I decided I would create a blog about my experiences of working as a First Year Writing program coordinator at SUNY Plattsburgh, a position that begins in Fall 2008. I have never blogged before, but when my friend Kati suggested that I ought to consider blogging upon moving from MN to NY, this seemed the right thing to do. It seemed, mostly, a place where I could be exploratory in trying to figure out my new position's demands while also being systematic--actually doing data collection of the experience that seemed manageable during what would obviously prove to be a very challenging, unpredictable, exciting time. In the past, I had decided against creating a blog because I did not want to be watched; as I like to say, I still get great satisfaction out of and find necessary pulling my wires out, being off the grid, etc. I guess you could call it paranoia, too, but it's more than that. In any event, blogging felt right as a means of uncovering the meaning of the experience of working s a FYW program coordinator.
So today, I am throwing down the gauntlet. Here it is.
I have another, more concrete reason for doing it today. I will be going to the Council of Writing Program Administrators' summer workshop for new and continuing WPAs--an event that takes place between 7/6 and 7/9 in Denver, CO, this year. I decided to go to this event at the recommendation of two WPAs and mentors of mine at the University of Minnesota, Drs. Tim Gustafson and Thomas Reynolds. When my chair at Plattsburgh, Dr. Tom Morrissey, said he could fund my attendance at this meeting, I quickly signed up. I hoped it would help me develop a map of sorts for the work I'd soon be doing.
I still have that hope today, and it is why I am writing this now. At Denver, I hope to learn a lot, and I will use this blog as a place for recording my perceptions of the experience as it unfolds.
I have gotten started on my map by reading Brown and Enos's The Writing Program Administrator's Resource, and this has been helpful. I hope the workshop will help me extend that map.
Well, that is all for now.
