…and i’ll find me a soapbox where i can shout it

Waking up at 6:00 a.m. is not the way I like to start my day.  I was looking forward to attending the Bright Ideas Spring Conference at Michigan State, yet unless waking up that early on a Saturday would result in either free pizza or a rollercoaster I was probably going to be slightly disappointed.  Instead there was free coffee and some pretty good information, so I guess I’ll take it.

The keynote speaker was author Jacqueline Woodson.  She explained her writing process, and a lot of the advice she presented were things that we have discussed in English 310.  The idea of writing anything, of just getting words down on paper, sounded like it came straight from Peter Elbow.  In fact, her somewhat lack of focus and ability to go off on tangents during her speech sounded Elbowian (yes, it’s an adjective) as well.  She also made reference to Anne Lamott, another author we have discussed in class, and the idea of writing one step at a time.  Woodson read some of her own work aloud, which was probably the most enjoyable part of her speech.

The first workshop I attended dealt with using mass media in the English classroom.  Its emphasis was on using wikis, youtube, and graphic design.  The discussion on Wikipedia and its legitimacy was interesting.  Students should know why Wikipedia is not a valid resource as it stands today, and by having students create wikis and understand how they work, they can understand this.  Talk about youtube was a big part of the section regarding journalism and its potential biases, and a possible lesson was presented to make students aware of the motives behind those broadcasting the news.  The graphic design part was interesting, yet it seemed we got a lot of information about something that can very loosely be related to the English classroom.  The idea of creating something visual as opposed to writing for a lesson is something that I liked, however.

The second workshop I attended dealt with peer revision and creating a comfortable classroom environment, something I was very interested in.  The presenter did an excellent job showing different ways in which the teacher can create an atmosphere where students feel comfortable sharing their writing.  We went over a few techniques regarding peer revision between two students, ways in which they can share their writing and talk about it in a more personal and less evaluative way.

Overall, waking up at 6:00 a.m. turned out to be a pretty good decision.  A lot of the information was not very new to me, although I did get some ideas that I would want to use in my classroom.  I think just being in an environment where I am completely surrounded by English teachers, people who are all there to try and learn something in order to make them better teachers or better prepare them for teaching, has a way of getting me motivated and excited to teach.