Curriculum Vitae for Brendan Desilets
Education:
1964-68
Lowell State College, English B.A.
1972-79 University of
Lowell, M.Ed. Curriculum and Instruction
2007, 2008 Education
Development Center Online Course Development Training
Thesis
Title and Advisor:
Thesis
Title: Children's
Literature and Advanced Reading Skills
Advisor:
William F. Coughlin, Jr.
Employment
History:
Teacher
of English, Bedford, Massachusetts High School, 1968--85
Teacher
of English, John Glenn Middle School, Bedford, Massachusetts,
1985--2009
Consultant on the Internet in Education, Various
Employers, 1994--2008
Adjunct Professor of Education, Framingham
State College, 2009
Adjunct Professor of English, University of
Massachusetts at Lowell, 2009--Present
Facilitator of Interactive
Fiction Club for Middle School and High School Students, Pollard
Memorial Library, Lowell, Massachusetts, 2011--Present
Exemplary
Teaching Award
Bedford
Schools Exemplary Teaching Award, 1987
Presentations/Workshops
"A High School Course in Logic and Philosophy," Massachusetts Council of Teachers of English, 1976
"Children's Literature and Critical Reading in the High School," National Council of Teachers of English, 1981
"A Psycholinguistic Approach to Reading and Writing," National Council of Teachers of English, 1984
"Logo and Extended Definition," New England Association of Teachers of English, 1985
"Problem Solving and Interactive Fiction," Massachusetts Computer-Using Educators, 1986
"Venture: A Middle School Program for At-Risk Students," New England League of Middle Schools, 1987
"Peer Coaching for Thinking Skills," New England League of Middle Schools, 1988
"A System-Wide Approach to Teaching for Thinking," Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1989
"Peer Coaching for Critical Thinking," Conference on Critical Thinking, Sonoma (CA) State University, 1988-9
"Teacher Empowerment and Site-Based Management" Westfield (MA) Public Schools, 1991
"Interdisciplinary Teaching: A New Model" Springfield, MA 1992
"Interdisciplinary Teaching: Practical Approaches," New England Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges Conference, 1993
"The Internet for Teachers," Greater Boston Middle School Alliance, 1994
"Teaching and the Internet," Burlington, Massachusetts Public Schools, 1995
"International Collaborative Writing Projects on the Internet," New England Alliance for Computers and Writing, 1997
"Teaching With the Net," Bedford, Massachusetts Public Schools, Massachusetts Teachers' Association, 1997, 1998
"Using the Internet in a One-Computer Classroom," Copiague, New York Public Schools, 1998
"HAL Meets the Writing Process: Artificial Intelligence in a Middle School English Class," Bedford (MA) Public Schools, 2003
"Web-Based Reporting of Student Grades," John Glenn Middle School, 2006
"Interactive Fiction: the New Read-Aloud Book," New England League of Middle Schools, 2007
"Bedford High School Philosophy Seminar," Bedford (MA) High School, 2006-7
"Writing Across the Curriculum," Online Course, Bedford Public Schools, 2007, 2008
"Moodle and the Writing Process," Online Course, Education Collaborative for Greater Boston/Framingham State College, 2009
"The Challenges and Rewards of Creating Online Professional Development," National Staff Development Council, 2009
“Using Inform 7, a Development System for Interactive Fiction,” Association for Computing Machinery, University of Massachusetts at Lowell, 2013, 2014
Group
Readings of Interactive Stories, University of Massachusetts at
Lowell, Various Dates in 2012--2015
Publications
"Frederick
the Field Mouse Meets Advanced Reading Skills"
(with
William Coughlin), Journal
of Reading,
December 1980
"The
Student Writer Makes Magic: Fantasy-Adventure
Gaming
in the English Classroom," Journal
of Teaching Writing,
Spring 1983
"Logo and Extended Definition," Journal of Teaching Writing, Spring 1986
Analit (a series of study guides written with five others), Sundance Publishers, 1987
"A Program for High-Risk Students" (with Laurence Aronstein), Middle School Journal, November 1988
Venture: A Middle School Program for High Risk Students (monograph, written with Laurence Aronstein), New England League of Middle Schools, 1989
"Reading, Thinking, and Interactive Fiction," English Journal, March 1989
"Detours on the Road to Site-Based Management" (with Laurence Aronstein and Marcia Marlow), Educational Leadership, April 1990
"Teaching and Learning With Interactive Fiction," World-Wide Web, July 1995, 1998, http://bdesilets.com/if
"Racing the Sun: Teaching for Understanding With Model Solar Cars," World-Wide Web, May 1996, http://solarcars.home.comcast.net
"Venture: Real Learning in a Real Business," World-Wide Web, April 1997, http://venture.home.comcast.net
"Interactive Fiction vs. The Pause That Distresses: How Computer-Based Literature Interrupts the Reading Process Without Stopping the Fun," Currents in Electronic Literacy, Spring 1999
The Enterprise Incidents: a Middle School Fantasy(a work of interactive fiction), 2004, http://if.home.comcast.net/a_middle_school_story.htm
"Interactive Fiction Enhances Reality," Learning and Leading With Technology, March/April 2008
Teaching and Learning with Interactive Fiction (Electronic Book), 2015, http://bdesilets.com/if/TLIF.pdf
National Endowment for the Humanities Grants for Summer Study
"Aristotle's Ethics and Politics," Seminar, 1989
"Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche," Seminar, 1992
"National Institute on Teaching Shakespeare," Institute, 1994
"Islam Without Fear," Seminar, 1995
"Vergil and the Augustan Age," Institute, 1998
"Paradise Lost and the Contemporary Reader," Seminar, 2001
"Balzac and Zola," Seminar, 2006