TAA Members Receive Discount on May Writing Retreat

TAA has partnered with TAA member Michelle Rivera-Clonch, Ph.D. to provide members with a discount on her 13th annual Writing in Depth: An Academic Writing Retreat, which will be held Memorial Day Weekend, May 23-26, 2024 at the Hope Springs Institute in Peebles, OH. The primarily self-directed retreat, open to faculty and graduate students, provides an environment for serious academic writing, reflecting on your writing practices, and establishing systems of accountability in regional working groups that will aid in your movement toward completing your writing project.

Gain space and support to reinvigorate your writing process and reconnect with a community of writers.

When Your Inner Editor Roars

By Noelle Sterne, PhD

You’re writing along like butter, and suddenly a thunderous voice in your head rebukes: “THAT’S THE WORST, MOST HORRIBLE PHRASE SINCE . . . .” And you’re in a hammerlock of immobilization.

Such a message doesn’t have to lay you flat on the mat in a full writing block. Recognize that voice: it’s your ever-present inner editor—often old programming, parental censures, or frustrated-poet English teachers’ decrees. And it proclaims that you’ll never be a writer and you should go sell burner phones (if you don’t already).

Create Moments of Joy: Listen to Music

By Angelica Ribeiro, PhD

“Should you listen to music more often?” The answer is yes, and here’s why: to create moments of joy. Kelly McGonigal, author of The Joy of Movement, says, “Listening to music that you love is one of the simplest ways to produce joy.” What’s impressive is that the benefits of joy go beyond making you feel good. According to McGonigal, “Joy also affects things like your motivation.

Macmillan Learning’s Susan Winslow to Give Inaugural Michael Sullivan Lecture on Textbook and Academic Authoring

Susan Winslow, from Macmillan Learning, has been selected to give the inaugural Michael Sullivan Lecture on Textbook & Academic Authoring as Opening Keynote at the 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring in Nashville, TN June 21-22. Her presentation, “The Very Human Experience of Learning,” will dig deep into the moments that make learning special: the emotions, the bonds we form, the aha! moments, and those big motivations that stick with us for life.

As AI becomes a bigger part of education, we can’t forget that at its core, learning is a human thing. It’s all about finding the right mix of tech and touch. The session will help us to understand the different ways to blend modern tech with the timeless human side of learning to help engage and inspire students.

Write to Your Passion

When I completed my doctoral journey in 2007, I had the opportunity to write for publication. And soon, I realized that there was a unique interest from readers in my sharing ‘from the heart’ about my field of discipline, educational leadership. I began what has become a long series of books on the fascinating world of school leadership—and through the eyes of principals and other educators down in the trenches. Many of these projects have been co-authored or co-edited, as I have found others who have lived the work have such interesting stories and insights to share.

2/21 TAA Webinar on Navigating Your Writing Process

Do you ever find yourself writing in circles, struggling with decision fatigue or a lack of purpose in your scholarly writing? Do you wish you had a structure for your writing process that felt expansive and flexible enough to account for the complexities of scholarship creation?

Join us Wednesday, February 21 from 1-2 p.m. ET for a one-hour webinar, Navigating Your Writing Process as a Purposeful QuEST. Margy Thomas, PhD, of ScholarShape will walk you through the simple yet powerful QuEST framework as a way of structuring your writing projects in any genre.