"Rappelle-toi Prévert" Performed on Campus

With the support of the Foundation and the Alliance Francaise de Saint Joseph, Professor Susie Hennessy coordinated and hosted the evening performance of the French theater "Troupe Nerman" for the show "Rappelle-toi Prévert." The actors interpreted the poetry of poet Jacques Prévert in French.

Bergland and Students Present Research

Professor Robert Bergland and students Heather Heater, Dave Hon and Andy Inman presented "Multimedia and Interactive Features of College Newspaper Websites: A 2012 Study" at the National College MediaMedia Convention in Chicago Nov. 2.

Dr. Bergland, editor of College Media Review, led a session on getting published in the journal and was on a panel, "Conducting Research on College Media" at the convention.

A Prairie Lands Writing Project Update

Tom Pankiewicz, Prairie Lands Writing Project director, co-directors Christie Leigan and Heidi Mick, teacher consultants Mark Henderson, Valorie Stokes, Terri McAvoy and Michele Irby, and Pershing Elementary School lead teacher Joy Bettis attended the National Writing Project Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, November 15-17.

Sherry Swain, National Writing Project Senior Research Associate and Prairie Lands Writing Project’s Thinking Partner for the SEED 2 Elementary Grant, visited PLWP and Pershing Elementary School, November 6-8. Swain consulted with the PLWP Leadership Team—Christie Leigan, co-director, Terri McAvoy, PD facilitator, and Tom Pankiewicz, director—about the direction and progress of our work, observed a day of professional development activities at Pershing, and met with the PLWP/Pershing Planning Team to share her impressions of the work as well as offer suggestions.

On November 16, Christie Leigan, Terri McAvoy, Joy Bettis, and Tom Pankiewicz, participated in a day-long workshop for the fourteen National Writing Project sites taking part in the SEED Grant for high-need elementary schools. At the workshop held at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, each site shared its work and discussed problems it faces in delivering professional development. We discussed solutions to problems, reviewed our common agreements and had time to plan for upcoming PD days. The meeting allowed our team time to examine our work and progress at Pershing.

Prairie Lands Online Learning Experience developers—Valorie Stokes, Library Media Specialist at Platte County High School; Heidi Mick, Platte County High School Communication Arts instructor; Michele Irby, Lathrop High School mathematics instructor, and Tom Pankiewicz, PLWP director—led a roundtable discussion highlighting PLWP’s work in building an online course in Content Area Literacy for the National Writing Project.  We shared the current state of the module development, presented our spring 2013 semester plan for testing of the modules with participants from last year’s Vital Work institute, and fielded questions about our concept.

The Missouri Writing Project Network also met Las Vegas to discuss the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education contract which includes holding Content Area Literacy Workshops and completing a video project for DESE. Tom Pankiewicz, director, Valorie Stokes and Heidi Mick represented Prairie Lands at this meeting.

Prairie Lands Writing Project leaders Heidi Mick, Valorie Stokes and Tom Pankiewicz attended an i3 Grant meeting at the National Annual Meeting in Las Vegas.  NWP learned of its nearly 15 million dollar award from the Department of Education the week before the Annual Meeting.  The ten sites whose work was included in the grant proposal met to discuss next steps in planning our work with high need, rural school districts. PLWP has three pairs of schools with which to work over the next three years.

Mary Stone Dockery, Missouri Western English adjunct, presented a poetry workshop for writers in grades 7-12 at Going for the Gold: 2013 Scholastic Writing Contest on Wednesday, November 28. In addition to reading and discussing the qualities of an award-winning entry, Dockery offered several opportunities for the middle school and high school students and their teachers to write. The workshop ended with a series of small group reading sessions where student writers work-shopped pieces with several teachers. In October, Dr. Bill Church, English and creative writing professor, presented a similar workshop on writing fiction. He also served as a small group leader on November 28^th.  Tom Pankiewicz, Missouri Writing Region co-ordinator, Amanda Moyers, associate co-ordinator and Central High School communication arts teacher, and Eric Williams, English Education major and PLWP student aide, planned the event. 

That Poetry Reading Series

That Poetry Reading Series continues on Wednesday, December 5, at 6:30 pm at Foster's Martini Bar, Downtown St. Joe.

We will have two featured readers: Leah Sewell and Gabriela Lemmons. When our featured readers have concluded, we will break for about five minutes and will then have an open mic for anyone who wishes to share creative work. Readers should prepare for five minutes (2-3 poems). Arrive early to sign up.


Gabriela N. Lemmons is an MFA candidate at the University of Kansas. Her work appears in the anthologies Primera Página: Poetry from the Latino Heartland, Cuentos: Stories from the Latino Heartland, NewBorder: Contemporary Voices from the Texas/Mexico Border, Blue Island Review, and other diverse publications. She is a founding member and current president of the Latino Writers Collective. A native of South Texas, Gabriela is also a member of Sandra Cisneros's Macondo Workshop.

Leah Sewell is a graphic designer, magazine editor, journalist and poet. Her work has appeared in such publications as Midwestern Gothic, [PANK] and Weave Magazine. She's currently the assistant editor at Coconut Poetry and an MFA candidate at the University of Nebraska. She lives in Topeka, Kansas where she moderates the Topeka Writers Workshop.

Come one and all to hear some stirring words on a cold, winter's night.

Melissa Wine Defends Portfolio

Melissa Wine (MAA candidate, Written Communication) has defended her graduate portfolio, which  included an historical analysis of a popular technical writing textbook that has been published in eight editions. Melissa analyzed how technical writing was defined and represented in the text over time. 

Seated L to R: Dr. Kay Siebler, Dr. Michael Charlton, Melissa, and Dr. Kaye Adkins

Congratulations, Melissa!

Miller Defends Thesis

Kris Miller successfully defended his thesis, "Artifact Usability Analysis Of WebCT and Moodle: Exploring the Strengths and Weaknesses from the Instructor Perspective," on November 14, 2012. His thesis committee was Dr. Patricia Donaher (Chair), Dr. Michael Charlton, and Dr. Cynthia Jeney. Kris will be doing final revisions on his thesis this spring while he finishes up his MAS in Technical Communication.

Miller (second from left) and his committee (L to R: Drs. Jeney, Donaher, and Charlton)

Spanish Faculty Host "Dia de los Muertos" and Immersion Day

EFLJ's Spanish faculty--Dr. Castilla-Ortiz, Ms. Vicky Perez-Calzadilla, Ms. Saundra Dibella, and Dr. Bausset-Page--organized a gathering for "Dia de los muertos" on November 1st. There were around fifty in attendance in Blum 218 for the event. The Griffon News covered the event.

Two days later, Drs. Castilla-Oritz, and Bausset-Page invited High School teachers from Maryville, Saint Joseph and Atchinson (Kansas) for a day of Spanish immersion. Ana reports "A fun day for all of us!"