10 Question conference retrospective: Views from a graduate student attendee

The Textbook & Academic Authors Association’s small, focused conference, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico June 15-16, was one of the most useful ones I have attended.  The cost was a really great deal considering all the valuable information provided by the presenters. As a first-time attendee and a graduate student, here my reflections on my experience.

1) What were some of the highlights and insights?

The presentations I attended were all on the Academic Track. The first day, I went to two sessions, and then I had three wonderfully inspiring mentoring sessions. I started with Meggin McIntosh (see more below) and then Katherine Landau Wright’s presentation, The Journal Article Writing MATE: A tool for beginners, which provided a very helpful tool for evaluating journal articles to use as models for writing and can also be used as a general article assessment or summarizing rubric.

10 Question conference retrospective: Views from a graduate student attendee Read More

Member Spotlight: Susan W. Bontly

TAA member Susan W. Bontly is a PhD student at New Mexico State University and an academic author in the curriculum & instruction, education, information technology, library science, educational, and instructional design disciplines.

Her most recent publication is titled “Impact of Technology on Post-Secondary Classroom Culture: A Critical Literature Review”.

Member Spotlight: Susan W. Bontly Read More

Member Spotlight: Tracey S. Hodges

TAA member Tracey S. Hodges is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama and an academic author in the literacy discipline.

She most recently published an article entitled “Transacting with characters: Teaching children perspective-taking with authentic literature” which details a study conducted with her co-authors Erin McTigue, Katherine Landau Wright, Amanda Franks, and Sharon Matthews. To date, she has published 13 journal articles. 

Member Spotlight: Tracey S. Hodges Read More

Busy TAA People: Mary Kay Switzer

TAA member and former TAA Council President Dr. Mary Kay Switzer will be an honored feature in noted Chinese author Albert Chang’s book and paintings, “Six Women,” to be exhibited in Tokyo in April 8-10, 2019.  Chang and Switzer began their collaboration at California State University Pomona. Switzer has been designated Professor Emerita at that university. She is currently living in Tempe, Arizona where she is involved in theatrical productions.

Busy TAA People: Mary Kay Switzer Read More

Textbook and academic discussions – keep them going

If you were at the 31st Annual Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference in Santa Fe, NM last weekend, you know the excitement and passion this group of authors shared throughout each session and networking opportunity. For the nearly 100 participants in the roundtable discussions held Saturday afternoon, there was much to talk about and some incredible ideas shared in the groups. Many participants expressed an interest in continuing these conversations beyond the conference. To this end, we have used the roundtable discussion topics to start eight threads in our LinkedIn group for just that reason.

If you were in attendance, we’d love for you to get the conversation started by sharing notes from the session with our LinkedIn group. If you weren’t able to attend (or were participating in another roundtable at the time), please share your insight, ideas, and questions in any or all of the discussions linked below. The roundtables just got bigger! Welcome to the table!

Textbook and academic discussions – keep them going Read More