On October ninth, the next generation of tutors at the Woodstock Academy writing center, The Writing Centaur, traveled to the Eighth Annual Conference for Secondary School Writing Centers at the University of Connecticut. The conference, organized by the UConn writing center, brought together middle and high school peer tutors from all across the state to share ideas and best practices. At this event, participants acquired advice about tutoring and about creating a writing center. 

At the conference, tutors and their teachers convened in the Student Union theater for presentations and then broke into small groups where students from different schools were integrated, providing numerous learning experiences. In one break-out session, tutors learned a new organization method in which the writer thinks about each main idea in a paper as a different color of highlighter. We examined the responsibilities of tutors, namely, to improve the author’s writing so they do not make the same mistakes.  We also learned about first-hand experiences, good and bad, from other tutors who have been working in their respective writing centers for longer periods of time. 

The conference also made us aware of the numerous advantages our own writing center enjoys.  Woodstock Academy offers a full-semester training course in which we learn methods of tutoring and improve our own writing so we can later apply these skills to clients’ papers.  Our writing center is in a room located in the library, where we have laptops, couches, and other tools to make it a more efficient and a cozy place to work.  We were also flattered to learn that, although ours is a fairly new program, other schools use The Writing Centaur as a model, seeking our input and expertise when they want to set up their own writing center. We really appreciate all the support we have had from UConn and the encouragement from other schools to make The Writing Centaur possible, and we hope to repay those efforts as we assist other schools. 

After attending the conference, we brought back many great ideas to help improve our writing center. Our main goal for this year is to recruit more interested tutors and to have people from the community visit as well. Since our writing center is in the Woodstock public library, the tutors are accessible to the larger community. Library patrons can bring in job applications, creative pieces and resumes if they are seeking feedback.  In addition, we are working on creating a stronger connection between The Writing Centaur and the sending towns’ middle schools. A hope of ours is that local middle schools will take advantage of the opportunity to work with students here at the Academy as they prepare for the transition to high school. At the Writing Centaur, we work hard to emphasize that we want better writers, not just better writing. 

Authors of the article:

Caitlyn Bavosi, Junior of Pomfret

Allison Brady, Junior of Woodstock Valley

Coutney Dehler, Sophomore of Woodstock Valley

Carly DeLuca, Senior of Canterbury

Laura Looby, Junior of Woodstock

Madison Palmerino, Junior of Woodstock

Emily Rainville, Junior of Abington

Bryn Sconzo, Junior of Pomfret

Mrs. Zieger, Writing Centaur Director and English teacher