One Month to Go!

Yes, it's true: there are exactly twenty-eight days until Work in Progress, our first ever county-wide high school writing workshop! At this point, there will be about sixty to seventy-five students in attendance. Considering it is my first year doing all of this, I am kind of glad that number is not larger. While it is a little disappointing that only three of the nine schools that received applications actually responded, one third is better than no thirds, right? I feel as though I covered all bases in trying to get more schools involved:

*I sent out an initial e-mail explaining the project to every high school English teacher (over one hundred of them) in my county.
*I sent out an e-mail prior to the mailing of the application.
*I called each school and informed them that they would be receiving the application within a week.
*I sent a reminder e-mail.

(Hmmmm... perhaps I harassed everyone too much and they all secretly wanted to send bricks through my window... :)

Anyway, the presenters are all lined up and ready to go. Two of them are former students, which I am really excited about. One of them, a recent Cornell graduate who has been published in a variety of areas, is our keynote speaker. The other is a current senior at Rutgers University who is majoring in English and Art History. I am so proud of them both and can't wait to see them inspire so many others.

Three of the other presenters are colleagues of mine: two art teachers and a fellow English teacher. Why art teachers at a writing workshop? I thought it would be great if the kids had an opportunity to create their own personalized writing journals at one of the stations and/or connect the world of written art with the world of visual art. In addition to new drafts of creative writing, they will have something else to take with them at the conclusion of the day. The last presenter is a local singer-songwriter who is going to use this talent as a focus for her workshop.

I currently have a graphic design student working on a logo that I can hopefully use on t-shirts, posters, etc. I am also going to create teacher and student surveys, so that I can get some feedback on what to improve for next time.

I am beginning to purchase items for the school goodie bags, which will contain t-shirts, programs, pens, chocolates, some magnetic poetry (I found a great deal on small sets at a dollar store in Massachusetts - wow!), and other random occurrences. Some of my students have volunteered to stay after school and help me assemble everything. They will also serve as greeters the day of, and have a variety of other tasks, including the facilitating of a "student-to-student" group at the workshop.

Oh yeah, and I still need to make a food run for library-friendly snacks and beverages.

Whew.

Do any of you have last minute thoughts or suggestions for me? If so, please let me know. In past blogs, some of you have offered great ideas; I look forward to hearing more of them!

Thanks in advance!