TYCA-West 2007: only an overview

So, I’m trying to get caught up with some reporting out on conferences from last semester. Blogging about them at least allows me to reflect some and gives me a space to go back to as a reminder. So…the things that stick out from the 2006 conference of the Two-Year College Association (TYCA) branch of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) West region include:

• I was very excited to learn that our colleagues at the Community College of Southern Nevada also revised their FYC outcomes in the past couple of years. It was nice to reflect and dialogue with others about the process of massive curriculum change. It was also nice to discuss the various “what is happening next?” issues, with assessment and placement being two highly emphasized issues.

• I really liked how one colleague is using www.epinion.com as a location for students to practice writing and getting real readers and feedback. He looks at the web as an opportunity to have practice, practice, practice. Epinion.com has a four tear structure of reviewing the reviews. And it invites individuals to review…anything. I love the idea; I just wonder if the active participants of Epinion.com would get frustrated if a bunch of FYC courses started to use it as a practice writing environment. I guess my question is, what is our ethics as writing instructors to dump our classes in the middle of an environment focused on something different.


• I had quite a shock when the conference organizer introduced me to other people. More than once he would say something like, “This is Shelley Rodrigo, she is at Mesa CC in AZ, you should check out her blog she’s got some really great stuff on/about technology.” WOW...people actually read this stuff? LOL!

I also have a few pictures from the conference uploaded at my flickr site.

January 26 2007 | Posted in TYCA-West