The Good Thunder Reading Series kick off the spring semester with the Minnesota State University Mankato Faculty Reading, featuring poet/creative fiction writer Candace Black, poet Richard Robbins, and fiction writer Roger Sheffer on Thursday, January 18th. A talk on will craft will take place at 3:00 pm in CSU Ostrander Auditorium and a reading will begin at 7:30 pm in CSU Room 253. Visit the Good Thunder Reading Series website for more information about this event.
Three new Fulbright student scholars began their graduate degrees in English this fall. Pictured left to right are Youssouf Magassouba (Mali), Nhon Thanh Dang (Vietnam), and Dira Thokwane (South Africa). They join second-year MA TESL Fulbrighters Bekir Canli (Turkey)
and Adib Rahmani (Afghanistan), who is not pictured.
Join professors Suzanne Bunkers and Joe Kunkel for an exciting study tour of Italy this spring. For eleven days over spring break (March 4-14, 2010) students will visit Northern Italy with stops in Venice, Florence, Lake Como and Milan. This study tour will be much more than a tour of beautiful sights and famous places.
Then, over spring break, the group will travel to Italy as a class. After the flight, students will relax at beautiful Lake Como on the Swiss-Italian border. Then the group will travel by coach bus to Venice. After two days, students will travel to Florence, the City of Art. The tour will end in Milan, the home of La Scala.
To learn more about the program, including information about the three-credit course before the tour, visit the Italy Study Tour 2010 webpage.
The Introductory Workshop for new teaching assistants (TAs) was held from August 3-14. Twenty-one new TAs completed the workshop, which introduces the TAs to the shared text and assignment sequence used in Composition (Eng 101).
Dr. Heather Camp, composition director, supervises the workshop: "I don't know what could be better than working with smart, enthusiastic writing teachers as they begin their teaching careers. I feel priveleged to help the new TAs use their talents to help MSU undergraduates succeed at writing." Four TA mentors assisted Dr. Camp with the workshop:
The 21 graduates of the workshop will be teaching Composition this fall; they will join 23 returning TAs. In addition to the four TA mentors, David Maynard and Mariya Gyendina will serve as assistants to Dr. Camp.
The summer workshop schedule is arduous—four hours a day, five days a week, but past TAs have confirmed that the workshop was well worth their time. "I have never been in a class that was so effective so fast," observes a second-year TA who completed the summer workshop in 2008. "In two weeks, I was made into a teacher."
12-12-2009
Fall Commencement
1-28-09
Good Thunder:
Candac Black, Richard Robbins, and Roger Sheffer
Talk on craft 3:00 pm
CSU 284
Reading 7:30 pm
CSU 253
During the first half of spring semester 2010, we will hold weekly classes to learn and prepare for the tour. Then, over spring break (March 4-14, 2010), we will travel as a class to Northern Italy with stops in Venice, Florence, Lake Como and Milan.
For questions about the trip , visit the Italy Study Tour 2010 webpage.
Want information about the latest Valley Writing Workshop? As a teacher, do you want suggestions or advice about teaching writing in your writing-intensive course? Or, as a student, do you want some help with writing in college courses? Contact Valley Writing for assistance.
