THE FREESTONE Colorado State University Department of English / Spring 2005
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THE FREESTONE Colorado State University Department of English / Spring 2005 Contents Stephen Reid Adjunct Instructors: Working Towards Equity Teaching Award 2 by Kerri Mitchell Interview with John Calderazzo 3 his year, adjunct instructors in the English department are working to raise awareness about the inequities they face. Currently, 35 adjuncts teach 66 percent of Dialogue about the department’s core courses. With the exception MFA Experience 4 T of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), adjuncts teach Interview with all sections of COCC150: College Composition. Adjuncts Sherri Mandell 5 also teach 75 percent of all CO300 composition courses and 64 percent of all E100- and E200-level courses. New Faculty So who are adjuncts, and how do they differ from Profile: Stephanie Besser 6 tenured and tenure-track faculty? Adjuncts are scholars and writers committed to higher education. All adjuncts Community in the English department have advanced degrees. Literacy Many adjuncts have similar qualifications to tenured Collaborative 6 professors, including doctoral degrees and publications. But unlike tenured and tenure-track faculty, who serve New Poetry Hire 7 on committees and spend significant time publishing Adjunct Instructors Rally for Campus Equity Traveling with their work, adjuncts are hired primarily to teach. In Teachers in China 8 essence, the teaching that adjuncts do makes it possible for other faculty to pursue their work outside the classroom. CSU Artist/Writer Since adjuncts teach so many introductory courses, they are sometimes described Collaborative 9 [continued on page 14] tossedgreens 10 E210 Reflection 11 CSU Writing Project to be Recognized in Report to Congress Faculty Retirements 12 by Jaime R. Wood Adjunct Faculty n 2003, twenty teachers from around the Front Range came to the CSU campus for the Profile: inaugural CSU Writing Project (CSUWP) Summer Institute. Cindy O’Donnell-Allen, assistant Todd Mitchell 15 I professor in the English department, started this Writing Project site. After participating in Wales Report 16 the Oklahoma Writing Project over two decades ago, she was determined to bring the Writing Project to our campus. We came together as strangers from different schools, subject areas, and Graduate Student grade levels, but all of us had one thing in common: writing. We spent four weeks learning Profile: how to become better writers and teachers of writing. We started each morning by scratching Rhonda Richmond 18 out thoughts in our writers’ notebooks and ended every afternoon with the “author’s chair,” a Undergraduate reading where each of us shared our most confident pieces. In between, we learned from each Profile: other. We each gave a teaching demonstration to show our best writing practice in the classroom, Jessi Rochel 19 and we met in writing groups several days a week to workshop our writing. By the end, we had at Announcements, least 20 new teaching ideas as well as an anthology of our poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to use in Awards, our classrooms. But that wasn’t the end of it. We went back to our schools as writers and teacher- Publications 21 leaders ready to share what we had learned at the CSUWP. [continued on page 16] THE FREESTONE Department Creates Teaching Award for GTAs published annually by the by Marcus Pickett CSU English Department makes a concerted effort Co-Editors to maintain contact with, Elizabeth Boyle and give attention to, her Marcus Pickett students. Part of the Composition Design Editor Committee’s intention with this award is to Megan Palmer augment the Professional Internship in English Photo Editors program. Hoping to give Pete Johnson GTAs the best possible aby kaupang opportunities in teaching when they graduate Contributing from CSU, the committee Writers Renee Rallo and Bonnie Emerick recognizes the potential Erin Bradford benefit for the winner, Shiela Bushanam who can include the award on his or her C.V. David Fleischer omebody’s been recognizing While the number of applications were Judea Franck that many CSU teachers are fewer than the committee had hoped Tara K. Land S underappreciated—and they’ve for, this number is expected to grow as Andrea Martens started doing something about it. This the award becomes more visible and Matt Martin year, the Composition Committee created established. Kerri Mitchell the Stephen Reid Award for Excellence Other master’s and doctorate Brice Particelli in Teaching to recognize the best of programs, both at CSU and other Marcus Pickett an already accomplished Graduate universities, have been implementing Renee Rallo Teaching Assistant (GTA) group. similar award programs. Likely—and David Redus The award is open to second- and optimistically—these programs are an Molly Reid third-year GTAs, who must apply effect of the increasing awareness that adjuncts and teaching assistants are Morgan Reitmeyer for the award and demonstrate an exemplary affinity and track record for being taken for granted. Stephen Reid, Rosa Salazar the craft of teaching. These applications CSU English professor for 35 years, calls Michelle Schmidt are then considered and judged by the the adjuncts and teaching assistants, Madeleine Smith Composition Committee. who handle the majority of the teaching Kimberly Srock In the award’s inaugural year, Renee workload, “overlooked, overworked, Tim Thomas Rallo won the first-place prize, and and underpaid.” Reid expressed a desire Jaime Wood Bonnie Emerick received honorable to find the funds for a similar adjunct Elise Zimmerman mention. Rallo actively sought out teaching award. a computer classroom in which to The award carries with it a $200 Copy Editors conduct her composition class and then prize, which Prentice Hall, Inc. has Erin Bradford tailored her syllabus to take advantage agreed to fund for at least the first five Ann Diaz of the unique environment. Specifically, years. An anonymous donor has also she found the computer classroom was funded a $100 prize for one honorable Kari Moore beneficial in getting her students to write mention. David Redus more often. She also solicited advice While this teaching award is Renee Rallo from lecturers and faculty and, finding certainly not meant to be a cure-all their input to be helpful, incorporated it for recognizing the hard work and Faculty Adviser into her teaching style. countless hours that GTAs give, it can Tobi Jacobi Emerick’s application for the award be seen as an important piece of the was based on her current section equation. Hopefully, the concern that The Freestone would like to of Introduction to Creative Writing the Composition Committee has shown thank its writers, editorial and almost three years of teaching with the creation of this award will filter and design staff, and faculty College Composition. She said she through the English department—and adviser for donating their worked diligently on her application perhaps continue the trend throughout and emphasized what she called an the larger academic community—of time to this publication. “ethics of care,” envisioning herself addressing the unique and challenging as a trusted academic mentor who situation of these teachers. F 2/ An Interview with Professor John Calderazzo, Author of Rising Fire: Volcanoes and Our Inner Lives by Brice Particelli n his book Rising Fire: Volcanoes and Our Inner Lives, John Calderazzo travels to Italy’s Mount Etna; Hawaii’s Kilauea; I Paricutin, Mexico; the Caribbean island Montserrat; and California’s Mount Shasta. Calderazzo weaves stories of lives and cultures into the book that also discusses geology and history to create what Donna Seaman from the American Library Association calls “an eloquent journey through the fantastic world of volcanoes and volcano lore.” I spoke to Dr. Calderazzo in March 2005 about his book and his writing experiences. Freestone: Tell me about one of the oddest things you’ve seen people do as a result of being around volcanoes. Calderazzo: Well, on the serious side—even the tragic side—one of the strangest things was to learn how in the last 10 or 15 years archeologists have discovered that there are the graves of children who have been sacrificed to the volcano gods on virtually every single peak of the Andes above twenty thousand feet. And there are a couple dozen of those peaks. That’s been a very startling discovery. On the lighter side, [one of the oddest things] was to watch videos of certain scientists who tried to approach volcanoes. There was the John Calderazzo one French volcanologist, who had a dog with him, and fashioned a gas mask for the dog to wear, long enough to fit the dog’s snout. I saw films of that (laughs). Or humans who would wear these steel...not exactly helmets...they went over their shoulders with pointy tops to protect them from these volcanic bombs (which were lava, liquid rock), so that when it hit them it would just slide off. To see videos of them walking up to an eruption was pretty amazing. Throughout your book you mix science, history and personal narrative. Tell me how you see the interaction between teaching about a place or subject and leading people through it. My interest as a writer is in telling things as a story, as a narrative, rather than the analysis or the 1-2-3. If I wanted to do it the other way, I might be more the conventional scholar, not a literary writer. To me that means telling things through story or a series of stories. And that’s what jingles my bells. Now, that’s easier to think about than it is to do. I have these very long chapters in the book and some of them took me quite a long time to figure out how to do—the correct (or an effective) mix of science, background information, handling characters that I meet along the way, and mixing it in with my own stories.