Announcer:	The Missouri State Journal, a weekly program, keeping you in touch with Missouri State University. 
Emily Yeap:	Teaching students how to write is a challenging task, that's why The Center for Writing in College, Career and Community (CWCCC) at Missouri State University, developed The Writing and Thinking Conference to empower teachers to improve student writing. 
		I'm Emily Yeap. Held twice a year, the spring 2017 conference is scheduled for March 3rd. CWCCC director Dr. Keri Franklin is my guest today. She's here to shed more light on the conference and what participants can expect. 
Dr. Franklin:	We ask the question, "Who does a teacher go to to say 'I need some support to teach writing'?" We feel like at Missouri State, we are that resource that is focused on improving student writing through working with teachers. We also ask the question, "How do I reach students and engage content through writing?" Because teachers of English are not the only people who teach writing. We have science teachers and math teachers and family and consumer science teachers and welding teachers that are all teaching writing. We really look carefully at the needs of the teachers and we try to highlight local teachers with expertise. Our philosophy is not to bring in outsiders and pay them a large sum of money to come in and teach our local teachers how to teach writing. We feel like locally we have the experience and they have the knowledge of the needs in this community. They know and have the ideas to share about ways to improve writing. 
Emily Yeap:	The conference is not just limited to English teachers. 
Dr. Franklin:	We see at this conference, especially for teachers who teach other areas besides English language arts, that it's a really powerful way for them to engage in content. The teaching of writing is not something that teachers have been trained explicitly about. We really encourage teams of teachers from schools to come together to this conference so then they can go back and they can collaborate. 
Emily Yeap:	Participants will have several choices with regards to what sessions they want to attend. 
Dr. Franklin:	At this conference, we will have 15 options for teachers to choose from, so there are strands for rural writing. There are strands for argument writing. There are strands for creative writing. But, each session is designed for every grade level and content area, not just for English teachers. So teachers when they come have a choice in what sessions they attend, and they participate in the writing experience actively. When they leave, they are ready to make any adjustments that they need to for their classroom and be ready to implement it in their classrooms. 
		At this particular conference, we really expanded because The Center for Writing in College, Career and Community has a partnership, a rural consortium of other centers and writing project sites like our self. We have national speakers coming from The University of Arkansas, Clemson University, University of Louisville and Ole Miss. Those presenters at this conference will be focused on teaching in rural areas. 
Emily Yeap:	Franklin highlights some ways the conference benefits teachers. 
Dr. Franklin:	I think first seeing what other teachers are doing locally is really key. The time that we have included in the conference to process, to debrief, to think about the next steps that need to be made when you return to the classroom is really unique to a conference. A lot of times you go to different sessions at a conference and you go in and you go out and you go home and you're busy and you don't have time, but we realize the busy professional lives of teachers. We try to embed not only time for them to engage and do the writing that their students do, but to also have time to process that with other teachers at the conference, then also, to process it and have some time to plan for the next day. 
Emily Yeap:	Franklin says the growth and the number of participants since the conference began in 2014 is proof that teachers are looking for such a professional development opportunity. 
Dr. Franklin:	The last time we held the conference, we had 165 teachers that came. 70% of those teachers were first time attendees. We really feel like these Writing and Thinking Conferences that we hold, there is a need for them. We're also supporting local teachers to really give them a venue and an opportunity to share professionally colleague to colleague, not just in their own district, but in other school districts as well. 
		We really see this conference as not just you come to a conference and you never come back, that we are building long term relationships with teachers and school districts. We look very carefully at the feedback that the teachers give, so that the next conference we've made it new each time. 
		I think one of my favorite pieces of feedback that we've received is a teacher said, "Just keep being awesome. Every year keeps me motivated to take risks." To be able at Missouri State to be a place for people to think about their teaching, to get new ideas and feel comfortable to go back and to try new things, I think that's a real credit to what we're trying to do. 
Emily Yeap:	The conference fee is $100 for an individual and $360 for a team of four. For more information and to register, visit CWCCC.missouristate.edu. I'm Emily Yeap for The Missouri State Journal. 
Announcer:	For more information, contact the office of University of Communications at 417-836-6397. The Missouri State Journal is available online at ksmu.org.