The Electric Zoom Acid Test (with apologies to Tom Wolfe)

 I am jumping the gun on our Blog Post assignment this week, for two reasons:

1. I am afraid of forgetting to squeeze this in at the last minute on Friday the 26th, right after our English class has its first Zoom writer's workshop.

2. It seemed like a fun idea to anticipate how the Zoom session will go.

Here are my predictions:

The professor will get things rolling by saying "Somebody has to be first."

Class members will range in their level of participation from almost silent to chatty and perhaps bossy.

Someone will be extremely nervous and shy.

Someone will wander completely off the subject.

The most frequent comment made will be "I liked your story" or some similar derivative.

Someone will conclude their remarks with "I don't know what else to say, that's about it."

The first round will be a struggle for everyone and the process will get easier, later in the semester.

At least one participant will emerge as a sort of peer-guru with great insight and compassion. This person will not be me.

Much time will be spent in struggling to say the right thing, only occasionally succeeding.

There will be both bright spots and cringe-worthy moments.

Someone will blossom and someone will wilt. (Keep the watering can close by.)

Even though I don't have a dog in the fight as of yet, I will see my own errors showing up in others' work.

I will have an awkward, though enjoyable experience and then second-guess myself for the entire weekend.

Everyone will agree the workshop is worthwhile and will look forward to next week, sort of.

Okay, that's about it. I will see how my predictions pan out.