Maine Writing Project Conference in Belfast Oct. 3
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571; Heather Pullen at (207) 581-2443
ORONO –When English teacher Douglas “Woody” Woodsum carried his “state-of-the-art” MacBook into class the first day of the Maine Writing Project’s Summer Institute in Orono this past summer, all he used it for was taking attendance and recording his grades. But one of his goals for the four-week-long writing workshop for educators was to change from being techno-phobic to techno-savvy.
“I was (resistant) like those students who don’t want to learn something,” Woodsum recalls. “But with my classmates’ help, I made great advances in the use of technology. It’s a perfect example of giving a student a lot of support and seeing them make great progress … it was an exciting experience.”
Woodsum has become such a “Techno-man,” as his classmates dubbed him, that the workshop he will be presenting at the annual Maine Writing Project’s Effective Practices Conference in October revolves around using computers to explore written and spoken poetry. He’ll be introducing conference participants to Fishouse.org, a website created by one of his former students four years ago. The site contains audio files of thousands of poets reading their poetry.
“The website has a variety and richness that most anthologies lack,” says Woodsum, who is himself a published poet. “High school students with short attention spans can click on a poem, listen, click off and move on until they find something they like.”
This is the ninth annual Effective Practices Conference. It will be held at the University of Maine’s Hutchinson Center in Belfast on Oct. 3 from 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
The conference is designed for educators interested in improving writing across the curriculum at all grade levels. This year, 24 graduates of both the University of Southern Maine Summer Institute and the University of Maine Summer Institute will be presenting workshops on a range of topics revolving around literacy and technology across the curriculum. Some of thetopics are: “Take Time to Write Well: Effective Modifications for Students with Information Processing Disorders;” “Internet Research Refined,” and “Stations in the Secondary Classroom: How to Break your Class into Learning Centers.”
The conference will also feature a keynote address and workshops by Anne Sibley O’Brien, a writer, illustrator, actor, and singer from Portland. O’Brien, who writes a column for the Bulletin of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, will lead workshops on “The Power of Graphic Novels,” and “Finding the Springhouse.”
The conference is open to teachers from school systems throughout Maine. It costs $90 and includes lunch. For more information, contact Heather Pullen of the Maine Writing Project at 207-581-2443. Or visit www.mainewritingproject.org to download an application.