April Activities

Presentations/Workshops

Cynthia Bartels, Instructor of English, presented the paper "‘Till We Meet Again: Another Chapter for Carolyn and Neal?" and chaired a Baby Boomer Culture panel at Popular Culture Association (PCA) in Chicago.

Michael Charlton, assistant professor of English, presented a paper entitled "The Romance Quest: Same Sex Coupling and Modding in Video Games" at the Consoleing Passions conference in Columbia, MO

 

Publications

Mike Cadden, professor of English, had the article “‘But You Are Still a Monkey’: American Born Chinese and Racial Self-Acceptance,” published in the online journal The Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children’s Literature 17.2

Prairie Lands Writing Project

 

Prairie Lands Writing Project hosted an Open Writing Marathon at the Rolling Hills Library.  Several area teachers and their writing-friendly friends attended, including Joy English (Pickett Elementary), Kelly Lock-McMillen (Benton High School), Josie Clark (Bode Middle School), Elisabeth Alkier (Bode Middle School), Colleen Nichols (Penney High School in Hamilton), Ashleigh Bertrand (Blue Springs High School), Megan Montgomery (Blue Springs High School), Cayetana Maristela (Indian Creek Elementary School), and Mary Stone Dockery (MWSU). Participants formed groups and wrote in locations around Saint Joseph such as Mount Mora Cemetery, Remington Nature Center, and Magoon’s Delicatessen. 

Several writing marathon participants and other K-12 teachers also joined forces with MWSU Faculty from the Department of English and Modern Languages for PLWP’s annual event, When Writing Teachers Write.  Held at the East Hills Library on April 26^th, the program featured MWSU faculty Bill Church, Mike Cadden, Dana Andrews, Susan Martens, Tom Pankiewicz and Jane Frick as well as PLWP Co-Director Christie Leigan (Hall Elementary School), Joy English, Elisabeth Alkier, Terrance Sanders (Braymer High School), Mark Henderson (Savannah High School), Dasha Davis (Savannah High School), Cayetana Maristela, Kris Miller, and Mary Lee Meyer.

 The Prairie Lands Writing Project is pleased to report that we have been awarded a $20,000 SEED Teacher Leadership grant through the National Writing Project, to be used in 2014-2015 and 2015-2016. This grant will help fund our Invitational Summer Institute, our Teacher Consultants’ participation in the Fall Leadership Conference sponsored by the Missouri Writing Projects Network, and a new community literacy initiative which will support after-school writing clubs at area schools.  Co-Director Tom Pankiewicz, Principal Investigator Jane Frick, and Director Susan Martens were co-writers of the grant. Work with teachers involved in the College Ready Writers Program (CRWP) funded by PLWP’s i3 grant continued in April with model lessons, book study groups, and other sessions with teachers and students in Braymer, Hamilton, and Breckenridge.  PLWP Teacher Consultant Kathy Miller (Weston High School) joined Tom Pankiewicz and Jane Frick in delivering these programs. On April 27^th and 28th, Teacher Consultant Terri McAvoy (St. Joseph, retired) conducted model lessons and met with teachers at Pickett Elementary as part of the SEED 2 Professional Development in a High-Needs Schools grant.