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APPALACHIAN REGIONAL STUDIES AT RADFORD UNIVERSITY

ATN

 

 

 

 

 

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THE APPALACHIAN TEACHERS' NETWORK

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ABOUT ATN

How does a teacher incorporate Appalachian or cultural studies into his or her classroom? How does any educator, whatever grade or discipline, encourage students to have pride in their culture, heritage, and home? Such questions the Appalachian Teachers' Network (ATN) strives to answer. As teachers from all levels, K-college, and all disciplines, we believe that students who understand and respect their own heritage will be better people because they will learn to respect themselves, other individuals, and the places they call home. We invite you to join our dialogue.

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Appalachian Teachers’ Network  

Eighteenth  Annual Conference

 “Appalachian Studies in the Classroom”

Featuring:

Keynote Speaker:

Sharon Wood

Retired Educator of over 30 years

 Sessions include:

  • Floyd County Migration Project

  •  Shining Light on the Youth for Our Future: Celebrating 10 Years of AASIS

  •  AASIS Scholar Presentations: Fort Chiswell and Rocky Gap High School Students

  •  Tour of the Farm at Selu

 Saturday, November 3, 2007

8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Selu Conservancy

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STITCHES

One way to participate is to write for the ATN annual newsletter, STITCHES.

  We regularly publish practical "teacher-helpers" as well as more scholarly essays and reviews.  We are now accepting the following submissions:

  • articles on teaching
  • reviews of books, films, or conferences
  • news items
  • interviews
  • teaching idea
  • articles on the heritage and culture of Appalachia
  • photographs
  • conference papers
  • stories of learning from students and teachers
We also welcome ideas for submissions. Our last issue featured articles on teaching Jack Tales, a history of Appalachian Studies bibliographies, and reviews, reviews, resources, and student work. Our next deadline is tba, so please write and share with others your ideas. For more information, please email the editor, Theresa Burriss at tburriss@radford.edu, or contact the ARSC office.
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   Previous conferences: 

Appalachian Teachers’ Network

Seventeenth Annual Conference

 

A Celebration of the Handbook

Featuring Contributors to  

A Handbook to Appalachia: An Introduction to the Region
 

 

A Handbook to Appalachia is a collection of thirteen essays by notable scholars and was designed in response to the question,

 “What one book can I read to learn about Appalachia?”

 

The 2006 ATN Conference Featured

         A panel of Handbook authors, sharing the latest word on these chapters:
 

Economy—Dr. Thomas Shannon, Radford University;

Folklife—Dr. Deborah Thompson, University of Kentucky;

Literature—Dr. Danny Miller, Northern Kentucky University;

Politics of Change—Dr. Stephen Fisher, Emory and Henry College


 
  • Feedback from teachers using the Handbook in college and high school classrooms
  • A review of Appalachian Studies resources and outreach at Radford University
  • An optional afternoon tour of the Farm at Selu
  • Appalachian bookseller George Brosi with a special collection of children’s books!

 Special Music for Lunch by Bill Adams and Ricky Cox

 

Saturday, November 4, 2006

8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Heth Hall, Radford University Campus


 

 

Fall 2003 & 2004 & 2005
“A Crash Course in Appalachian Studies”

Featuring Contributors to the
Handbook to Appalachia: An Introduction to the Region:

The Handbook to Appalachia is an introductory text
of thirteen essays by notable scholars designed to answer the question,
“What one book can I read to learn about Appalachia?”
Insights on being African American and
Appalachian ~
Affrilachian Poets:

 

Frank X. Walker

Frank X Walker will once again educate and entertain at this year's Appalachian Teachers' Network and Southwest Virginia Multicultural Education Conference. Last year, over 450 people came to hear Walker read from his work during an evening reading and conference presentation.

     The RU bookstore quickly sold out of Affrilachia, Walker’s collection of poetry that powerfully explores the symbiosis of  African American and Appalachian roots. 

     Walker will be joined this year by two other Affrilachian Poets, Crystal Wilkinson and Bernard Clay, both from Kentucky. Clay, a former student of Walker's, has produced several chapbooks of his poetry and fiction and is a recent graduate of the University of Kentucky. Wilkinson, a self-described Black, country girl, and poet from rural Kentucky, explores the joys and pains of the woman’s Affrilachian experience in her new book of fiction, Blackberries, Blackberries, from Toby Press.

Writes one critic: "Crystal Wilkinson's characters live and breathe. They walk, talk and leap off the page into your lap and living rooms from their front porch. . . Let out the sleeper sofa. Throw in more potatoes to stretch the soup. Her characters are about to move in." 

Wilkinson currently serves as assistant director at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, KY. 

 

For more information on Frank X Walker, Crystal Wilkinson, and the Affrilachian Poets, click on the link below.
Affrilachia, a television documentary
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For information about the ARSC and its programs,
please contact Kerri Huff.
For comments about this Website,
please contact Gene Hyde.
Last updated on February 2, 2007