Letter from Norman, March 2008

Last year my letter from Norman noted the wild weather patterns we experience in our home towns and inside our institutions. A year later I have to say that wild weather is still with us: the December ice storm here in Oklahoma altered our campus landscape dramatically, downing almost 1,000 trees. The first order of
business was replanting in order to replicate the familiar look of our campus; our trademark ovals looked too bare and no longer resembled the historic photos that evoked nostalgia for alums. One thing I asked myself: why do we cling to pictures of how things used to be in order to preserve what we perceive as the way things always looked to us? Why don’t unexpected natural disasters that wipe out the past invite us to re-envision the future?

In the same way, why don’t major shifts within our institutions invite innovation? We often lose opportunities when we scramble to simply return to the way things have always been done. When there is a personnel shake up, a bad budget year, a move to a new location, writing centers often take shelter. What would happen if we poked our heads out and said, hey, this could push us to try something different, something new, something we did not plan for.

The small town of Greensburg, Kansas is a good example [http://www.greensburgks.org download stigmata dvdrip sixth sense the divx movie online ].

On the night of May 4, 2007, 95% of our homes and businesses were destroyed by a massive EF5 tornado that was nearly 2 miles wide. Although this storm was devastating to our community, we
are presented with an incredible opportunity to show the world our strength and to create a new future
for those who will live here. We strongly believe that we will be back, better than ever, and will be a model for rural America.

Greensburg’s community recovery goals include a “green” agenda for each new project and the building of a Business Incubator to provide entrepreneurs a place to collaborate and generate ideas and support.
Writing centers might begin by converting problems to opportunities. We viewed the inundation of students
in the first year orientation course, who were required to visit us, as a problem. Now, we prepare for that time in the semester when we know they will come in. What once frustrated us – “my teacher made me come
here” or “just sign my paper that I was here” – provided a new challenge to understanding what students
could not possibly know in advance. With few high school writing centers in Oklahoma, most of our first year students had no way of knowing what to expect. In one of our staff education meetings, we talked about what it is like to know how something works, a cafeteria, an iPod, a poem. We uncovered how uninterested, even resistant or down-right scared, we might be to encounter a place and a pedagogy – or site and method (Boquet) – that we have yet to experience in our learning histories. Now our consultants realize they are insiders who already know the schema and are better positioned to help orient these students by telling them how learning might work for them in this environment. This is not inauthentic authority over less experienced students – it is mentoring and leadership at its best. We join in a common effort to help each other learn.

In the coming year I hope to see many of you at conferences. I have had the privilege of attending several regional conferences in my role as vice president and now as president of IWCA, and some photos from my visits are included in this newsletter. Please know too that you are always welcome to visit Norman!free chateau the movie download charlie s angels divx download