#TampaTrek

As fall is really settling in here in Cedar Rapids, you can't help but wish you were someplace warmer.

I got that opportunity the last week in October.
If you've been a faithful reader since fall 2010, you know that the Writing Center takes us to professional conferences. These conferences allow us to present on writing center pedagogy that are important to us as well as connecting with fellow consultants across the United States. I've been able to explore Baltimore, Madison, and San Diego the past three years. This year though, I got to go to Tampa.

I attended the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing, which was hosted by Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, Florida. And yes, Berkeley is a high school and they've had a writing center since 1994. I was gone for four days and in my opinion, it was a productive conference.

Now you might be wondering how I got to Tampa. The answer: 2 15 passenger vans. Yes, we drove the 22 hours (well 25 hours with stops) to Tampa and then the 25 hours back to Cedar Rapids. Dr. Bob prefaced us driving by saying it would be a "bonding experience."

Yes, he was absolutely right. Crazy how you really have no choice but get closer to your fellow consultants when you're crammed next to them. I was able to get a little homework done, but bonding probably happened a bit more.

The group

Anywho, once we made it down there, we had a morning and part of the afternoon to enjoy the sun and warm temperatures. Then it was conference time. I attended several helpful and informative sessions. I also had the opportunity to present and was on a panel with three other Coe consultants to talk about our hierarchy (or lack therefore) in our writing center. It was nice to tell stories and to discuss what Coe does on a day-to-day basis.

It was great trip. Nice to get some sun and to get fired up about being a writing center consultant. It just reminded me how happy I am as a consultant and why my work is important.