“MnWE News” Late
Spring Issue,
May-June 2017
In this issue:
1. MnWE
CONFERENCE
FEATURED IN
MARSHALL, MN
NEWS
2.
STUDENTS
ADDICTED TO
CHECKING PHONES
3. QUICK
NEW TIPS FOR
USING TECH IN
CLASSROOMS
4.
YELLOW MEDICINE
REVIEW
5. About
MnWE:
Forwarding the
News,
Joining/Leaving,
Grad Credit,
Representing MnWE
---
If you are a
MnWE
representative,
please forward
this
email to your
colleagues. Many
may not be on
the list.
If you are a
long-term member
of this
listserv, thank
you
for your
continued
participation.
If you are new,
welcome! Our
listserv
emails are sent
to about 2500
English,
Writing, and
related
Upper Midwest
faculty. To
join, send a
request to
richard at
jewell dot net.
Our website is
www.MnWE.org.
You are welcome
to attend our
next Committee
meeting 3:30 pm
Fri.,
May 19, in 12
Nicholson Hall
at the
University of
Minn. –Richard
J., Editor
---
1. MnWE
CONFERENCE
FEATURED IN
MARSHALL
INDEPENDENT
NEWSPAPER
The Ninth
Annual MnWE
Conference was
held March
31-April 1 in
Marshall at
Southwest State
University with
about 100 in
attendance, and
many first-time
attendees. The
theme,
“Connecting
Landscapes,” was
unusually well
represented in
welcomes,
keynotes,
plenaries, and
breakout
sessions, with
the wide,
rolling,
humus-rich
farmlands of
Western
Minnesota
setting the
stage outside
many windows.
Tours by
the Mayor and
others, as well
as two
interesting
dinners at
Western
Minnesota
landmarks,
captured an
additional broad
range of
interests for
attendees, with
a number of
presenters and
speakers from
several states
offering
creative new
ideas and old
ones updated for
our times. Once
again, we
organizers heard
from a keynoter
that the
conference is
every bit as
good as regional
and even some
national
conferences.
The
Marshall
Independent
daily newspaper
also highlighted
the conference
with pictures
and an article.
See them at the
link below.
---
Independent
article:
www.marshallindependent.com/news/local-news/2017/04/a-new-landscape/
Minnesota
Writing and
English:
www.MnWE.org
---
2. STUDENTS
ADDICTED TO
CHECKING PHONES
The
Sacramento Bee
recently
featured
research on cell
phone addiction
by Larry Rosen
and other
researchers (Caiola,
“How many
times”). Rosen
is a former
psychology
professor at
Cal.
State-Dominguez
Hills and author
of The
Distracted Mind.
The entire
article well
profiles heavier
student users.
It describes how
students “grow
increasingly
antsy with every
minute they
don’t look at
the screen.”
Rosen pinpoints
this: “We’ve
trained
ourselves…to
figuratively
salivate over
what that
vibration might
mean” and if we
don’t answer it,
“the signals in
your brain that
cause anxiety
are going
to…dominate,”
making you
“uncomfortable
until you take
care of them.”
Rosen says that
the average
person checks
his or her
cellphone sixty
times per day,
with or without
sounds. The
article also
offers advice
from other
researchers who
describe the
symptoms and how
to learn to
avoid so much
checking.
Another
Caiola article
(one starting
with a picture
of students)
cites a survey
of 2000 users
showing the
average person
checks a phone
134 times per
day (“Cellphone
addiction”).
---
“How many
times…”:
www.sacbee.com/news/business/technology/article139022938.html
“Cellphone
addiction…”:
www.sacbee.com/entertainment/living/health-fitness/article45080046.html
---
3. QUICK NEW
TIPS FOR USING
TECH IN
CLASSROOMS
Flipped
Computer
Classes:
Rather than
cancel classes
to meet with
students
individually,
try reserving a
computer lab in
which students
must work on
their papers
while you talk
with individuals
in the hall. In
addition,
students often
get much further
on papers in a
computer lab as
you go to each
student to look
at their papers
on their
screens.
Website
Columns: Do
you make your
own class
websites (or
have them made)?
Try making the
main column 600
pixels wide: the
width most cell
phones
accommodate
easily for quick
reading.
Cell
Phone Emails:
Many students
write and read
emails on cell
phones. Try
writing return
emails to cell
phone users with
just a few lines
and no blank
line spaces.
Students may be
more likely to
read your entire
message.
Long
Email Questions:
Do some students
send you long
emails with
several
questions?
Kathleen Blake
Yancey, past
Chair of CCCC
and past
President of
NCTE, learned to
save time by
using an
asterisks
system: type
several
asterisks under
each question,
followed by the
answer. At the
top, Yancey
tells students
to see the
asterisks below.
In-class
Electronics:
Some students
learn—and take
notes—better by
using their
laptops in
class. You also
can have
students learn
research methods
in class by
having them go
online with cell
phones.
Cell
Phone
Enforcement:
Feel free to
frequently
remind students
to turn off and
put away cell
phones.
Sometimes during
a second
request, you may
want to look
directly at a
specific user as
you talk to the
entire class.
After adequate
warnings, you
may take phones
away from
desks—calmly
with no tugs of
war. Also feel
free, in
egregious cases,
to ask an
individual to
stay after class
or even leave
immediately;
then meet with
the person and
explain how
research shows
cell phones are
disruptive to
everyone nearby.
Some faculty
members also
reduce
attendance
credit. Lisa
DuRose of Inver
Hills College
turns this last
idea upside down
by giving each
student one
point of extra
credit (up to
twenty points)
for surrendering
a phone in class
to a basket on
her desk.
---
More
suggestions:
Tips for
students about
tech in class:
www.slu.edu/beabilliken/college-tech-faq
Harvard—negatives
of tech in
class:
https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/blog/use-mobile-devices-college-classroom
U. Mich. use of
computers in
class:
www.crlt.umich.edu/sites/default/files/resource_files/CRLT_no30.pdf
---
4.
YELLOW MEDICINE
REVIEW
One of
the journals
that had a table
at the recent
MnWE Conference
in Marshall,
Minnesota was
the Yellow
Medicine Review
published twice
a year and
housed at
Southwest State
University.
Editors Judy
Wilson and Mary
Ellen Daniloff-Merrill
have developed
it into an
excellent
national review
of and about
Native American
literature.
The Fall
2016 copy I
recently read
had essays,
poetry, fiction,
narrative
nonfiction, and
reviews. Several
pieces strongly
engaged me
intellectually
and emotionally:
an essay giving
me new details
about pipelines
that I had never
read in two
newspapers to
which I
subscribe, an
often-metaphoric
poem about love,
a review of
Code Talker
Stories by
Tohe, and a
moving fiction
about a woman
whose barn
burned—and
within it, the
room where her
father abused
her for years.
If
you’re
interested in
good writing,
Indian
experience, or a
journal for
multicultural
courses, check
it out.
---
Link:
www.yellowmedicinereview.com
---
5. About MnWE
(repeated in
each newsletter):
FORWARDING/JOINING:
Please forward
this email to
others,
especially if
you are a MnWE
representative
listed below, as
your new
full-time and
adjunct faculty
members,
graduate
students, and
writing center
tutors may not
receive it. If
you are not on
the listserv and
would like to
join it, simply
send your
request and
email address to
richard at
jewell dot net.
WHO WE ARE:
“MnWE” is
“Minnesota
Writing and
English,” an
organization
with a
coordinating
committee, a
listserv, and an
annual spring
conference by
and for college,
university, and
high school
English and
writing faculty,
graduate
students, and
related academic
and literary
scholars,
writers, tutors,
and others in
the Upper
Midwest. Our
purpose is to
bring together
these
communities in
Minnesota,
Wisconsin, north
and central
Iowa, and the
eastern
Dakotas. Our
website is
MnWE.org; our
geographical
center is
Minneapolis-St.
Paul. Over 2500
faculty, tutors,
and graduate
students are on
the listserv.
Our listserv
members come
from public and
private two-year
colleges, state
universities,
private
four-year and
graduate-degree
colleges, high
schools, and the
Universities of
Minnesota,
Wisconsin, and
North Dakota.
Our activities
are led by a
large, active
committee of
representative
members listed
below.
GRADUATE
CREDIT:
Anyone may earn
one graduate
credit from
Southwest
Minnesota State
University for attending
one MnWE
Conference day
and writing a
related research
paper (up to
three times).
For questions
about this
course—“Eng 656:
MnWE
Practicum”—please
see contact
lisa dot lucas
at smsu dot edu
or see
www.smsu.edu/academics/programs/english/?id=11637 .
HOW TO REMOVE
YOURSELF FROM
THE LIST:
If you want to
be removed from
this listserv,
please do so
yourself,
following
directions at
the very bottom
of this email.
If you try
without success,
then send an
email to
richard at
jewell dot net
indicating (1)
this problem,
(2) your
specific email
address copied
from the
directions at
the bottom of a
MnWE mailing,
and (3) your
request for
removal.
FORMATTING,
INVITATION, &
CREDITS:
These listserv
emails usually
are formatted in
a simple way
using html
formatting. If
you cannot read
them, please go
to the web
address at the
top to see them
on the web.
Email addresses
on the web
version are
formatted using
“at” and “dot”
so that, on the
web, malware
spiders cannot
find the email
addresses.
If you
have any
questions, we
invite you to
email any of us
on the
committee. You
also are always
invited to
attend any of
our five MnWE
Committee
meetings per
year. You also
are invited to
offer
suggestions—or
volunteer your
leadership—for a
special or
double section
at the annual
conference.
This
newsletter is
written
primarily by
Richard Jewell
without
copyright so
that anyone may
quote,
paraphrase, or
forward any or
all of it
freely. We ask
only that you
give credit to
the “MnWE
Newsletter”
and/or “www.MnWE.org“;
and when you use
material that
has been quoted
or paraphrased
in this
newsletter from
other sources,
please be sure
to give proper
credit to the
original
source.
REPRESENTATIVES:
Representatives
(as listed
below), please
forward each of
these emails:
many of your
writing and
English
colleagues may
not be on this
listserv.
Potential
volunteer
representatives:
We always
appreciate
hearing from you
if your school
has no rep. See
the
“Representatives”
list below, and
if no one at
your school is
on it, please
volunteer! Email
richard at
jewell dot net.
We are
especially
looking for reps
from Greater
Minnesota,
Canada, Iowa,
North and South
Dakota, and
Wisconsin.
---
Richard Jewell, Larry Sklaney, Danielle Hinrichs,
and
Gordon and Beata
Pueschner,
Coordinators
Richard
at jewell
dot net
- (612) 870-7024
larry
dot
sklaney
at
century
dot edu
- (651) 747-4006
danielle
dot
hinrichs
at
metrostate
dot edu
- (651) 999-5960
gordon
dot
pueschner
at
century
dot edu
- (651) 686-4468
beata
dot
pueschner
at
anokaramsey
dot edu
– (651) 686-4468
MnWE.org
Minnesota
Writing &
English
A Consortium of
Colleges &
Universities
|
![](../images/Breakout'12.JPG)
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.
![](../images/BreakoutDon+Tai2016(4).JPG)
Donald Ross of
the University
of
Minnesota and
Taiyon Coleman
of St. Catherine
University run a
breakout session
about
literature.
![](../images/KeynoteAfter-SmallGroupWithSirc2010.JPG)
Geoffrey Sirc of
the University
of Minnesota
runs a small
breakout after
his keynote
presentation.
![](../images/Keynote-before-RJspeaks2016.jpg)
MnWE started in
2007.
The cofounders
were Richard
Jewell, here
giving a welcome
after lunch, and Donald
Ross, first
picture above.
![](../images/BreakoutBeata2016.jpg)
During a 2016
breakout,
Beata Puschner
presents
on improving
classroom
inclusion of ELL
students.
|