CCCC 2010 is just around the corner, and a great opportunity for CWPA and Cs members to reconnect with one another. I hope that reader(s) are excited about the CWPA Network Breakfast (7am Thursday, 3/18 at the Seelbach Hotel - more on this in a moment)!

Ever thought of proposing to or attending the WPA conference? This is the year! Go to http://www.drexel.edu/wpa2010/ to read the CFP and learn more about the conference, but here are some highlights.

It’s the new year and the new term, a time when some take the opportunity to make and act on resolutions. It might be, in fact, that CWPA can help with some of our members’ resolutions with some fabulous opportunities. Maybe you’ve decided to:

Meet a writing instructor, program director, writing center director, or other writing professional near-ish who you’ve been meaning to chat with, but haven’t yet done.

Perhaps, as the semester winds down, you are already thinking about next term, about spring, about CCCC and the WPA breakfast at CCCC. This year’s event, which is open for registration, brings a new twist. As part of CWPA’s efforts to facilitate connections and conversation, we’re introducing themed tables at the breakfast. "What themes," you ask? You tell us!

Free coffee or lunch? Yes! Read on, CWPA members!

How often have you, CWPA member, said to yourself, “I know there’s another writing instructor/program director/writing center director/writing program down the road [even if the road is 500 miles long, as it is in some spots]. I’d like to get to know her or him, I just haven’t gotten to it…” Well, CWPA has some incentive for you to get to know that person!

Just as the mid-point of the semester seems like a good time to look back on the work we do with students, it seems like a useful moment to reflect on CWPA’s work this Fall 2009 term. There are a lot of opportunities for CWPA members (and friends) to be involved with the organization – and maybe a list of some of the initiatives will inspire others to join!

Based on input that we collected through WPA Directions at the 2009 summer conference, we’ve started or will start several new initiatives. These include:

I’m still abuzz from the inspirational efforts of writing/ELA students, teachers, and others that I heard about on the National Day on Writing, and that I’ve seen in the National Gallery of Writing. If you haven’t checked it out, you must! Of course, I highly recommend the CWPA Gallery… but there are literally thousands of other submissions that are just mind-blowing.

The WPA Gallery in the National Gallery of Writing NEEDS YOU! More specifically, we; need your work!

What should students learn in writing classes to be prepared for college? Who should make that determination, and how should they do it? And how might we affect responses to these questions? These are the issues that came up for me as I read the Common Core Standards released by the Common Core group and discussions of the standards on wpa-l, in a response to the standards by NCTE President Kylene Beers, and on the NCTE Ning.

One of the initiatives that came out of this summer’s WPA Directions work has to do with engaging in systematic dialogue with other teachers and administrators about our common interests and shared work. To that end, CWPA members are going on the road!