International Writing Centers Week, Feb. 8-14
Feb 1st, 2009 | By IWCA Web Editor | Category: News and AnnouncementsInternational Writing Centers Week is an opportunity for people who work in writing centers to celebrate writing and become more aware of the important role of their individual campus/community writing centers. The “inaugural” celebration began in 2006 and is celebrated in writing centers around the world.
Writingcenters.org wants to hear from IWCA members about their plans for IWCW 2009. Send your photos, as well, to be featured in the photo gallery (please include a caption in the text of the e-mail when you send photos).
Members are also encouraged to send descriptions of their IWCW events to Wcenter, the listserve for Writing Center professionals. Learn how to subscribe to Wcenter at http://writingcenters.org/resources/writing-center-directors/#Mail . free sixteen candles movie download taxi driver download
Because International Writing Centers Week concluded on Valentine’s Day, we at the DePaul University Center for Writing-based Learning decided to theme our weeklong activities towards Valentine’s Day. Our slogan for the week was: “Make a Date with the Writing Center!”
In both of our offices, we provided packets of candy hearts and chocolates to every tutee and staff member. Each of these pieces of candy was attached to a valentine made by a few of the staff members. These valentines were mostly written as if they were from various aspects of writing. (We borrowed this idea from another writing center that had posted their previous IWCW activities on this forum, and we thank you for the idea. It was a big hit!)
We ordered t-shirts for the entire staff and encouraged our staff to wear these throughout the week. We also had extra shirts, and we gave one shirt away each day to the first tutee to come into the office each day and say, “I want to make a date with the writing center!”
We had a table set up at each campus to further advertise the week’s activities. At each table, tutors provided the public with more candy and valentines along various marketing materials such as bookmarks and magnets that we have been handing out for several months. We recently completed having pencils made for our center as well, so tutors also handed these out. The tables’ main function was to provide people with supplies for anyone to stop by and make their own valentines, stamps and envelopes provided as well. People seemed to really enjoy this gesture, and several people made valentines not only for their friends and loved ones but also for their favorite tutors and for the entire staff of the writing center in general.
At these tables, people could also sign our “Writing Is…” banner and provide their own definition of writing. These banners were then hung in our offices throughout the following week. (The idea for the banner was also borrowed from another writing center’s post on this forum, and we thank you for your idea as well.) Finally, we had laptops at both of these tables so passing students could register for our online scheduling system.
Our center recently completed its creation of a simple fan page on Facebook as a way to further promote our services and direct people to our website. However, the site also functions as a slightly less formal forum for the staff and “fans” of the writing center. We used this week as an opportunity to further promote our Facebook fan page, and so we encouraged people to become “fans” of the writing center and to join our discussion board in which the prompt was “Which famous writer would you choose to be your valentine, and why?”
We advertised all of these activities with flyers posted throughout campus and a “Happy International Writing Centers Week” banner posted in each office’s window. Furthermore, an email listing and explaining our festivities was sent to all Facebook fans of the writing center, and an announcement was posted our Facebook fan page and on our website, linking people to a copy of our flyer, which listed all of the week’s activities. We had also planned to place an ad in the campus newspaper and to send out an email to the entire campus community. However, time did not permit for either of these activities. Overall, the week was a great success, and we’re looking forward to next year even more.