The Learner at the Center:
Conversations about Teaching and Learning
October 10-12, 2002
Portland, Maine

Highlights of This Year's Conference:

• an evening of Maine humor from a woman's perspective, with Susan Poulin, celebrated, story teller and performer
• Workshops and readings by two Maine writers: poet Wes McNair and writer Bill Roorbach, both followed by book sales and signing
• 25 workshops featuring more than 75 faculty from throughout the region
• 3 workshops designed to help all of us promote our work nationally--through publication, presentation and involvement in national TYCA.
• Friday night hosted dinners at some of Portland's excellent restaurants
  
  Off-Site Portland Events Include:
  
  
• Tours of the Longfellow House and the Victoria Mansion (Thursday afternoon)
• A guided walking tour of Portland on one of the Women's History Trails--Working Women in the Old Port (Saturday afternoon)
• A visit to Peak's Island, in beautiful Casco Bay
• A Saturday evening Pub Crawl in Portland's Old Port
• A trip to Freeport, Maine
• Or, explore on your own the Portland Museum of Art, the Children's Museum, the Portland Market, as well as Portland's many galleries, shops and places of entertainment
  
  Accommodations
  
  With only a month to go, the hotel is filling quickly—if you haven’t made your reservation with the Holiday Inn by the Bay, do it soon. The Holiday Inn offers a free airport shuttle; the number is: 1-207-775-2311. If you are unable to get a room there (it IS leaf peeping season), try one of these two hotels:
  
  The Eastland Park Hotel, two blocks from the conference site:
  For information and reservations: www.eastlandpark.com or 1-888-671-8008 .
  Airport shuttle reservations: 1-207-775-5411
  
  The Portland Regency :
  For information or reservations: www.theregency.com or 1-800-727-3436 .
  Airport shuttle reservations: 1-207-774-4200
  You can also visit Portland websites to find B&B’s in the area. Rental cars and taxis are alternatives to shuttles from both the Amtrack station and the airport.
  
  Registration
  
  Send in your registration today—if you need a registration form, contact Dianne Fallon, dfallon@yctc.net.
  The registration fee is $125, $85 for adjunct faculty and students.
  Send it to: Karen Farrell, Northern Maine Technical College, 33 Edgemont Drive, Presque Isle, Maine 04709
  
  TYCA 2002 Conference Schedule
  
  Thursday Afternoon
  Conference Registration 2-8 pm
  Holiday Inn by the Bay, Lobby
  Guided Tours, Longfellow House and Victoria Mansion 2-4:30pm
  (Walking distance about 5 blocks)
  Dinner on your own
  Welcome Reception, Holiday Inn by the Bay, featuring Maine humorist/story-teller, Susan Poulin,
  (Sponsored by MBNA)
  Desserts, fruit, wine 7:30-9 pm
  
  Friday:
  Book Publishers’ Exhibits will be open 8 am-6 pm
  Conference Sessions
  Session A: 8:30-10
  Session B: 10:30-11:45
  Session C: 2:15-3:30
  Session D: 4-5:30
  Lunch, featuring Maine poet Wesley McNair 12:00-2:00
  Book signing to follow
  Poetry Roundtable, with Wesley McNair—bring your work—Session C
  Hosted Dinners, depart 7:30 from hotel lobby
  Evening Activities on your own
  
  Saturday:
  Book Publishers/ Exhibits will be open 8-12
  Workshops, Session E:
  · Publishing your work: with TETYC Editorial Board Members, Facilitated by Howard Tinberg
  · Creative Non-fiction: Bill Roorbach, Saturday's featured writer
  · Effective proposals and presentations for the National conferences: T. Ella Strother, TYCA
  · TYCA Q&A, with Paul Bodmer, from TYCA's national office. Find out what TYCA is and does, and how you can be more involved in promoting its mission.
  · Faculty development session which includes a panel discussion of issues related to Writing Across the Curriculum as well as tips for publishing a textbook.
  Lunch, featuring Maine writer Bill Roorbach, 12-2 pm
  Book signing to follow
  Afternoon activities include:
  · Women's History walking trail, Old Port
  · Trip to Freeport, Maine, home of LL Bean
  · Ferry visit to Peak's Island in Casco Bay
  · Or, get acquainted with Portland on your own
  Pub Crawl: Departs lobby at 8 pm. Hosted by Wil Libby and Jeff Baizeley, CMTC
  
  Overview
  This year’s TYCA Northeast Conference begins on October 10, 2002—less than a month away! If you haven’t made your travel plans and your room reservation, do it today—fall is a busy month in Maine.
  The conference theme, “The Learner at the Center” identifies the essence of our work as educators. The conference events will address ways in which we can put learners at the heart of what we do, and how we, as learners ourselves, can enhance our own work. “Students,” “kids,” “pupils” may sit in those chairs, with learning as their goal and teaching as our challenge. We’ll talk, laugh, and learn from each other.
  Thursday’s activities begin with registration starting at 2pm. The afternoon can be spent touring the Longfellow House (as in Henry Wadsworth), and the Victoria Mansion, both within very easy walking distance of the hotel. Check the registration desk for departure time. Or, tour the Portland Museum of Art on your own. Or, visit the Portland Market, shop in the Old Port, or even take a cruise on Casco Bay. Enjoy a delectable dinner in one of Portland’s many restaurants, but hold the dessert!
  The evening reception begins back at the hotel at 7:30 with desserts, fruits and wine. The evening program features award-winning storyteller and performer Susan Poulin, a Maine native, who brings to the stage Ida, a woman of incomparable wit and wisdom. Following the performance will be an informal discussion of how Ida was born and what continues to give her life on the stage.
  Friday and Saturday workshops and speakers are detailed elsewhere in this issue. The Friday luncheon speaker is Wesley McNair, who will address the conference after lunch. As a special addition to this year’s program, featured poet Wes McNair will join the Poetry Roundtable. Bring your original poetry, and be ready for reading and discussion.
  Exhibitors’ booths will be open all day, and the long breaks will give you time to tour that area. In the evening, the sponsoring campuses have organized hosted dinners at a variety of restaurants. Because many of Portland’s restaurants are small, most of the groups will be fewer than 10. Menus are available at the registration table, as are sign-up sheets for each eatery.
  
  Saturday morning focuses on our development as professionals, and includes several focused workshop sessions from 9-11. The choices:
  · Creative Non-fiction, with features speaker Bill Roorbach
  · Publishing an Article in Teaching English in the Two-Year College: A Conversation with the editor or TETYC, Howard Tinberg. This workshop has two parts: one will involve a description of the process by which and article is submitted, reviewed, revised, and accepted at TETYC; the other a conversation regarding projects on which participants are currently working.
  · Presenting at National Conferences: How to Get There and Be a Success, T. Ella Strother, TYCA National Representative. Learn the process and the criteria by which proposals are accepted, as well as winning presentation techniques to ensure a successful session.
  · TYCA Q&A, with Paul Bodmer, from TYCA's national office. Find out what TYCA is and does, and how you can be more involved in promoting its mission.
  · Faculty development session which includes a panel discussion of issues related to Writing Across the Curriculum as well as tips for publishing a textbook.
  Saturday’s luncheon will include a short TYCA NE business meeting, followed by a reading and address by featured speaker Bill Roorbach. Bill will be available to sign copies of his books, which will be on sale at that time. And, more door prizes!
  
  In the afternoon, for those of you staying over Saturday night, several events await, all leaving the hotel lobby at 2:30. Stasia Callan, a veteran of the Peak’s Island tour, will escort a group across Casco Bay to Peak’s for a fall foliage island walk. Though it’s a short ferry ride, the wind can be brisk, so dress accordingly. Polly Kaufman, American Studies scholar and professor of US and women’s history at the University of Southern Maine, will lead a walking tour, “Working Women in the Old Port.” Polly is a leading authority on heritage sites for women, and has been principal writer for Boston Women's Heritage Trail, project director for the Portland Women's History Trail, the Brunswick Women's History Trail and the Walking Trail of Women's Statues in Oslo, Norway. She is co-editor of Her Past Around Us: Interpreting Sites for Women's History, which will published next spring by Krieger Publishing. Some of her other books include National Parks and the Woman's Voice: A History (UNM Press), and Women Teachers on the Frontier (Yale U. Press) about women from New England and up-state New York who went West to teach before the Civil War.
  Another option is Freeport--home of LL Bean and many other retail outlets and restaurants. If enough people are interested, we will have a bus trip to Freeport, 20 minutes north of Portland, which will return after dinner. To reserve your seat, please sign up at the registration desk and reserve your seat. Price per seat is dependent on the number of passengers.
  The final event of the conference weekend is an Old Port Pub Crawl. Portland has more pubs per capita than almost any city in the eastern US, most of them concentrated in the Old Port area, a very short walk from the conference site. A crawl through these pubs will give you a glimpse of Portland’s nightlife, a taste of some award-winning microbrews, and a chance to meet the locals. Leading the Crawl are two guys who really know how to have a good time--Jeff Baizley and Wil Libby, both from CMTC.
  
  We look forward to seeing you all there—
  Conference Planning Team:
  Ethel Bowden and Lucy Coombs, Conference Co-Chairs, Central Maine Technical College
  Dianne Fallon, York County Technical College Miriam Gregg and Karen Farrell, Northern Maine Technical College