Tybee Day One - We Made It!

After two days of driving with a total of about 21 hours, we finally arrived on Tybee! Our trip down was pretty uneventful, minus the part where one of the tires on the Odyssey van went bad. Luckily, we were able to stop for lunch and get it fixed in a timely manner so that we were on the road again. Yesterday, we covered the majority of the distance. We left around 7 in the morning from Cedar Rapids and made it to just outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee around 9:30, where we stayed the night. We had another early start this morning. We were on the road a little after 7 and made it to Tybee after 3. 

Once we were at our destination, everyone quickly vacated the vans to check out our beach house and claim bedrooms. I'm happy to report that Doctor Bob chose well. The house is three stories, with tons of bedrooms, bathrooms, and TVs to make everyone happy. After the bedrooms were divided, we had a big group meeting where everyone was split into  smaller groups and put in charge of two meals for our stay. After that, Doctor Bob left to pick up Maddie from the airport. 

We spent most of the time after our meeting just hanging out and waiting for Doctor Bob to get back. We watched some football and played a few card games. Maddie's flight was delayed so she and Doctor Bob didn't get back until it was too late to prepare the first meal, so we ordered pizza instead. Then it was off to the grocery store to pick up food for our meals. Once we got back to the beach house, Doctor Bob left and everyone has been hanging out and doing different things since. Apparently we have our first class session in the morning. I still have no idea what we're doing, but I'm sure my next few posts will be much more interesting!

Honestly, I'm just glad to be away from the -18 degrees with wind chill that Wisconsin has on Monday. Yikes. Apparently some of the US will be reaching Mars-like temperatures. Makes me extra glad I'm here on Tybee. 

Stay classy,

Brittney 

Topics Goes to Tybee

While most Coe students are enjoying their winter break surrounded by snow and keeping warm by the fire, some of the Writing Center Centaurs will be traveling to Tybee Island for Topics class! For those of you that don't know, Topics in Composition is a required class for consultants at the CWC. We are required to take it four times in our four years here, usually both semesters of freshman year, once as a senior, and then one other time of our choosing. For the last time (since Dr. Bob is retiring after this year,) a spring semester of Topics is being held on Tybee Island, not far from Savannah, Georgia. There will be 16 of us taking the 18 - 20 hour drive in two passenger vans.

I'm not entirely sure what we'll be doing during our week there, but we'll be staying in a beach house called "Lazy Dayz." It has good reviews on tripadvisor.com, so I'm excited. Tybee Island is located roughly 30 minutes from downtown Savannah, which Dr. Bob has said we will be visiting during our stay. The historic square and monuments area sounds like a great place to write, so I'm sure we will be exploring that area of the city. I haven't spent much time in the southern US and have never been to Georgia besides driving through it, so I am very enthusiastic about this trip! Less enthusiastic about the long drive down. If I have time, I will be updating the blog with accounts of our adventures in and around Tybee Island.

Stay classy,

Brittney

Attending the MWCA Conference

NOTE: This is a previously written post just published a little later. 

It's that wonderful time of year again: the weather is starting to get colder, college students are being driven insane by midterms, and the first writing center conferences are taking place! Just this past week, our own writing center had the privilege of attending the Midwest Writing Centers Association, or MWCA, conference in Skokie, Illinois. The actual event took place from October 17 to the 19, and the topic was all about "writing the L." The "L," which stands for elevated, is the rapid transit system providing transportation to Chicago and some of the surrounding suburbs. Here's my abridged run down of my experiences at the conference.

Being a freshman, I really didn't have any idea what to expect. All I knew was that I had to attend some presentations and give one myself. I was pretty nervous, but once the conference started into full swing, I felt more at home. The first presentation I attended was a three part session focusing on ESL learners and the struggles that both they and writing centers face. The first presentation, which was called "ESL Writers: Listen to Us!" was about a focus group that did research on the struggles, expectations, and emotions of ESL learners. One of the most interesting things I learned from that presentation was that most ESL learners wish to be graded on the same scale that native speakers are. I would have thought the opposite to be true. The second presentation dealt with the rapid expansion of foreign exchange students and the best efforts of a writing center to keep up. It was interesting to hear about how they were adapting to deal with the situation. The last presentation was about a grammar log experiment that identified the grammar issues ESL students struggle with the most.

I also attended an interesting round table session about high school writing centers, hosted by a teacher and students from the University of Illinois Laboratory High School. It was really neat to here how some high schools are already implementing writing centers into their curriculum. Their center has been open for two years, and they are only open for about 40 minutes on Fridays. While they obviously have a different set of parameters to work with, being a high school, the way they go about conferencing is similar to the CWC. Just like us, they have a strict "no writing on the paper" policy, and they sounded more idea based than simply grammar focused. This session was probably one of my favorites.

Attending a conference also means presenting one ourselves! 10 consultants, including myself, and Doctor Bob held a round table session focusing on the hiring process here at the CWC. We spent the first 20 minutes or so explaining the three main ways you can get hired: the first year competition, the phone interviews, and the "everyone who's not a freshman" method. I focused mostly on the competition, being a first year. Specifically, I talked about the writing exercise and mock conference we participated in. I was actually sitting next to the person I conferenced, none other than Anton Jones! After we finished with our section, we opened the floor up for other writing centers to comment on their hiring processes. Instead, we got asked a lot of question about anything and everything CWC. While it didn't go exactly as planned, I feel like it was still a successful presentation, especially for my first one!

Initially, I wasn't sure what to expect from this conference, but I am super glad that I went! I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot about other writing centers. Before this, I had this naive belief that all writing centers worked like ours. Obviously, that's not the case! I also feel that I have a better sense of my job here in the writing center. This was definitely a good decision on my part. Can't wait for the next conference!

Stay classy,

Brittney

Winter Break Update

So maybe the blog writers here were taking "winter hibernation" kind of literally in terms of updating the blog.

Whoops!

But, in our defense, with the end of the semester, finals, and figuring out the always inconsistent Iowa weather, we seemed to have quite a lot on our plates. So much on those figurative plates, I might add, we resorted to everyone wearing flannel to stay warm...

Okay, you've got me, it was intentional (blame, thank the Phi Taus for their annual Lumberjack Fest). Still made for a neat photo! 

So now we're all on break, enjoying a life without readings, Moodle postings, Orchid forms, and Sunday Meals (wait, I'm definitely missing those Sunday Meals!). Now that our adrenaline from taking finals has settled down, we've decompressed, we are ready to look back on 2013 and prepare for 2014. In that spirit, the blog team has revamped the blog a little. 

If you look across the top of the page, you'll see some tabs. Click on them! Many have been updated. Yeah! They are still in the works, but it's a start. And all you need is a start. 

In terms of posts before classes start up again in January, expect a few older posts recapping first semester events along with a special series starting the beginning of January. Brittney, one of our blog writers, is headed to Tybee Island. I won't give away the trip (she has an excellent post coming up soon), but I will let you in on her providing some live updates. 

Once school is back in session, the blog team hopes to begin posting with some regularity. We will have some weekly features, hoping to bring you readers back to our site at least once a week. We're also in the process of some serious brainstorming to create some neat series about aspects of the Writing Center and us as consultants. 

So stay tuned, you won't want to miss this blog in 2014! 

P.S. For some fun, check out the 12 Weirdest Stories of Christmas over at the Huffington Post. Our own WC consultant, Laura Farmer, is featured (she's number 10). 

WC Centaurs Represent on the 2013 Homecoming Court

Hello hello! Hailley is back for another exciting blog post.

This past weekend, Coe celebrated its 100th Homecoming. Campus was a buzz with alums, all coming back to see old friends, professors, and the campus that they love. It was good to see familiar faces and also good to meet some alums who had their own version of Coe to share with us.

A staple of Coe's Homecoming is the traditional Homecoming Court. All Coe students were emailed a list of all eligible seniors and had to vote on five males and five females. Those winners made up the 2013 Homecoming Court.

The Writing Center had a hearty representation on this year's court. First up, Anna Barton, from St. Paul, Minnesota. Then, William "Kobe" Spencer from Racine, Wisconsin and finally, me, from good old Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin.

Our Homecoming obligations were mainly during the second half of the week. We performed a short act for our Homecoming variety show on Thursday night, called Kohawk Rock. Kobe did his best impersonation of Beyonce's "Love on Top," while Anna ran through her time on campus, and I did a top ten list of Coe College Rebellions. What I loved about my skit was that I was able to incorporate many WC consultants who helped to act out these rebellions.

Friday night we had our coronation and the Writing Center once again has a king in our midst. Kobe was crowed king and according to Dr. Bob, this is our second king. Must be something about being a consultant that corresponds to winning the crown.

The Coronation. Hailley is five from left, Kobe has the crown, and Anna is the one on the far right. From Coe's Facebook page.

 The week ended with the parade, football game, and dance on Saturday. I would say fun was had by all. With midterms behind us, the papers are creeping up so I expect the WC to be hopping from now until at least Thanksgiving Break. Of course, we might also see increased traffic as students come to honor our king, but we'll just have to wait and see!

At the football game. From Coe's Facebook page.

- Hailley

First Year Orientation

     It began in late August. The vans loaded with everything from desk lamps, to gaming systems to futons were making their way to little old Coe College. Perhaps the most important cargo, the new first year students, were feeling everything from anxiety to jubilation. Some had traveled from far away states and even other countries while others simply had to drive down the road for a couple of minutes. They and their parents took copious amounts of time moving into their new homes and it seemed like the parents would not leave until everything was perfect. Tears were shed, hugs passed around, and after Mom and Dad left, naps were taken. Unbeknownst to the unsuspecting first years, the hard part was still to come.
     Over the course of the next week the first years' schedules would be brimming with CAP meetings, social gatherings, academic advising, and guest speakers. Amongst the CAP groups, first years formed their first new bonds of the year becoming close with those they would be taking class and participating in activities with. The guest speakers were outstanding with presenters like the wonderful Maura Cullen and the humorous Shot of Reality duo. Everyone bunched together in front of Stewart Memorial Library for the first year photo and through some miracle, we overcame the stifling heat and shouted obscenities to take the photo. Maybe the highlight of Orientation Week was the ringing of the Victory Bell. I know that for me, that was the first time that I truly felt a part of the Kohawk Community. It was a wonderful moment stuffed with school pride and spirit.
 Soon Friday came and it was time for the gladiatorial throw-down for fall classes. We all stood in line waiting and praying that we would get into the classes that we needed. Those with the lower ID numbers basked in their luck as they got to choose their classes before the masses had a chance, while those of us with lower numbers cursed our terrible luck. We all got in eventually though and on Saturday we had the chance to test our mettle against the other CAP groups in the legendary DRAGONBOAT RACES!!!!! While trash-talk was abound only one team could come out on top and all others were forced to walk away in shame.
     After the races, it was a downhill slide through the weekend as we anxiously awaited the beginning of classes on Monday. The Writing Center (whoop whoop!) had their retreat which was a treat. Sports teams continued practice and groups began meeting and planning. The fall semester has begun.
                                                                                                                              


                                                                                                                     Your faithful correspondent,
                                                                                                                                    Austin Springsteen

On Recieving the Staff Summer Newsletter

Writing Centaurs! I hope you’ve been checking your mail because the staff summer newsletter has gone out and it is full of exciting news and information. If you haven’t received it or dislike reading anything on paper, here are some highlights:

·         Ryan Rey, the illustrious author, divulges that he is from Plainfield and associates it with Harry Potter.

·         Important deadlines!

o   New Staff Orientation begins on August 19^th. If you are a new staff member, you should be there, and if you are a returning staff member who would like to help, contact Ariana Uding to let her know!

o   The MWCA conference is happening in Chicago in October!

o   The NCPTW conference is happening in Tampa, Florida in November!

o   There is a Writing Center open house on Thursday, August 22^nd from 4 to 6:30

o   The first staff meeting of the year (yes, aren’t you excited?) is on Sunday, August 25^th at 7:30

o   And the Full Staff Retreat, beginning on Sunday, September 1^st, is occurring on campus this year at the Clark Alumni House.

·         The Chicago Conference will have six presentations. If you want to participate in the conference, contact Ariana Uding no later than Friday, August 2^nd

·         The Tampa conference is happening November 1-3. If you want to participate in the conference, contact Ariana Uding no later than Friday August 2^nd!

·         There is a selection of stuff regarding Dr. Bob’s life that is pretty fun to read!

·         And also, lots of awesome bios about all the awesome people who are doing awesome things over the summer before returning to Coe for an awesome fall semester! Good job, Ryan, for tracking most everyone down!

Again, all of this is in the summer newsletter, so hopefully you have received it by now. And thanks to everyone who responded to my email pleas for correct addresses.

As Ever, Yours,

Julia

An Encounter with a real live WC Baker

One of the spectacular things about working in the writing center this semester is the prevalence of baking activity under our slightly revamped organizational structure. Simply, there are people whose only responsibility for an hour is to bake something delicious for all of us (who get there in time) to enjoy. As I walked into the writing center one blustery winter afternoon, I heard the telltale sounds of the baker's craft from the back of the Writing Center. I proceeded to investigate, finding WC baker Krista Majcen making some special pumpkin cookies with butter cream frosting.

Krista told me about her weekly baking hour on Sundays, when she and fellow WC baker Caroline Burris recently arrived for their hour and produced delicious no-bake, no-edge cookies in an extemporaneous fashion. I have been told to expect variable, surprising culinary concoctions and the occasional confection. In addition to Krista's weekly staple of variable banana bread, we can expect some experimentation with candies and truffles from the pair. In as near the future as this upcoming Sunday, Krista expects to delve into a carnival theme, producing deep fried Oreos, deep fried Twinkies, and possibly even adventuring into the land of the funnel cake.

I know I will be showing up for some delicious food on Sunday. Will you?

- Ben B '13

The Beauty of the "I."

Thinking back on my first three semesters of working here in the writing center, a number of conferences stand out in my memory. I had a number of series of conferences with fascinating individuals last year, many of whom became friends of mine because of the experiences. But among the conferences that weren't series with the same few people, I remember with the most interest the conferences with other writing center consultants.

The most recent of these has just finished, as a matter of fact, in which I had the opportunity to conference over a term paper for an independent study with a fellow writing centaur. It wasn't the most exciting conference ever, and it probably won't be the one that I remember for the proverbial movie montage of me working here during my time at Coe, but something about this conference, something about the relaxed, calm demeanor as we talked through her paper, strikes me as a little bit profound.

Upon a little bit of quiet reflection as I finish out my two hour block shift, it comes to me. It isn't anything that I did, it isn't anything she did, per se. The striking, profound happenstance of this conference is that we both go into this one knowing more or less what we should expect. She mentioned to me afterward about how she had wanted to work with me on this because she thought I could be blunt enough for her to hear what she needed to hear and get down to business on the paper.

That, friends, is the beauty of the incestuous writing center conference.

-Ben B. '13

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

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.

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.