Getting My World Rocked by CCCC

Last week, I had the privilege and the pleasure of attending the Conference on College Composition and Communication (if you are not going OOOOHHHH, AAAHHHH, you should be).

It was AWESOME. I was so geeked throughout the entire conference that I was waiting for black-rimmed glasses, pocket protectors, and suspenders to spontaneously appear on my person at any moment. Or wait, I guess, based observation, composition geeks are more likely to sprout pixie girl haircuts, pink flamingo earrings, and print leggings. But whatev, you get the point. I was in writing geek heaven.

To give you an idea of the fun I had, here are the names of the sessions I attended:

• WAC and WID Reformulated: Alternative Programming, Reading, Writing, and Assessment for Authentic Composition
• Hybrid Pedagogies: HYC Formats, Asynchronous Peer Review, and Open Collaboration
• Opening the Writing Classroom to Intellectual Risk
• Breaking the Cycle of Ineffective Research Instruction
• Collaborating with the Sources Next Door to Open a Future of Authentic Assessment
• Bridging Cultures and Modes through Visual Rhetorics
• Researching to Write, Writing to Research: Teaching Information Literacy to First-Year Writing Students
• From Pain to Possibilities: Effective and Efficient Student Feedback in First-Year Composition
• Improving At-Risk Student Learning and Retention: A Basic Writing Curriculum Redesign

As you have probably guessed, this conference focuses on composition studies in higher ed. Geeked yet?  I heard that approximately 3000 people were at the conference, and based on how long the Starbucks line was, I'm thinking that's about right (seriously, I waited 28 minutes in line once..hey, I was really freaking tired.)

Sessions ranged from theoretical to practical to professional, attendees ranged from jeans and sweaters to suit and tie types, and food ranged from - actually there was no time to eat. I am so not kidding; sessions began around 8 and went back to back until 6, and then there were special sessions that went until 8. The conference handbook you get is just shy of 400 pages. Forget food, forget sleep, forget sanity. I survived on coffee and Fiber One bars. And I loved it.

I could start talking about everything I learned and how I'm modifying this or that class or lesson based on what I learned, but it would take hours and hours. If you have never attended and have any interest in comp and comm, you should definitely look into going next year. Oh and it's going to be in Tampa, so how fun is that?