Notes

These are my notes on conferences and events that I attend.

2013 OPID Spring Conference
The Value of Inquiry into Student Learning in the 21st Century

Warriors & Students: Storytelling in the Digital Age

Words have power. This presentation focuses on the War: Through Their Eyes student multimedia projects and how public storytelling ventures transcend traditional classroom assignments. For each project, students produced a series of podcasts (audio/video), multiple stories online, and a magazine or a book. Then their body of work is showcased in a public event. By telling these stories on multiple platforms for public dissemination, students took true ownership over their work. They found that their words hold great power, and they learned like Peter Parker that with great power comes great responsibility. I will address the value of empowering students with tools to tell meaningful stories, with examples from War: Through The Eyes, a multimedia series that allowed students and alumni of UW Oshkosh to tell the world why they enlisted during a time of war, what they did and felt at the front lines.

Tech Tools - What is in Grace's Bag?

How to Blog/Podcast links:

I use a MacBook. I used to be a PCer, but now I'm a Mac convert. My Macbook comes with software (Garageband, iMovie) that allows me to podcast right out of the box.

NEWSPA 2012

Northeastern Wisconsin Scholastic Press Association April 25, 2012

I was seduced by the promise of doughnuts from the the wily Barb Benish, the executive secretary for this conference. NEWSPA draws 400-500 high school students to UW Oshkosh to learn from media professionals. My talk is on column writing. I had to dig back decades to find old columns I had written. In high school I wrote a column titled Out of a Lim(b). Yes, quite catchy, I know. At the Miami Herald, I covered education and convinced my editors to let me have a column called School Days. I've written serveral other standalone columns for various publications including the New York Times Well health column. My When the Whole World Mumbles

highlights the joys and perils of getting hearing aids. I wrote Will two cultures forge a new Christmas tradition? for the Miami Herald, which talks about the joys and perils of getting married.

School Days Part 1 - Third-grade revisited offers lessons, Miami Herald
School Days Part 2 - Sorting out the science of 8th grade, Miami Herald
School Days Part 3 - My class hits right notes, if not the right answers, Miami Herald

The Language of Tradition, New York Daily News

Student Becky Thomas' column Life as a Tall Girl

in the New York Times

Favorite columns

Leonard Pitts
Sept. 12, 2001: We'll go forward from this moment, Miami Herald, Sept. 12, 2001

Jeff Zaslow
A Beloved Professor Delivers The Lecture of a Lifetime, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 20, 2007

Nicholas Kristof
Bullets Over Beijing, New York Times, June 3, 2009
Tiananmen Square

Behind the Scenes: Tank Man of Tiananmen

By PATRICK WITTY

1989 Tiananmen Square Protest

Tips on Column Writing

Inside the Writing Process With Don Murray

Tips for Writing the Personal Essay

BOB KERR: What is the aim of a newspaper column?

Excerpt from the Art of Column Writing: Insider Secrets

The Art of the Personal Essay by Sheila Bender

Association of American Colleges and University

FACULTY ROLES IN HIGH-IMPACT PRACTICES, March 25-27, 2010, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

At this conference, I will video blog in part to show how blogging/podcasting doesn't have to be a painful process. My blog Grace Writes What Grace Likes is hosted by blogger, a free service. For a list of my mobile journalist kit, read What's in Grace's Bag?

My colleagues and I will be presenting at 8 a.m. Saturday, March 27 in the Aims and Purposes of High-Impact Practices section.

Igniting Selflessness: Fostering Community in the Classroom and Beyond

Helping students develop an other-centered orientation not only can lead to greater fulfillment and a more positive world, but also can result in a better education for, and better work from, each student. In this session, the facilitators will examine how to shift students’ focus away from the self: (a) within the classroom, (b) at the departmental level, (c) across campus and (d) in the larger community. Participants will learn how to build a “safe haven” classroom environment in which students both nurture and challenge each other, with pedagogical strategies aimed at helping students engage in each other’s work. They will also address challenges related to fostering community at the departmental level, across campus, and into the region beyond.

Susan Nuernberg, Chancellor's Assistant for Strategic Planning and Professor of English; Richard H. Wells, Chancellor; Douglas Heil, Professor of Radio-TV-Film; Tracy Slagter, Assistant Professor of Political Science; and Grace Lim, Instructor of Journalism—all of University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.