Report From Atlanta
Wednesday, November 20, 2002. I'm trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I'm flying from Oakland to Atlanta for three days of conferences with, first, the National Writing Project and, second, the National Council of Teachers of English. Teachers don't get paid to do this sort of thing. Teachers, if they're lucky, get to keep a pen somewhere, or maybe some snacks that other teachers were obliged to provide.Thanks to the light rail system, MARTA, you can get downtown and get to the Atlanta Hyatt, all in a big, wet drizzle, without a drop of water disturbing your carefully shelacked do. You come up from the station through a mall, across a hamster habitrail tube, emerging into the humongous lobby of the Hyatt, filled only by a huge, hanging American flag, a giant, floating Japanese parasol and eight easy chairs. Hundreds upon hundreds of teachers swarm the lobby for days, casting hungry eyes upon the eight easy chairs. Few actually know their soft, comforting embrace.
Thursday. A full day of meetings for Tech Liasons. If you don't know what a TL is, you may be the next TL. Started the day with a weblog tutorial (check out the Blog Tour) at Georgia State taught by West Virginia's Karen McComas, Chicago's Albert D. and our very own Pat Delaney. The Blog Triangle. The Bloggle.
I also attended a lab workshop on using NiceNet as a place for online discussions, either between teachers, or students, or however you want to set it up. It seems to have good possibilities, but I need to play with it some more and get a feel for it.
Friday. You know the food service has been a bit stone-faced when you are happy to have the waitress sentence you to "Twenty lashes with a wet noodle" for not printing your name on your receipt for the buffet. Good grits.
Today I attended a second full day of NWP presentations and discussions. One excellent talk was by Laura Stokes of the Inverness Research Associates, entitled, Teachers Inquiring into Standards, Teaching, and Learning;: Lessons Learned from the NWP's Focus on Standards Project. This three year study has some great insights into why handing teachers binders of standards doesn't really work, as well as illuminating some interesting paths that might work. Click here for more.
I also attending a very interesting panel of newsletter editors from different writing project sites around the country. One editor raised the idea of building a national network for sharing articles and stories from all the newletters. Think of all the research and practice we could share!
Another interesting idea was to have TC's start an article during the summer institute regarding a teaching demonstration they saw, or their own, and to eventually publish it in the newsletter. Which reminds me of an idea that surfaced in the Tech Liason general meeting, where a site director (can't remember from where...oh yeah, Vermont), talked about how he has his TC's, as part of their fellowship, make a commitment to join a committee for one year upon exiting the summer institute. Of course, it's easy for me to appreciate this idea now that I'm a few years safely out of the institute.
Saturday. There's just too much to report on, so I won't try. I spent Saturday shuffling between discussions and lectures from the heavily chlorinated pools of the Hilton to the Marriott with its lounge chairs, bar filled with women watching football, and rooms named after wine (imagine a good Alabama accent asking, "Is this the cha-bliss room?"). At one point I asked a bellhop how to get to the "Grand Ballroom A" and he said, I think you want the Hilton," and I said, "Aren't I in the Hilton?" and it was all a slide into delirium pie from there on out.
Still, I went to good talks on Teaching Writing to Students of Color and What Teachers Can Learn from Students' Responses to an Author's Drafts (That one was in the Chablis room). Plus much much more!
Next year's NWP meeting is in San Francisco! Don't miss it!
