Conference+Review+(Schimmel)

Joseph Schimmel ENG 409 12/7/11   Conference Review __English Conference__ The writing seminar that I attended at EMU on Saturday morning, in late November was terrific. I had hoped to hear Randy Bomer speak, but something came up and that option fell through. There was no way I could get out to Chicago, although that would have been very exciting. So, I was forced to rely on my 3rd option – get up early on a Saturday for reasons other than crying kids, basement flooding, barking dog whose bladder is somehow full, or some other adulthood requirement that I’m still trying to embrace. I had to get up early and go to school…on a Saturday. Ugh! But I’m glad I did. The atmosphere was inviting. There were several familiar faces. I was finally able to meet Dawn Richberg, a colleague of my wife over at Skyline. And, I was introduced to some very pertinent information. Dawn’s presentation on GoogleDocs was very insightful and portrayed an interesting look at the future of what high school students around the world may be using on a day-to-day basis. The field of online work is growing bigger and stronger, especially in schools. I still find it amusing when I glance around a class I’m in to see how many laptops are upon in front of students. That image is one I better get used to, because as a future teacher at the high school level I have a feeling I’ll be seeing a lot of that. Which is fine with me. In fact, I embrace the technological push forward. Mrs. Richberg was able to baby-step us through ways to submit assignments, revise our work, witness our teacher’s comments, etc. I’m not very savvy when it comes to GoogleDocs or Wiki sites, so as simplistic as they seem, that is not how they appear to me. To me, they look confusing, tedious, time-consuming, and well…new, which is probably the best way to describe them. So, if they are new then that means that they are different – and different is always bad. Isn’t it? Well, some people think so.

Another feature from the convention that I really enjoyed was Erin Klein’s presentation. Excuse me, her and her daughter’s presentation. They talked about a website called, Storybird.com. What a great site! It allows children to create their own stories based on pre-determined pictures that they may choose from. They can essentially create their own children’s book and even order it in hard-copy form. I was very impressed, and enthused about the fact that very soon I will be able to play around with this site with my daughter who turns 4 tomorrow.

I suppose getting up early on a Saturday has its advantages when you fill your time with something useful, which I certainly did. I would have liked to write this review after my attendance at both conferences was complete, however I still have one on January 7th that will complete my course requirements.