NWP Convention - Day One

At this very moment, I am sitting at the Omni Hotel bar, drinking a Yuengling, listening to swing jazz, choking down on the cigar smoke, BLOGGING. This is a new level of dorkdom, even for me. Yet somehow it is fitting, as today was the Technology Liaison session for the National Writing Project's annual conference.

I'll drink to that!

I haven't seen much of Pitt, only the inside of the conference rooms. I spend the last half day (not in the measurement of a half workday, but literally the last 10 hours) attending technology related workshops. I am exhausted, cold, and starving. I tried to hail a cab to the Church Brew Works in Pitt., but the line was too long to wait for a cab, it was too far to walk, and my cohorts from NWP RU were getting ready to leave the place. So I'm catching a liquid dinner instead.

This is my third year attending the NWP Annual. The first year I attended, the convention was held in sunny San Fran (catch the sarcasm). At that time, I was a teacher consultant for only a few months. I learned all about the organizational infrastructure of the NWP at that convention. I became acquainted with blogs at a technology session; my blog was born shortly thereafter. That was it. I created and maintained the web page in the meantime. Sounds meager? Trust me; it was more than enough work.

Last year the conference in Indy better defined my role as technology liaison. My role should not be limited to web manager, but to also serve as a leader in technology initiatives: I renovated the NWP RU web page; installed both a phpBB discussion forum and Coppermine photo archive (which has yet to really take off); assissted with Invitational Summer Institute, pioneereed new uses of technology in my classroom, revived my blog, shared my personal experiences with teachers and teacher consultants, and served on the NWP RU executive committee. In retrospect, I saw a great amount of growth in my role as Technology Liaison. As much as I feel that the past year was productive, I realize how much more there is to accomplish in this role in the upcomming year.

I plan to provide a technology workshop in my district's Parent Academy: helping parents setup and learn how to use an email account. I have plans to create another technology worksop aimed at teachers: how to use the discussion forum to promote research, discussion, debate, and critical thinking skills. Check out a sample of student work. I hope to take this one on the road and present to the teachers within my school district, and possibly at a future NWP RU inservice or outreach workshop, and the Computers & Writing Online 2006 conference. I've committetd this idea to print, so now I had better put my money where my mouth is!

I hope to take more of a leadership role to promote the use of technology and writing within the NWP RU site. In fact, I am hosting a writing circle (with the help of Lynn Cagg.) on the topic of online publication that focuses on discussion boards and blogs. On the drafting boards I have committed myself to become acquianted with the newer technology of Wiki. Above all, this year I have continued to grow a national network of Technology Liaisons, a diverse community of teachers kindergarden through college that promote the use of new technologies to encourage writing to their students.

A teacher consultant once explained that in the first year a newly designed web page sleeps, the second year it creeps, and third year leaps. Comming into my third year as TL, I hope to take a major leap ahead in terms of promoting writing and technology to teacher consultants, teachers, students, and parents.

This will be a great year after all. I'll drink to that!