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MnWE News Late-Fall Issue
November-December 2022
              
View this or previous issues in your browser.

    MnWE 2023 Conference on Zoom and In-Person at St. Cloud State
Fri.-Sat., Mar. 31-Apr. 1, 2023
“Learning Ecologies: Building, Improving, and Refining Pedagogy”

In this issue:     
     1.  News: 50 RACIST BOMB THREATS AT HBCUs IN ONE MONTH
    
     2.  Pedagogy: OUR REGRETTABLE TEACHING MISTAKES

3.  Review: FOR CLASSROOM READINGS: WE ARE MEANT TO RISE

4.  Equity/Diversity Literary Resources (in each issue)

5.  Free Teaching/Learning E-Newsletters (in each issue)

6.  About MnWE (in each issue)

        If you are new to our listserv, welcome! We never share your address, and you always may unsubscribe at the bottom of any email. Click here if you wish to view this or previous issues in your browser. MnWE News goes to over 2500 English and Writing faculty in Minnesota and parts of nearby states. Our next conference is Fri.-Sat., Mar. 31-Apr. 1, 2023, with almost all events available both in person at St. Cloud State University and on Zoom.
         
        If you are a long-term member of this listserv, thank you for your continuing participation. If you did not receive this newsletter directly and want to see it six times per year, join us by sending a request to the editor at jeweLØØ1 at umn dot edu. We suggest you give us a permanent email address.
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1. News: 50 RACIST BOMB THREATS AT HCBUs IN ONE MONTH
                          

six minors as persons of interest. The bureau is still investigating the cases.
                   
        Some HBCUs had to respond to numerous unfounded bomb threats. The effort eats away at university resources and takes a toll on the campus community’s mental health, HBCU administrators say. And though HBCU leaders offered messages of resilience in the wake of the threats, many institutions were shaken by the concerning pattern....

        “We at the Department of Education recognize how these threats evoke a painful history of violence against Black Americans in this country that is especially traumatizing to HBCU students, faculty, and staff,” said Miguel Cardona, U.S. secretary of education, in a news release.... (Back in February, I reported on the troubling history of bomb threats at HBCUs, dating back to 1960....)

        The alarm on February 22 frightened Fayetteville State’s students, faculty, and staff and disrupted classroom instruction. It alerted them to a bomb threat. The residential campus community was told to shelter in place. Campus operations were suspended until the campus police could further investigate the threat. The campus police then worked alongside city officials, the state police, and the FBI to surveil the area.

        “No doubt this created significant concern among our students, parents, faculty, staff, and surrounding community about their safety and security,” says Darrell T. Allison, chancellor of Fayetteville State....

         Fayetteville State increased campus police patrols and called in city police officers for additional help. The university extended work schedules for critical employees, including the campus police, communications officials, and administrators.. The university will use its over-$80,000 grant to reimburse funds that were exhausted by having to pay employees for overtime. It will also purchase a bomb-sniffing dog (which the university had to rent at the time of the initial threat)....
        “’We are concerned that the ongoing nature of these threats may embolden others who wish to do harm to these schools and their students, members of the HBCU Caucus wrote.

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"How HBCUs Recover From Bomb Threats" (Free signup required)
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2. Pedagogy: OUR REGRETTABLE TEACHING MISTAKES
           

Asking under-represented minority students to share experiences with the class, on the belief that the instructor had created a safe environment for them.

Trying to come off as stern and demanding so students would take them seriously.

Using high-stakes assignments with no scaffolding.

Framing the syllabus as a series of “don’t dos” (“Realized this set an antagonistic tone for the course.”)

Cold calling on students. (“I was taught to “encourage’ quiet students to participate by asking them questions in class. I’m sorry to all the students I’ve ever done this to!”)

And the ever-popular: “Pausing during a presentation, looking at students, asking something like ‘does everyone understand that?’ and looking around the room for eye contact/body language that supposedly indicates learning.”

        All of us have a learning curve when we start a new job or course. The more effective teachers sustain that learning curve throughout their careers by continuing to read, listen, and/or talk about how to teach. Doing so makes teaching both more effective and fun.

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Effective Teaching--Harry and Rosemary Wong
"Cringe-worthy Teaching Practices," Teaching (Requires signup, which is free)
Teaching Mistakes 101: What I Wish I Had Known (Requires signup, which is free)

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3. Review: FOR CLASSROOM READINGS: WE ARE MEANT TO RISE
           

Minnesota English and Writing colleagues–tell us their nonfiction stories and poetry about being BIPOC Minnesotan in George Floyd and pandemic times.

        The book will be free through December 12 on EbooksMn.org, along with a virtual conversation with Holbrook, Mura, and others at 7 pm on Dec. 7. Anyone can join the book club, which is sponsored annually by the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library and the Minnesota Center for the Book in partnership with State Library Services.

        We Are Meant To Rise is published by the University of Minnesota Press. Here is the Press’s description of it:

        In this significant collection, Indigenous writers and writers of color bear witness to one of the most unsettling years in the history of the United States. Essays and poems vividly reflect and comment on the traumas we endured in 2020, beginning with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, deepened by the blatant murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers and the uprisings that immersed our city into the epicenter of passionate, worldwide demands for justice. In inspired and incisive writing these contributors speak unvarnished truths not only to the original and pernicious racism threaded through the American experience but also to the deeply personal, in essays about family, loss, food culture, economic security, and mental health. Their call and response is united here to rise and be heard.

        We Are Meant to Rise lifts up the astonishing variety of BIPOC writers in Minnesota. From authors with international reputations to newly emerging voices, it features people from many cultures, including Indigenous Dakota and Anishinaabe, African American, Hmong, Somali, Afghani, Lebanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Mexican, transracial adoptees, mixed race, and LGBTQ+ perspectives. Most of the contributors have participated in More Than a Single Story, a popular and insightful conversation series in Minneapolis that features Indigenous and people of color speaking on what most concerns their communities.

        We Are Meant to Rise meets the events of the day, the year, the centuries before, again and again, with powerful testament to the intrinsic and unique value of the human voice.

        Contributors: Suleiman Adan, Mary Moore Easter, Louise Erdrich, Anika Fajardo, Safy-Hallan Farah, Sherrie Fernandez-Williams, Pamela R. Fletcher Bush, Shannon Gibney, Kathryn Haddad, Tish Jones, Ezekiel Joubert III, Douglas Kearney, Ed Bok Lee, Ricardo Levins Morales, Arleta Little, Resmaa Menakem, Tess Montgomery, Ahmad Qais Munhazim, Melissa Olson, Alexs Pate, Bao Phi, Mona Susan Power, Marcie Rendon, Samantha Sencer-Mura, Said Shaiye, Erin Sharkey, Sun Yung Shin, Michael Torres, Diane Wilson, Kao Kalia Yang, and Kevin Yang.

        “Diversity is our strength. Each new voice who becomes part of America is our strength. The writers in this anthology provide us with individualized portraits of who we are, and in doing so they can help us to know each other, our neighbors, our fellow citizens. These writers prove we are indeed more than a single story.” –David Mura, from the Introduction

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Free Ebook reading: EbooksMn.org
Book’s UMN Press page: upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/we-are-meant-to-rise
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4. Equity Literary Resources (listed in each issue)
      
              What diversity books might you or your students read? Suggestions are welcome.
                

Asian-American:
        

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Black:
       

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Indigenous/Native American:
        

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Latinx:
       

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LGBTQ:
        

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Graphic Novels and Diversity:
       

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5. Free Teaching/Learning E-Newsletters (in each issue)

      Do you want to be more in touch with colleagues nationally, or seek ideas from other networks? Connect by subscribing to one of these free email newsletters. You may start or stop a subscription at any time. Go to each link below to find more about the e-newsletter and instructions for subscribing. (You won’t be subscribed by clicking on the links below.)

NEA HigherEd, National Education Association. Weekly political and labor news update:

          Subscribe           Sample

Race on Campus from Chronicle of Higher Education. Weekly briefs and information:
         
          Sample and Free Subscription

Diversity Insider, National Education Assoc. Weekly news, essays, and advice:

          Subscribe           Sample

The Source: Updates, MLA Style Center. Weekly pedagogy and readings updates:

          Subscribe (scroll to bottom)   Sample        Other free Style Center e-letters
          
          Always available online, the Style Center’s "Works Cited: A Quick Guide"

Teaching from Chronicle of Higher Education. Weekly brief advice on general methods:

          Subscribe           Samples      

The Campus View, Minnesota Private Colleges (17 colleges). Monthly private college news:

          Subscribe             Past issues
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6. About MnWE: Old Issues, Joining, Who We Are, Grad Credit, Unsubscribing
    (in each issue)

More Online-Teaching Resources: See www.mnweconference.com/resources.html.
    
Our Newsletters: For new and old issues, visit MnWE News.
    
Forwarding/Joining: Please forward this email to other interested faculty and administrators. Your newer full-time and adjunct faculty members, graduate students, undergraduate majors, writing center tutors, and English and Writing administrators 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 jeweLØØ1 at umn dot edu. We always enjoy signing up new list members.

Who are we? “MnWE” is “Minnesota Writing and English,” an all-volunteer organization started in 2007. MnWE has a coordinating committee, a listserv, and an annual, two-day spring conference attended by 100-200 faculty. Our main coordinating committee, which meets about six times per year, is composed entirely of unpaid college, university, high school, and other professional English/Writing volunteers. 

      All activities are by and for college, university, and college-in-the-high-schools English and Writing faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and related academic and literary scholars, , tutors, publishers, authors, and others in the Upper Midwest and beyond. Our purpose is to bring together these communities in Minnesota and in nearby states and provinces.

Where are we? Please visit us online at MnWE.org. Our geographical center is Minneapolis-St. Paul. About 2700 faculty, graduate students, tutors, and related administrators see our emails. Those on our listserv receive this newsletter six times per year, along with additional conference announcements and helpful forwards. Our listserv members come from state universities, public and private two-year colleges, private colleges and universities, high schools, publishing companies, and the public universities of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and other schools and locations in the United States, Canada, and overseas countries.
       
Conference: At our annual two-day conferences, our speakers highlight pedagogical concerns and are scholars and writers of national excellence from both local and national locations. Some of our presenters come from states or countries far beyond our own geographical area. The majority of our attendees and presenters are from universities and private four-year colleges; a significant minority are in two-year colleges, high schools, and other groups.
   
Graduate Credit: Anyone may earn one graduate credit from Southwest Minnesota State University for attending a MnWE Conference day and writing a related research paper (up to three such credits may be earned). For questions about this course–“Eng 656: MnWE Practicum”–please contact lisa dot lucas at smsu dot edu or see www.smsu.edu/academics/programs/english/?id=11637.

Unsubscribing: To unsubscribe from this listserv (and no longer receive the MnWE News, MnWE Conference announcements, and other forwarded announcements), please do so yourself, following directions at the very bottom of this email.  If you try unsubscribing on your own without success, then send an email to jeweLØØ1 at umn dot edu indicating (1) your unsubscribing action that didn’t work, (2) your specific email address copied from the directions at the bottom of a MnWE mailing, and (3) your request for removal.
    
Formatting: Each of these listserv emails usually is formatted in a relatively simple way using html. If you cannot read it, please click on the link at the top right of this email to see the newsletter on the Web.

Questions: We invite you to email the editor or a coordinator on the MnWE Committee listed below. You also are always invited to attend any of our six or more MnWE Committee meetings per year. To join the listserv, email Richard at jeweLØØ1 at umn dot edu. If you’d like to attend a meeting, or join the committee for Zoom meetings, please ask Richard. In addition, you always are invited to offer suggestions to MnWE, or to volunteer your leadership for forming a breakout session at the annual conference. 

Copyright: This newsletter is written primarily by MnWE News editor Richard Jewell without copyright so that anyone may quote, paraphrase, or forward any or all parts freely, unless otherwise noted. We do ask that you give credit to the MnWE News and/or www.MnWE.org; and when you use material that has been quoted or paraphrased in this newsletter from another source, please be sure to give proper credit to the original source. 
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Richard Jewell, Editor

MnWE News   
                                  

Minnesota Writing and English
www.MnWE.org

MnWE Coordinating Committee:

David Beard, UMD Advisor, University of Minnesota-Duluth

Heidi Burns, Web & Docs Coordinator, Minn. State University-Mankato

Mary Ellen Daniloff-Merrill, SMSU Advisor, Southwest Minn. State University

Samantha Denney, Southern New Hampshire University

Judith Dorn, 2023 Site Coordinator, St. Cloud State University

Gene Gazelka, North Hennepin Community College

Edward Hahn, Registration Coordinator, North Hennepin College

Ryuto Hashimoto, Undergraduate Connection Coord., Mn. State U.-Mankato

Danielle Hinrichs, Program Coordinator, Metropolitan State University

Richard Jewell, Co-founder & Gen. Coord., Inver Hills Coll. (Emeritus)

Yanmei Jiang, Equity Co-Leader, Century College

Carla-Elaine Johnson, Plenary Coordinator, Saint Paul College

Linda O’Malley, Volunteer Coordinator, Metropolitan State University

Priscilla Mayowa, Metropolitan State University

Kerrie Patterson, Treasurer, Hennepin Technical College

Gordon Pueschner, Secretary & Conf. Floor Co-Manager, Century College

Beata Pueschner, Conference Floor Co-Manager, North Hennepin College

Jana Rieck, Communications Coordinator, Champlin Park High School

Donald Ross, Co-founder, Univ. of Minnesota-Twin Cities (Emeritus)

Larry Sklaney, Conference & Cost Center Coordinator, Century College

MnWE Journal Editorial Board.: David Beard and Yanmei Jiang   
             
Email Contacts:

danielle dot hinrichs at metrostate dot edu - (651) 999-5960
larry dot sklaney at century dot edu - (651) 747-4006
jeweLØØ1 at umn dot edu (Richard Jewell) - (612) 870-7024

MnWE .org
Minnesota Writing & English
A Consortium of Colleges & Universities