Clint Gardner

One of the "Upcoming topics" on the sidebar reads "How to beg-off writing/creating an article/web-thing even though you should be writing it really, but you are gasping for air."  I fear I must announce, however, that I've been an utter failure in being able to beg-off anything and have been persuaded to write such an article for an upcoming issue Computers & Writing edited by Shelley Rodrigo and Matthew Kim.  The overall subject matter for this issue is rhetorical media and open access institutions.  In their call for papers, Rodrigo and Kim define rhetorical media as an almalgam of all sorts of new media --including web texts, audio, video, and other web 2.0 stuff.  Here's my grandiose (and accepted!) proposal: “New Media and the Twenty First Century Open Access Writing Tutor:  How Writing Center Work Will Never be the Same Again” The days where students came to writing centers with “papers” to be talked/worked over are pretty much gone, particula...

In this Free Thinking Festival lecture, Frank Cotrell Boyce talks about the importance of failure in culture and particularly for writers   ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wbnxq ).   We as respondents to writers see students everyday who are paralyzed by a fear of failure.  I rather like how Boyce in the lecture digs into the notion that fearing failure keeps a writer (or any one for that matter) from taking chances or from fully exploring the possibilities. Sure no one likes to fail, but part of the problem is that we've made failure tantamount to the need to be expelled from a community.  If we are to succeed as writers or, I think Boyce would argue, we need to allow for and expect failures and allow ourselves to learn lessons rather than just fearing failure and casting out those who fail among us. Cheering on failure, of course, is easier said than done, but I think if we focus on the positive and figure out what our failures have taught us t...

Andrea Malouf & Rachel Meads-Jardine (on right) Brandon Alva Brandon Alva, Rachel Meads-Jardine, Andrea Malouf and I attended and presented at the 2010 National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing/International Writing Centers Association joint conference this past weekend.  Andrea and Rachel presented “Teaching Writing in Communities” about the excellent work going on in the Community Writing Center.  Brandon presented “From Peer Tutor to Writing Instructor:  Taking a Collaborative Learning Approach” about how he uses his writing center background to influence his teaching. Brandon won an IWCA Travel Scholarship for this presentation and was recognized during the Thursday keynote address.  I presented “The Effects of Working in a Community College Writing Center on Peer Writing Tutors” which is fairly self-explanatory.  It is a presentation I've done at other conferences, but each time I prep for it, I learn something more and revise it to better ...

English 1810 is a service learning course in which students engage in service in a writing center context.  Right now our writing centers are limited to the SLCC Student and Community Writing Centers (q.v.) but I suppose that could change in the future if enough student were involved.  I have a feeling, however, that most students will chose to work on-campus, given the convenience of that.  This assumption is borne out by the students taking the class this term have opted to do their service in the Student Writing Center. The nature of their service is fairly broad.  Initially, when fellow co-planners Tiffany Rousculp & Melissa Helquist were working on this class, we assumed that most students would want to work with writers one-to-one.  This year's students, however, are about 60/40 split with 60% doing projects other than one-to-one work.  These projects include conducting workshops ranging from orientations for new or high school students to thos...

Excuses, excuses!  Actually I have tons of stuff I should have been blogging about. To quote Bugs Bunny, "I've been sick."  Ok, I was ill for 2 days. Anyway, I promise to blog harder from now on out. Upcoming topics: English 1810:  "Writing Center Theory & Practice!" Writing Centers as places of social change! TYCA Midwest & TYCA Pacific Northwest report! The great work of community college students! How SLCC English Department faculty members Lisa Bickmore & Jen Courtney kick ass! The contradictions and complications of a Writing & Social Justice *Conference when your guest speaker charges mondo (i.g. $KKs) cash to speak. How to actually keep a blog going when everything seems to be falling apart by promising way too much on facebook. NCPTW(IWCA) 2011 report! How to beg-off writing/creating an article/web-thing even though you should be writing it really, but you are gasping for air. NCTE 2010 report! Big old shout...

Well, I will be the first to admit that being busy does not for consistent blogging make, but not blogging since summer?  That's scandalous.  Scandalous, I tell you. To wit, I give you an image of the SLCC Student Writing Center running on all cylinders: SLCC Student Writing Center is a fully operational Writing Center!

Squash 1 Originally uploaded by Clint Gardner As I mentioned in the previous post, during the initial sessions of the Thayne Center for Service & Learning Garden Parties (held every Tuesday at 9:00 am at the SLCC Community Garden and open to all), I distributed "gardening journals" to those who were present. The purpose of these journals is to allow space for Community Garden participants to reflect on not only gardening, but also what involvement in the garden means to them, or the impact that work in the garden is having on them. My own journal has charted a growing commitment to the garden and its purpose: "I am really stunned at how involved/committed I've become to this project. I think it is because the garden so clearly shows the fruits of our labors, and how working as a group we've done something so significant," I recently wrote. I am excited to get more students involved in the project once they return in the fall. I am currently plannin...