Monday, October 26, 2015

Autumn Awards 

Retired English professor and former chair Dr. Ken Rosenauer received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the Missouri Western Alumni Association during Homecoming weekend.  Congratulations, Ken!




 Erica Cook, BSE English and French major, is the first recipient of the Future Foreign Language Teacher Scholarship. The scholarship was created to support future teachers of a foreign language during a semester abroad. Erica will study at the Université d'Angers in Angers, France during the spring 2016 semester. We look forward to her reports on life at a French university. 

Friday, October 23, 2015

October News



Mary Stone performed her own poetry at The Writer's Place in Kansas City, along with Marianne Kunkel, as part of their reading series. 

Mary’s poem "I Can't Stop Writing About Men" was published in Word Riot -http://www.wordriot.org/archives/8454.  Two of her poems, "When the Doctor Finally Prescribes Lithium" and "Perhaps Too Many Poems End with Hangovers" were published in the I-70 Review.


Mike Kelley successfully defended his thesis entitled Quick Start Guides and Tabletop Role-Playing Games: Lessons Learned for Technical Writers on Tuesday, October 13th.  Mr. Kelley's thesis involved studying how users learn the rules of games and how this information can be used in technical communication.  He is currently teaching English and other subjects at Highland Community College and previously worked as a composition instructor for Missouri Western.  Mr. Kelley should graduate with his MAA in Written Communication in December.  His committee: Dr. Michael Charlton, Dr. Kaye Adkins, and James Carviou. 





Arlo Leo, son of Marianne Kunkel and Dave Nall, came into the world recently, weighing in at at 7 lbs, 9 oz., and 21 inches in length. Mom says he has a TON of hair. We'll take her word for it.
Welcome, Arlo, and congratulations to your mom and dad!


Sunday, October 4, 2015

Banned Books and Pop Culture in the Classroom


The nineteenth annual Banned Book Reading was hosted by Mike Cadden on Tuesday, Sept. 29th.  Courageous readers of risqué books included: 
Ms. Angela Claywell • Drama by Raina Telgemeier
Dr. Michael Charlton • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Dr. Douglas Davenport • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Ms. Shelley Nordquist • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Ms. Emily Wearing • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Ms. Kelly Lock-McMillen • Cut by Patricia McCormick  
Ms. Sarah McCumber • Harry Potter by J. K. RowlingMs. Tess Kram • The Prince by Machiavelli

 
 
 





On Tuesday, Sept. 29, EML faculty gathered for the Morale & Motivation Committee's quarterly brown bag session, this time focusing on "Engaging Students with Contemporary Themes." Panelists Michael Charlton, Paul Dijkzeul, and Dawn Terrick shared fascinating and useful advice for incorporating pop culture references into the EML classroom. Topics ranged from using graphic novels in class, to thinking philosophically as teachers about escaping our cultural "bubbles," to inviting students to bring in contemporary applications of traditional texts. A lively Q&A session followed, with many great ideas and challenging questions. Thank you to all who attended--and a big thank you to Michael, Paul, and Dawn!