dead pig. It wasn’t just any pig, but a very large, very pink, potentially pregnant dead pig. We are talking Blue-ribbon sized pig.

We found the motel a few miles down the road and Rob got out to get us some rooms. Another van pulled up, and out came about 15 haggard looking railroad workers. One of them may actually have been a reincarnation of John Henry. He was in the top five biggest people I have ever seen. I would have liked him to be on my football team. Or really any team for that matter. Once Rob got inside, John Henry leans over to him and asks if he is the one with the van full of women. Rob says yes, and John Henry responds, “You are one lucky man.”

We went back down the same road the next morning, and there was no pig to be seen. Rob and I both saw it though. We promise. Needless to say, I love 15 passenger vans.

-Katie B.

So we here at the Writing Center have a slight problem: while we love baking things, we (more often than not) have no eggs to work with. This was, unfortunately, the case this evening down in the WC when our dear friend Jess decided that it was time for brownies. We lamented the lack of eggs and the absence of baked treats that said lack would cause. That is, until Amelie suggested:

"Hey, why don't you just do a vegan recipe? They don't require eggs or anything like that."

Apparently, vegan recipes (especially for things like cookies and brownies, we don't really aim for healthy things down here) have been an ongoing theme in the Writing Center, especially with folks like Clarissa and Patricia last year. And while I haven't been privy to such knowledge up until now, I am feeling all sorts of educated and ready to munch.

So please, when trying to bake something in our beloved basement abode, think of your fellow consultants: don't let the lack of any one ingredient get in between you and baked goodness. Be creative and even if your concoction turns out to be awful, those in the WC will still appreciate it.

For personal reference, here is a vegan recipe for brownies:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Pour in water, vegetable oil and vanilla; mix until well blended. Spread evenly in a 9x13 inch baking pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is no longer shiny. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into squares.

Fo sheezy

- Chris Hughes '10

Anne Fadiman Visits Coe

Nationally acclaimed author and essayist Anne Fadiman recently visited Coe College. Fadiman is perhaps best known for her award-winning book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. All incoming freshman were required to read this book (myself included). This book covered the account of a young epileptic Hmong – American girl (Hmong is a group of people from Laos and Vietnam) and the cultural misunderstandings between her parents and the American doctors who treated her. The book deals with the very sensitive topic of racial and cultural differences, and has been received in both very positive and negative ways. It, however, did win the National Book Critics Circle Award.

The writing center staff attended one of her speaking events on Sunday, September 20 in exchange for the weekly staff meeting. This event was largely based on question and answer. Students posed a wide variety of queries, and Fadiman addressed most of them. She explained the process of writing her book, which took over eight years to complete. She also answered questions regarding her experiences with writing and education, publishing, her critics, and her writing style.

The following day, Fadiman addressed a larger of group faculty and students in Sinclair auditorium. She spoke for roughly forty-five minutes, talking about the time she spent with the Hmong during her research, and elaborating on the larger themes of her work. There was another question and answer session following her talk.

Ten writing center students also had the opportunity to have lunch with Fadiman on Monday afternoon. This was initially going to be a lunch with faculty, but Dr. Bob advocated the value that students could extract from the experience. Because of this, Dr. Bob was able to produce 10 students from the writing center to have lunch with the acclaimed author.

- Matt Barnd '13

LWS: Longitudinal Writing Study

One of our projects this summer is the Longitudinal Writing Study that Tara has been working on. Here is what she has to say about it:

"Work on the Longitudinal Writing Study (LWS) began steadily through the first part of the summer until the end of June hit. After a few bumps in the road (i.e. finding a few research flaws, backtracking to correct them, and the researcher’s inability to read), it is mid-August and progress is slow.

I am swimming in data and charts, trying to provide helpful analysis and commentary for Coe faculty. But the end is in sight.

For anyone wondering, the LWS is a long-term study looking at the writing program at Coe and more specifically, student perceptions of it. Year one has been completed with a database of collected surveys, interviews and writing samples/reflections from students. Plans for year two are currently underway and will begin to be implemented with the arrival of new and returning students.

Next stop: Presentation at the Midwest Writing Center Association Conference in Rapid City, South Dakota."

Summer ESL Comes to a Close!

Summer is coming to an end, folks!

Today was the last round of conferences for our summer ESL students.

Every summer a large group of students from Waseda University and Nagoya-Gaukin University (both in Japan) come to Coe to get some preliminary ESL training, and to develop a stronger knowledge of American culture. I have been working as a mentor and conversation assistant for these students, which is always a challenge, but incredibly fun. Two of my students will be staying here at Coe for the year, so it will be nice to see their progress as they become more comfortable with our American way of life.

As summer WC consultants, it is our responsibility to make ourselves available for conferences with these students. This evening, Karin, Tara, Malyssa and I did 12 conferences, which although not a WC record, it was indeed a hefty number considering we haven't been opened all summer.

On of the most interesting and challenging things about ESL conferences has always been the varying levels of English proficiency that these students come in with. Some are nearly fluent while others are struggling to form complete sentences. And some are quite excellent writers while they remain completely hesitant to speak in English. So are the woes of a WCer! My favorite part about the summer ESL students is how eager they all are to learn. All of them make great efforts and show significant improvement during their week or two weeks at Coe. It is really quite remarkable.

Katie B.

Summer Musings...you needed an update.

Hello, Hello, Hello WC folk!
Well it has been a fairly average and mundane summer in the Writing Center. It has been a long time since a post has been made, so I'll try and update you as best I can.

This summer we have Amber, Tara, Karin, Andy, Malyssa, Clarissa and myself (Katie) working in the Writing Center. We are doing the usual projects, and have added a few fun things this summer, so here is a bit of an update on that:

The summer newsletter went incredibly smoothly, only a few minor hitches including Dr. Bob trying to crop out his "pimping ain't easy" shirt, but we managed to keep that intact. Hopefully this will be posted on the website soon so people who are not current staff members can take a look at "The Albuquerque A-Bomb."

As for the Alumni Newsletter, it is a slower process. We are trying to compile a current list of alums and their locations and get plenty of info on those individuals who may have eluded us in the past. Andy and I are beginning to feel like stalkers, so hopefully those of you who have avoided being contacted for the last several years will suck it up and send us your info!

Andy and Karin have made some wonderful videos discussing Writing Center theory and execution. These will be used to introduce people to the Writing Center, help train new staff members, and hopefully at least one of them will be used at the MWCA conference in Rapid City, South Dakota this fall.

As some of you know, last year we started a project entitled "The WCWC" or Writing Center Water Closet. A few times a semester we put up newsletters in all of the bathroom stalls on campus with some Writing Center news, event info, and some fun stuff to read while you are..er...taking care of business. In an attempt to be more environmentally friendly, an accurate count of all of the bathroom stalls on campus is being taken. No longer will we over-print!

Amber would like everyone to know that the Colere website is finally up to date, one of her summer projects. She says: "The Colere website is now amazing and everyone should take a glance at it. www.public.coe.edu/wac/colere For once, it's not three years out of date." Do it. You know you want to.

Other than that, it has been a lot of gardening and planning for the new incoming class. We seem to have a great group coming in this year, so get excited!

More to come!
- Katie B.

hard work, good luck, red bull

Update from alumna Alice Obrecht, currently working on her PhD at the London School of Economics:

I've been thinking about the writing center a lot lately, for two reasons: one, I think my life would be better if I had a bread makingmachine. Two, exam time is looming here at LSE.

The brilliance of the British system is that students are politely asked to do various chores throughout the year - for example attend class somewhat regularly, participate in discussion, submit written work that is marked and returned to them-but 100% of their grade for a class is determined by a single 3-hour exam sat in a large, often sweltering, hall in June. In this 3 hour exam students are expected to write 3 essays, by hand. There is also a pit of tarantulas they must avoid falling into as they exit the hall. Unfortunately that last part is not true. Yet.

So I am thinking of the WC at the moment, as I always do this time of year. On the one hand, focusing course assessment around written work is a good idea. On the other hand, this way of doing it seems to take the writing process and pump it full of Red Bull and extreme anxiety and the search for the Perfect Essay Structure that can be learned and repeated over and over.

Hence my procrastination in preparing for the revision class I must teach tomorrow (and hence this as another chance at procrastination). But basically I will say what I always say, which is that writing a good philosophy essay is like good cooking or having a good sense of personal style. Outside of some basic guidelines, like don't switch around the salt and the sugar, or don't always expect people to understand the irony of your clothing choices, there is not much to say. You are free.

And it is your choice: will you be inspired by that freedom, or terrified?

Then I will tell them to work hard, and wish them luck, and remind them of the health side effects of drinking too much Red Bull.

She also writes: " I would have liked to send you a picture of me on the boat I'm living on, but forgot to bring my camera with me to school. Perhaps later."