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About MnWE
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See below:
WHAT IS MnWE,
ITS CONFERENCE,
AND ITS
NEWSLETTER?
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NEWSLETTERS:
Issues in 2017
2014 Problem in
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Developmental
Education
WHAT IS MnWE?
We are "Minnesota Writing and
English," a consortium of Upper Midwest college
and university writing and English faculty
centered in Minnesota. We offer an annual
two-day conference each spring with up to 200
attendees, and a bi-monthly email newsletter,
the "MnWE News," to an email list
of about 2500 writing and English faculty.
We
are run by the MnWE Committee: about thirty
volunteers and representatives from
universities, colleges, and high school programs
in Minnesota and nearby states. Everyone serves
without pay. We welcome new
volunteers.
Our
mission is to help transform writing and English
into teaching and learning experiences using
practical methodologies that serve students
best. Our vision is to bring scholarly ideas and
practical pedagogy together to help create the
future of our disciplines. We enjoy a mix at our
conferences and in our committee of tenure-line
and adjunct faculty, graduate students,
administrators, and high school faculty teaching
college writing and English in the high schools.
WHAT IS THE
CONFERENCE?
Our annual spring
two-day conference usually is held in the Twin
Cities area of Minnesota, with occasional
conferences in Greater Minnesota. We usually
have an academic
plenary and luncheon keynote on the first day, a
creative writing plenary and luncheon keynote on
the second, and many breakout sessions run by
several faculty per session on both days. Our
breakouts confound the usual conference style by
replacing many (if not all) of typical
traditional presentations with nontraditional
discussions, panels, and interactive events. We
place our presenters purposely in smaller groups
where we encourage them to offer the new, the
untried, the tentative--to explore, ask
questions, and precipitate friendly debate.
WHAT IS THE "MnWE NEWS"?
Our
bi-monthly "MnWE News" offers three or four very
brief features in each issue that may include
local, regional, or national news of note to
writing and English teachers, links, and reviews
of articles and books significant to the
practice of teaching writing and English.
Our email listserv
for the "News" has 2500 names of faculty in Minnesota,
Wisconsin, and parts of Iowa, Illinois, and
North and South Dakota. In addition to the
bi-monthly newsletter, we send MnWE Conference
calls for papers and other information about the
conference, occasional notices of other useful
regional and national conferences being held in
the the Upper Midwest, and other occasional
forwards that may be especially helpful or
useful. Our listserv email addresses are
exclusive--never shared--and directions for
leaving the list are always at the bottom of
every email. Joining is simple: click on "Join/Unsub."
in either navigation bar above or to the left.
HOW DID MnWE START? MnWE was started officially by Richard
Jewell, an Inver
Hills College
tenured faculty
member, and
Donald Ross, a
long-time
Professor at the
Univesity of
Minnesota.
Richard had
taught
previously at
both the
University of
Minnesota, and
in January 2007,
he asked Donald
Ross if the two
of them might
work to develop
a joint
conference in
their two
systems and
throughout the
state.
When Donald agreed, Richard
then went to the annual MnSCU English and writing discipline meeting in
Minneapolis in February to ask whether its members would like him to develop an
annual state
conference that would include all Minnesota colleges and universities.
About eighty faculty from
throughout MnSCU were present; they voted by over 80% to support the conference. A founding
committee coordinated by Richard formed immediately to organize the first
conference.
The initial committee has grown
to include several dozen active members and MnWE representatives at their
schools who come from campuses in both Minnesota and Wisconsin. The
conference and the newsletter reach out to all states surrounding
Minnesota.
Members of the committee
represent a wide diversity of college and university professors,
instructors, and graduate students from University of Minnesota campuses,
Minnesota and Wisconsin state universities and public two-year colleges,
and a variety of nonprofit and for-profit private colleges and
universities. We also are proud to include graduate students in the
conferences and on our committee, and we are glad to see an increasing
number of high school faculty attending the conferences, who teach college
writing and English in their schools.
The
first conference was in fall 2009. Attendance normally varies from 150 to
200. Richard
Jewell continues to serve as the General Coordinator. In about 2011, two
additional central
positions were added: Larry Sklaney as Conference Coordinator,
and Danielle Hinrichs as Conference Program Coordinator. In about
2012, MnWE began producing its now bi-monthly newsletter edited by
Richard. In 2014, a
fourth central position was added: Gordon Puescher, Creative Writing Coordinator.
In 2015, Amy Kubista became Program Coordinator, and Danielle Hinrichs
joined Larry Sklaney as Conference Co-Coordinators.
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Mission:
Transforming
writing and
English
into teaching
and learning
experiences
using
methodologies
that serve
students best.
Vision:
Bringing
scholarly ideas
and practical
pedagogy
together to
create our
futures.
.JPG)
Donald Ross of
the University
of
Minnesota and
Taiyon Coleman
of St. Catherine
University run a
breakout session
about
literature.
Geoffrey Sirc of
the University
of Minnesota
runs a small
breakout after
his keynote
presentation.
MnWE started in
2007.
The cofounders
were Richard
Jewell, here
giving a welcome
after lunch, and Donald
Ross, first
picture above.
During a 2016
breakout,
Beata Puschner
presents
on improving
classroom
inclusion of ELL
students.
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