Wichita State University: Electronic Journals Hosted by University Libraries
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Bombing Wichita: How the bombing campaigns of World War II spurred production and change in Wichita, Kansas
Get PDFFar above Germany, seven men fly. Their jobs are all different and imperative to the success of their mission. Hundreds of other planes fly beside them. All are focused on the task and trust in the rest of the crew and in their plane. Once the target is sighted, tons of bombs are released. They see the explosions and are elated in another mission completed. What they did not see was the family home the bombs destroyed, or the family members that lost their lives to the horrors of air warfare. The military gave justifications for this new method of war. Perhaps in their hearts, the pilots and crew felt bad for those who perished. However, they are at war and did whatever needed to be done to win. Thousands of miles away, different civilians faced disparate stresses. These civilians lived in Wichita, Kansas and they were imperative to the production of airplanes for World War II. The Boeing-Wichita plant is an important case study of war production. It was the largest plant located in Kansas and built the most iconic aircraft of World War II. The war production transformed Wichita\u27s people, infrastructure, future and added stress to a considerable number of those in Wichita; however, those stresses did not include wrestling with the morality of bombing civilians of belligerent nations
Beyond this Night: A poem from the last class before student teaching
Get PDFA poem from the last class before student teaching..
Becoming Jo March
Get PDFWhen I was a girl, I read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. The beauty of this book is that the reader can see pieces of herself in every March sister, and I was no exception. Mostly, I sought flattering comparisons: Amy\u27s creativity, Beth\u27s selflessness, Meg\u27s nurturing spirit, Jo\u27s ambition. But I carry no shortage of ineptitudes, particularly with Jo\u27s rashness. All too often I found myself biting my tongue, and like Jo, ending up receiving a good scolding from my own Marmee. Despite these imperfections, Jo became a kindred spirit of mine. Her ambition and love of writing awoke something in me. I, too, became a writer after reading this book. I begged my mom to purchase journals for me, and if I was good and did my chores and went to Sunday school, she would laminate and bind the pages together. I developed my own series of stories, each volume detailing coming-of-age experiences, like fighting with siblings, or a good friend moving across the country. The experiences in those stories were my experiences, and through this fictional world I was able to better understand my own; in this way, I sought to become Jo March
Speak, Trigger Warnings, and Listening to Student Needs
Get PDFEnglish language arts is a vulnerable subject. It involves self-expression, serious reflection, and deep discussion in a way that I did not understand when completing my pre-service teaching program. Entering this profession last year, I was pleasantly surprised by the complex subjects my students were eager to write about. Excited, I grabbed ahold of their engagement. We used it as fuel. My students have written essays, podcasts, and blogs on their home-life struggles, the unbelievable pressures of high school, and the microaggressive acts of racism teachers can not quite catch in the hallways. Together, my students and I learned that writing and talking about these issues creates positive change. I loved giving my students the chance to write about and discuss hard topics in my classroom. On the days when we cleared out the mumbo-jumbo of normal class expectations, when we simply talked and wrote about real world issues, it was those days that were special. They were meaningful. My kids asked for more days like them, and I tried to honor that request
Utilizing Imitation to Jumpstart Creation in Writing
Get PDFOne of the things that I find difficult to effectively teach is composition. Writing has always come naturally to me, so breaking down the hows and whys of the process to students doesn\u27t. I found myself getting frustrated while teaching students composition because I wasn\u27t sure how to show them what I wanted them to do without doing it for them. One thing I\u27ve realized is this: writing is hard. It\u27s not something that always comes naturally, and it tends to require a certain struggle. I wanted to encourage my students to be okay with this struggle and to enjoy it; to enjoy the feeling of finally getting the just right words in the perfect order to expertly convey their thoughts and ideas. That is where the joy of writing comes from, and I wanted that experience for my student
From the Editor
Get PDFThank you for reading the 2018 issue of Kansas English, which contains an invigorating and inspiring collection of teaching reflections, creative works, and scholarly arguments. Each piece offers insight and nourishment as we consider our teaching, our students, and our profession
Agency on the Edge: Women of Colonial St. Louis and the Power They Held
Get PDFIn 1763, the city of St. Louis began its life on the western side of the Mississippi River. From its inception the city had aspects that were uncommon for a frontier village. The people there still dealt with normal frontier problems, like relations with neighboring Native American tribes, taming and shaping the land, and supplying the town. However, its location gave St. Louis an interesting history. It was first settled by French merchants who quickly found themselves under Spanish rule. The Spanish would last until 1803 when Louisiana was given back to France then promptly sold to the United States. Through all of these changes the people remained steady, and they developed somewhat uncommon views of women for the time. Those views were reflected in how women came to settle in the city, spent their days, appeared in courts, and how they obtained education. The unique circumstances of women in St. Louis make it an interesting setting for a case study of how women in the early nineteenth century had different levels of agency in their own lives
Dear Tired Teacher
Get PDFDear Tired Teacher,I see you. I see you taking another minute to unjam the copier in the teacher\u27s lounge one more time before it spits out the day\u27s work. I see your smile welcoming each student into your classroom every hour, every day. I see the seemingly organized chaos with objectives and essential questions on the board. I see you giving advice to the college intern standing by your side from the moment they arrive to the moment they leave. I see you at lunch with students eating in your room, met with the laughter of friends who join them
The Tree of Panic in A Separate Peace
Get PDFWith the growth in popularity of young adult (YA) literature over the past few decades, novels such as John Knowles\u27s 1959 classic A Separate Peace deserve to be analyzed for typical YA themes, such as sexuality, identity, dysfunctional family units, and coming of age motifs. This paper evaluates A Separate Peace from a queer theory perspective while analyzing symbolic elements and themes. By examining these YA themes, teachers can offer fresh perspectives while teaching classic novels that have withstood the test of time
Peace Breaker: Edwana Collins and Desegregation in Wichita Public Schools
No full textThe fight for Civil Rights in the United States has been difficult and has largely been accomplished by people who have challenged the status quo. History shows that progress and people willing to break the peace go hand in hand. Edwana Collins was one such peace breaker. On June 8, 1970, she was duly sworn and took the stand ready to testify against the Wichita Board of Education, an institution she had been part of for nearly sixteen years. Throughout her tenure on the Board of Education, Collins was a needed advocate for desegregation in Wichita Public Schools and fought to give African American families a voice within the school system. Through a study of her personal papers, Board of Education documents, local newspapers, and the civil rights movement in Wichita as a whole, one can trace her efforts toward integration, from her early work as president of the Board, creating and serving on committees designed to research the underlying issues contributing to segregation, her commitment to advocating for the African American parents, and her ultimate act of peace breaking, testifying against the Board of Education. Though she was not alone in her fight against inequality, her efforts demonstrate that individuals can be agents of change within their communities