Tracey Menten, as some may know, is an English teacher. However, whereas many students might know this much, they might not know that Menten has recently had the honor of being published in a textbook.
Menten will have a chapter written by her featured in “Creative Composition: Inspiration and Techniques for Writing Instruction.” This textbook will be published in early 2015. Her chapter, “Show, Don’t Tell: Using Graphic Narratives to Teach Descriptive Writing,” will not be her first accomplishment.
Menten has had another fragment of her writing published in the past and can be found in the “English Journal,” Volume 100, Number 2, November 2010 “Reading, Writing, and Thinking about Disability Issues: Five Activities for the Classroom.”
“A call for proposals is put out by the editors of the journal or textbook,” Menten stated. “Usually there is a focus required for the proposals (e.g. disability studies, YA Literature, etc.) or a specific pedagogical approach (e.g. use of technology, collaborative learning). People throughout the profession submit proposals for the editors to read – usually around 500 words – which is used to decide if your idea seems like a good fit for the edition. If selected, you are often invited to submit a draft and sometimes that first draft has to go through a selection process. Once your submission is selected, the editors read it and give feedback. You must revise and resubmit — and often, there are multiple rounds of revision,” Menten concluded.

However, for her most recent work that will be published in 2015, she did not work alone.
“I collaborated on this chapter with an UNO English professor, who has been through this process numerous times. The process is intimidating and quite competitive, so I am grateful that I have someone to assist me with the process,” Menten described.

As a teacher, even Menten regards her writing as a working process. “Writing can always be improved, but eventually you have to make the deadline, so you have to believe that what is getting published is as polished as it can be in that point in time,” Menten said.

As for the future, Menten will continue to look for opportunities like these.

“I am always looking for opportunities to write about teaching practices because I learn a lot when I write these kinds of pieces. I have to do a lot of research to make sure that what I am writing reflects current best practices in the profession, while still offering a new or unique way of approaching the topic at hand. While it is a lot of hard work to get a piece published, it is enjoyable and well worth the time and effort,” Menten described.

She is also going to attend a nationally recognized library, where she will expand her already vast knowledge.

“I’ll be at the Library of Congress in June attending a Teacher Institute, where I’ll be learning strategies for the effective integration of primary sources in the classroom, so maybe I’ll look for a writing opportunity related to that experience,” Menten said.

All in all, Menten is far more than just an English teacher that is held within the boundaries of her classroom. Even other teachers are having their share of accomplishments. Jennifer Stastny received a grant to study Chaucer in England for a month this summer, along with Scott Wilson who was accepted into two summer institutes related to history. One is a Gilder Lehrman Institute-sponsored seminar at Stanford University and the other is a National Endowment for the Humanities workshop on Landmarks of American History. Unaware to many students, countless teachers have accomplishments of their own that are sometimes left unknown to students.