I was in Chicago for the National Writing Project 2009 National Scoring Conference, during which we, in the middle school room, completed 3076 readings/scorings of essays. So, after 3 solid days of that, every event turns into an opportunity to practice scoring on the Analytic Scoring Continuum, their "rubric" for scoring. There is also a Holistic Scoring Guide, but that just isn't as fun, and you're not really able to break down the meal (if eating) or the road (if driving) or the music (if listening) or the preaching (if in church) in all of its subtleties. So, I’ve now announced my topic – using the Analytic Scoring Continuum, but because it will be more like a list, and less developed, it won’t be on the high end. Just wanted to prepare you.
1. I’ve got a few pictures of fellow scorers as they do their work. Since I’m working on the MWPN website, I need pictures of Missouri Writing Project people doing their thing. It’s not exciting, since we basically spend about 10 hours learning how to use the Scoring Guides, and then spend 12-15 hours scoring papers, but it is important, and through the findings of this research we (the NWP) are able to gain funding to live another day.
Frank from Idaho and Darrian from New York scoring at the perfect table #7.
Missouri scorers in the high school room work hard to finish up on Saturday.
All of the Missouri scorers, after the reflection and response time during Saturday's lunch.
2. Chicago is a wonderful town. I didn’t walk around like a tourist with my camera though, so I will have to return to take pictures. I’m really coming to like big cities, and the idea of living in one. The fact that they are planned and built up rather than out, allowing for an organized and fairly efficient, if not always clean, public transportation grid, is something that I consider with great respect. Chicago probably profited from the fire for this element, to a certain extent.
3. Things I would like to do in the city of Chicago: (1) go to the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge for Slam Poetry; (2) go to the beach on Lake Michigan to see if it is really worth calling a beach, or if those crazy northerners just call it a beach because their winters are so terrible that the idea of a beach is necessary for their existence; (3) hit the Field Museum, Grant Park down through Millennium Park – maybe catch a concert there, and then Navy Pier; (4) go to another Cubs game at Wrigley Field, and since this is a wish list, add a White Sox game at U.S. Cellular and a Bulls game at the United Center.
4. Driving from Chicago to Ohio, I passed through South Bend, Indiana, home of Notre Dame University. That sentence is fairly simple and not quite full of the excitement suitable to my reaction. It was a fun 30 minutes of driving around the campus, sometimes the wrong way because I just wanted to take pictures and didn’t quite know where I was going. I drove around with a huge smile on my face, just happy to be on the grounds that I had dreamed of for so many years as a young kid at Holy Cross. Honestly, it didn’t live up to my imagination, or to the glory and splendor that NBC affords it every college football season, but it still was really cool. I’m sure, like Holy Cross’ Gazebo and the bell and the oaks, the history is in being there and sharing experiences there. I’ve got some pictures that I know my family will enjoy at least.
Entrance to a magical land. 
Need I say more?
Even the wind and the flags were cooperating for this fantasy trip to the glory land.
The Golden Dome. Beautiful drive up through a tree lined street to reach this point.
Gate C at the stadium. It's not as big as I expected it to be, but things are always bigger in your mind when they exist in a fantasy land far, far away.
Touchdown Jesus was huge! Not larger than life; larger than expected.
5. Driving from Chicago to Canton, I took I-90 through the city, connected to I-80 and took that all the way to south of Cleveland. I estimate that it cost me $30-35 to drive that stretch of highway. That sentence is also fairly simple and not quite indicative of my absolute distaste for the almost everyone in the state of Indiana and Ohio. Quite frankly, the roads were terrible, comparable to those in Louisiana. When I entered Indiana, I immediately had to pay $3.50 to cross a bridge – which I miraculously made it across. When I got to the bottom of the bridge, I had to pay $2.50 to get onto I-80. When I got to South Bend I had to pay, and then grab a ticket when I got back on the interstate. When I got to the Indiana state line I had to pay double digits, I think it was $11.50. When I got into Ohio I had to grab a ticket, for which I paid when I exited in Toledo for gas. When I got back on I had to grab another ticket, for which I had to pay when I got off I-80 to get onto I-77 south to Canton.
To the government and the people of the states of Indiana and Ohio: I hope every single one of you lose your jobs. If your road systems are so bad that you must charge ridiculous amounts just to travel the roads, I hope all tourism to your states ends. I hope the federal government stops sending money to your states; money that other states receive and manage in their Transportation Departments, and put to good use. I hope that you don’t learn how to use the resources provided to you, and I hope that you still maintain the idea that you must keep up with the Joneses.
Indiana: you will never be Illinois and you will never have a population center comparable to that of Chicago, so you will always be the little, stinky brother, always attempting to survive off of access to those better than you. You are a doormat, and I’m quite convinced that you know it.
Ohio: you may think that, because of presidential elections and the corruption of the college football BCS toward THE Ohio State University, you are important, but really you are not. Saying that your economy is in the trenches would be generous. You have stopped being relevant or necessary in the Midwest so long ago that you aren’t even claimed by states like Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, or Oklahoma. That’s pretty sad. Like Indiana, you also are a doormat to bigger and better places; stop trying to squeeze every bit of good out of those who attempt to quickly pass through or by.
To any friends I have in Indiana or Ohio, I love you very much. Get out as fast as you can.
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