Filed under: General
I’m going to be working on a writing manual for the Writing Center (obviously). I will more than likely ask for input if I think I forgot something, and I will more than likely want people to skim through it when I’m finish. If you have anything you think should go in there or anything, just write in my category.
Thanks Everybody
Marco
Filed under: Foods Day
I’m bringing cornbread. When is the Food’s Day exactly?
-Marco
Photographs:
Jason, I’d still like you to take pictures unless you can con one of the other tutors into doing it. I have a picture of Gerds. (I know this sounds a little contrived, but the pictures are far, far better if the person is doing something. Like teaching. And you can fake it, but it means that you have to be a bit aggressive as a photographer.) Photographs of other tutors too. (If you tutors already have photographs of yourself that you would consent to have posted in the hallway, give me prints or else email a digital copy to me. The look of the picture has to at least border on the professional.)
Dear Tutors:
For the most part, if I need you to do something during your Writing Center time, I’ll be able to see you in person. But now that A Blog is Born, if you regularly check it, things will go more smoothly. And I will check it myself.
Food:
I will bring some food Thursday, but I may not stay to eat it. Strawberry pie, probably.
Brief Class Visits for advertising our services:
If anyone knows of a professor who would like to have a classroom visited, and if you think I don’t know about it, can you please notify me? Of course you can volunteer to just conduct the visit, but one size may not fit all. (Health Professions classroom visits may not feature the same spiel as Liberal Arts classroom visits.) Anyway, I would like to know what visits take place. You can pass the word to other tutors about class visits that need to be made, but that shouldn’t be necessary if I am in the loop of information; it can be my responsibility to get the word to the right person.
Jason, I sent something about photographs that is probably categorized somewhere else on this blog; D’Marco, Shay, Noel: I sent something about 130 class attendance that is probably categorized somewhere else; I’m still getting the hang of the difference between tags, categories, threads, and dogs-that-look-like-flies-from-far-away.
When you post, you should–for a while–put your own name in the subject line.
Michael Barry
Tutors in 130 classes:
Shay, if you can post some notes on what you take to be Stuart’s priorities in 130, please do. You don’t have to take much time with this. Just four minutes. (Maybe you could categorize your posting under “teachers.”) And Stuart, of course you will have the benefit of adding things, in a comment to Shay’s posting.
If postings about a 130 professor’s priorities are appropriate for anyone else, I would urge others to do it too. D’Marco, if you have attended any of Stuart’s classes, you can make notes of any insights you have. And Megan, if you have anything new on Yardley’s class. Others: please read each other’s postings.
Noel, I just emailed you about Jordan Leff’s class. I still have to talk to him in person; I have not seen him in a week-and-a-half.
Greetings, all. This is the new Writing Center blog, where we can schedule meetings and food days, air grievances, and generally attend to the business of tutoring. Bookmark! Comment!
All,
Barry suggested that we who are sitting in on classes make a few notes about what we perceive to be the instructor’s priorities. I have been assigned to Shawn Yardley’s 10:00 Tuesday/Thursday class. So far, she seems to emphasize:
1. Students understanding what they read.
This seems like a skill that needs improving in almost everyone I see at TWC. She spent some time today going through definitions of words in a story the class read, which was a good thing, because several students were quite confident they knew the definition of a word and were completely wrong, e.g. “serene” means “very confused,” “leering” means “to stalk,” etc.
2. Students understanding how other writers accomplish what they do.
Sort of, “Why is this funny/sad/moving/ridiculous? What did the author do to achieve this effect?” So I guess this might be a question we could ask students.
However, I think most of us would agree that it is often enough of a struggle to sort through the “to, too,” and “two”s and “your/you’re”s to get something that is at least approaching coherency, that exploring writer motivations and the minutia of word choices is sort of a luxury.
I’m not going to get the rant pants on here about that last one, everyone else feel free.
Technical note: I’m going to try to set up separate users on here, so we don’t have to sign our posts, but until then, sign your posts, y’all.
Megan
