"The Herndon Writing Center Does CAPTA 2016: A Recap" by Jessie W.

A harsh wind kicked up the scattered leaves across the empty parking lot. Almost the entire writing center had gathered by door 3, decked out in our Herndon Writing Center shirts, excited for what was about to unravel at George Mason’s Arlington campus. The third year tutors stood laughing in the large circle as the newcomers shuffled their feet, unsure what to expect.

27 HWC tutors, Ms. Hutton, Ms. Brown, and Ms. Sneed, attended CAPTA 2016.

Flash forward to 9:00: CAPTA had a keynote speaker, Dr. Jennifer Wells, a professor at New College in Florida and author of The Successful High School Writing Center: Building the Best Program with Your Students. Dr.Wells had one main message: if you believe that you are capable of achieving your goals, you will be able to. She explained that one’s perception of himself is the ticket to succeeding in the future. Over 500 students, from 48 schools across 10 states, sat shuffling in their seats, excitedly whispering about what presentations they were attending.

One big improvement from last year to this year was that all attendees were able to choose their presentations they attended. This is an improvement from being placed in sessions without any choice.

500 Tutors, Directors, and Administrators listening to Dr. Wells' Keynote

Presenters broke off first, rushing to their designated room to set up. For my first session, I attended Tutor APtitude, a presentation on how to tutor AP essays, lead by tutors from Oakton High School, and its joint presentation on managing stress from AP courses, lead by HWC tutors Sofia Caballero and Jo Luttazi. The contrast of the two presentations was perfect because I could relate to both AP course stress and tutoring these challenging essays. The best part about each presentation was how useful and applicable I found them to be. Seeing peers give presentations like the ones at CAPTA is so inspiring to me.

The next session was on advertising and bringing in more people to the writing center. I loved this presentation because it was really similar to a topic I presented on last year! Everyone in the audience was given a chance to suggest our own marketing strategies,creating a huge collaborative discussion. I love hearing about how other writing centers operate and getting new ideas to test in our own.

Hundreds of peers flocked the steps outdoors in a variety of colorful writing center shirts. Lunch time was full of bonding between other centers and setting up more dates to meet and chat about tutoring. The lunch was delicious and we even had time to do our own mannequin challenge! My partner and I snuck back upstairs a bit early to begin setting up for our own presentation that was to come.

My partner Laura Wycoff and I presented on tutoring ESOL students and how we could make them feel more comfortable in the writing center. Our solution was digital tutoring! After giving our presentation, we had the rewarding experience of being asked to present again on a later date at Northern Virginia Community College. Another woman who viewed our presentation asked if I would share my material with her so she could share it with her colleagues. It was a great opportunity to make connections and get feedback on what we had worked so hard on.

Jessie and Laura after their presentation

The last session I attended was on setting up a writing center. The presentation answered all of my questions on Google Classroom and got me even more excited to test it out in the Herndon Writing Center!

#Squad

After staying late to get my questions answered, I ran down for the closing ceremony. After a day full of excitement, all 500 students piled back in for congratulations and treats. I scanned the crowd full of tutors and saw the Herndon Writing Center sitting together and sharing new ideas. After a long day of meeting people, I settled back in with my friends as we cheered on Mrs. Hutton and the other CAPTA directors at the podium.

Who had fun at #CAPTA2016?

"Magnifying Glass" by Gunn

My writing is holding up a magnifying glass to the intricacies of the world around us. Writing throughout my life has given me the ability to explore the more analytical side of  my thoughts that are constantly trying to find some deeper meaning of a text. It allows me to breathe life into my thoughts, something that wouldn’t happen if they were just spoken. Writing frees my thoughts from the confines of my brain and puts them out into the open for the world to see.  

The things that make writing fun for me is being able to make people think deeply about something that they only see the surface of. Instead of them snorkeling at sea level, I want them to be able to dive 300 ft under with scuba gear. Snorkeling at sea level is like reading the text without thinking about what the author wants you to see, while diving under the water shows you how much more there is to see. This diving under is the deep examination of a text, in which you can finally understand what the author wants you to see, and more. This analysis happens only with either slow and deliberate reading of a text or the repeated reading of it. There is so much more detail in every piece of text that you read that very few people notice or can see. The ocean that I let the readers of my analysis explore starts at the glowing keyboard in my poorly-lit, always chilly basement room. The environment surrounding me affects my writing process tremendously. Small things like the keyboard I am using being uncomfortable to use throw me off focus, chatter between people has the same effect. Almost every paper, report, journal, short story, or note that I have written has been one of two keyboards for almost 6 years. I never have any kind of music playing in the background while I work, only the sounds of the keys going click and clack, and the sounds of my brain attempting to put my jumbled thoughts into coherent sentences on a screen.  

Sadly one of the things that make writing difficult for me is the premise of writing for a grade. Even this assignment, one which I thought I would enjoy writing, has put me off and caused me to procrastinate it’s completion on the basis of that it will end up as a letter or number in a grade book that I check at minimum 5 times a week. That letter or number will either make me feel good or bad about what I wrote, and then I move on. Depending on what that grade book says, I take two very different courses of action. One involves the possibility of a relatively high grade on this paper, the other involves the possibility of a low score. With a high score on this paper, I see that this boosts my overall grade and I become complacent. I feel satisfied with the work I’ve done and never again think about the contents of this paper. If I receive a low score however, my mind focuses on every possibility I have to soften the blow of this low score through extra work, late work, missing assignments, and so on. These are all distractions from my writing, especially that which is not school assigned writing. All in all, these forced assignments will always take me away from my writing, no matter the outcome or score. This explanation of endeavors in our education system works to describe many tasks if you replace the word “paper” with assignment.

         

These restrictions on my writing make me feel as though I am not a writer myself. I do feel that I have grown since writing Harry Potter universe short stories, and that I have become more adept at being able to show the reader how I think and feel about certain things. However writing is sadly not one of my main priorities in my day to day life, nor is it something I could easily make a priority without changing the way I live my life. One day, after high school and after college, I hope to be able to find the time to fit writing into my day to day and to be able to express all of my ideas in a way that is enjoyable to many. Only then would I feel that I am a writer. At this point in my life, I cannot bring myself to say so.

"Stress Haikus" by Leonita Cassidy

Procrastination

Work begins to multiply

You will not catch up

Worry comes in waves

Drowning in anxiety

Can’t reach the surface

There are things to do

You race to get it all done

Yet time has run out

It’s overwhelming

So much pressure to do well

Seems impossible

October 2016 Statistics Report