Closing Session

Closing session: Open mic: Bring your writings from
conference sessions to share with the group.

“Where is The Love?,” Molly Swick

In our attempts to make this a more peaceful planet, with more love than fear, more justice than injustice, more healing than harm… hope and love, as ontological needs for transforming society, are crucial elements in effective classrooms. A loving educational philosophy is imperative, yet insufficient without practical applications for creating a safe learning environment. Examining the teacher/student relationship, moving from banking to problemposing education, dialoguing as a pedagogical tool, respecting lived experiences, striving for oneness in difference, and embracing love, hope and humility will be included in the discussion. I will use, as a background for the workshop, my dissertation topic: “The Social Justice Theories of Paulo Freire as a Pedagogical Language of Hope.” Come help me change the world!!!

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“Poetry, Inner Work, and Holistic Writing Groups,” Stan Scott

In this session we will look at poetry as a form of inner work that leads to greater self-awareness, emotional engagement, and movement toward maturity on the part of students. We will do some writing and other activities that demonstrate what I call holistic practices in writing groups—with the instructor present in every group—that have led to truly amazing results in my own teaching as well as students’ lives.

“Because I Said So: Negotiating Power/lessness and the Politics of Silence in a Writing Program,” Stella Apostolidis, Roseanne Gatto, Tom Philipose, T

“Because I Said So: Negotiating Power/lessness and the Politics of Silence in a Writing Program,” Stella Apostolidis, Roseanne Gatto, Tom Philipose, Tara Roeder

As professors who must negotiate multiple roles in the academy (graduate students, full-time contract faculty, administrators), we are invested in exploring the way our emotions can be mobilized to empower us (and our students), and the ways in which they are often repressed by institutional ideology. The questions we seek to address are: How can we negotiate our “double roles” in order to overcome the anxiety, pressure, and selfconsciousness we feel when dealing with the academic institution and its representatives, and how/why do we “mask” these anxieties in the classroom? How do we deal with the “silencing” tactics of a Catholic, conservative
administration, and the widespread pressure to abandon expressivist classroom practice? How do we use our anger, and the anger of our students, in constructive ways in the writing classroom?

Plenary Session with Sheridan Blau

SHERIDAN BLAU teaches in the Education and English departments at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he also directs the South Coast Writing Project. A past President of the National Council of Teachers of English, he has served as the senior consultant for the development of California’s statewide language arts assessment, and on the panel that developed the assessment instruments and scoring procedures for certifying teachers applying for National Board Certification in the English Language Arts. He is the author of The Literature Workshop: Teaching Texts and their Readers.

“She’s Telling the Truth: What We Might Learn from Miss Ferenczi and Other Teachers in Stories,” Jo Anne Katzmarek

The conversation in this session will begin with a look at teachers as they are portrayed in Charles Baxter’s short story “Gryphon.” In that story, Miss Ferenczi, an unusual substitute teacher stirs some fourth graders to think in new and exciting ways and other fourth graders to hang on fervently to the facts they learned from their “regular” teacher.

Using Miss Ferenczi as a starting point, we will explore the portrayal of teachers in stories and poems as a means to clarify professional dispositions for teacher education. Some points we may ponder: To what extent is our own identity as teacher shaped by the image of teachers we have read in stories and poems? What are some powerful metaphors for teachers and teaching suggested by these literary creations? How do these literary creations measure up the teacher dispositions being advocated by the teacher education professional community and especially by the teacher education accreditation policies? On the other hand, what might the role be for stories about teachers in the preparation of teachers?

“The Heart and Soul of Curriculum: Emotional Challenges in the Student-Centered Classroom,” Kristin Prevallet

Several years ago, I had a class that fundamentally shattered me emotionally, and since then I have changed my persona and my pedagogy to adjust to emotional situations in my classrooms. I am no longer the same teacher that I was five years ago—of course this has to do with growing wiser. But it also has to do with adjusting my pedagogy and overall approach to shield myself from the emotional trauma of that one class—a class that probably was an anomaly, but one that bruised me nevertheless. This interactive workshop will engage questions of authority and boundaries that we must often deal with in our classes.

"The Visceral Power of Playing: A Workshop Exploring the Provocative Contemporary Relevance of Shakespeare’s MERCHANT OF VENICE." Lorelle Browning

Saturday morning session.

"Teaching After Hurricane Katrina," Alicia Blair "The ‘Not-Trying’ of Writing," Rachel Forrester

Rachel will engage participants in a reflective exercise, and share her thoughts about how a very spiritual “not trying,” or non-work, is what’s at the heart of the mysterious event when composition occurs.

Alicia will share her practical experiences during the Post-Katrina period with her sixth grade students. She will explain how allowing emotions into the classroom, and following specific strategies and activities, made her year productive and successful.

“‘Oh please, not him!’ and Other Reflections on Disliking, and Maybe Liking, Students,” E.A. Miller Mlcak

Evening Session
Featuring readings—Kristin Prevallet, Laurence Musgrove and followed by an open mic.