Preview of "Teaching Spanish and Learning Latino" by Amanda Marek

The second in our series of excerpts of the stories in What Teaching Means followed by an abbreviated version of the writer’s biography. You can expect more great writing like this when we publish in April of 2012.

From Teaching Spanish and Learning Latino by Amanda Marek

By working with them, asking questions, and earning their trust and therefore honesty, I learned so much about how their cultures functioned as a subculture in Minnesota. I saw how they had adapted their Mexican, Guatemalan, and Salvadorian cultures to a general Latino culture, and how they further adapted it to mesh with what Minnesota demanded of them. And I too became part of this culturally mish-mashed community.

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Amanda Marek teaches ninth grade English and Spanish for native speakers in Shakopee, Minnesota.

Preview of "The Escape Artist" by Alicia McCauley

The first in our series of excerpts of the stories in What Teaching Means followed by an abbreviated version of the writer's biography. You can expect more great writing like this when we publish in April of 2012.

From The Escape Artist by Alicia McCauley

“I often wonder what became of Brian. At night, between the hazy edges of dreams, I glimpse his face amongst other children who have come and gone too quickly. I regret not seeing beyond his eager smile and bright eyes. I regret not hearing Brian’s real stories, the ones that were too hard to tell.”

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Alicia McCauley earned an AA in Early Childhood Education from Shasta College, followed by a B.A. in liberal arts and a teaching credential from Simpson University. She teaches first grade at Boulder Creek School in Redding, California.

What Teaching Means Previews

Well, the manuscript production process is well underway and still on schedule. We have placed the 39 stories into six sections. Copy editing is ongoing. This continues to be an inspring and gratifying process. Again, we can't thank these writers enough for sharing their stories.

We have received word that Linda Christensen of Rethinking Schools and the Oregon Writing Project, Dr. Margaret Latta of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Dr. George White of Lehigh University will review the book for us.

Jeff Lacey of Rogue Faculty Press is currently working on scheduling author events for late spring and early summer of 2012 in Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, and Oregon.

Starting later today, we are going to start posting (on this blog and the Rogue Faculty Press Facebook page) the professional biographies and short excerpts from the writing of the teachers included in the Spring 2012 Rogue Faculty Press publication, What Teaching Means: Stories from America's Classrooms.

Stay tuned...

Publicity for What Teaching Means

Work is continuing on What Teaching Means. A few authors are working with editors to finalize their pieces. Contracts are going out. And, finally, we are starting to make plans for a promotional tour for the book in late spring and early summer 2012. We'd like to visit some of the 17 states represented by the authors in the book. We'd love to visit bookstores, coffee shops, and so on. Anywhere that will support teachers and the art of teachers. We would be especially interested in events in Nebraska (of course), Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Oregon since a few teachers from each of those states are included in the book. Any ideas?

Our Work Has Begun

Thanks to 85 teachers in 27 states who submitted their teaching stories for What Teaching Means: Stories from America's Classrooms. It was a great pleasure to read all these stories. We have now chosen the 39 essays that will be published in April of 2012 by Rogue Faculty Press. Check in here for updates about our progress.