From the Editor

Welcome to the first issue of Kansas English published fully and exclusively online! I hope you enjoy this new format and the increased accessibility of the journal

Summer Inquiry, Reflection, and Dialogue with KATE and NCTE

I hope your summer has been both relaxing and rejuvenating. For me, this is a time to catch up on rest and reading, a time to take care of tasks that fall through the cracks during the academic year, and a time to reflect on my personal and professional goals

Advocates and Gatekeepers: Dialogue on the Multiple Roles of Cooperating Teachers and University Supervisors

Using Valencia et al.’s 2009 article “Complex Interactions in Student Teaching: Lost Opportunities for Learning” as a starting point for dialogue, cooperating teachers (CTs), recent graduates, and current teaching candidates of an English Education Program participated in focus group discussions on the attributes of effective CTs and university supervisors. CTs expressed some anxiety regarding mentors’ roles as gatekeepers, as well as understanding regarding the necessity of this role. Additionally, CTs, candidates, and graduates viewed the CT’s role as one that is more hands-on early in the field experience with decreasing direct guidance as the candidate develops in her or his professional practice. Implications for practice include explicitly articulating advocate and gatekeeper roles to candidates at the start of each field experience, intentionally discussing candidates’ pedagogical content knowledge during post-observation conferences, bridging the perceived gap from theory to practice, directly addressing uncooperative CTs, and strategically sharing mentoring resources

YA Books that Explore the Intersectionality of Race and Other Identities

I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this issue of Kansas English, you will find scholarly articles and practitioner pieces that will inform your work, as well as reflective and creative pieces that will help you see our profession from new perspectives

From the Editor

Thank you for reading the 2018 issue of Kansas English, which contains an invigorating and inspiring collection of teaching reflections, creative works, and scholarly arguments. Each piece offers insight and nourishment as we consider our teaching, our students, and our profession

Software for the frontiers of quantum chemistry:An overview of developments in the Q-Chem 5 package

This article summarizes technical advances contained in the fifth major release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry program package, covering developments since 2015. A comprehensive library of exchange–correlation functionals, along with a suite of correlated many-body methods, continues to be a hallmark of the Q-Chem software. The many-body methods include novel variants of both coupled-cluster and configuration-interaction approaches along with methods based on the algebraic diagrammatic construction and variational reduced density-matrix methods. Methods highlighted in Q-Chem 5 include a suite of tools for modeling core-level spectroscopy, methods for describing metastable resonances, methods for computing vibronic spectra, the nuclear–electronic orbital method, and several different energy decomposition analysis techniques. High-performance capabilities including multithreaded parallelism and support for calculations on graphics processing units are described. Q-Chem boasts a community of well over 100 active academic developers, and the continuing evolution of the software is supported by an “open teamware” model and an increasingly modular design

From the Editor:: Challenging Misconceptions and Locating Joy in Our Teaching

Kansas English Editor in Chief Katie Cramer challenges misconceptions about teaching and urges educators at all levels to celebrate the joy in our work

Depictions of LGBTQ Athletes in Young Adult Literature that Interrogate Sport Culture

Although there is an increasing sense of inclusivity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) athletes in K-12, collegiate, and professional sports, there is still unstated pressure not to come out, which is evident in GLSEN’s 2017 National School Climate Survey. Consequently, the depiction of LGBTQ athletes and the positive message of sports-themed young adult literature (YAL) is even more important. This article explores the ways that YAL aligns with and contradicts narratives of sexual and gender diversity within sport culture and connects this exploration to English language arts instruction using Bill Konigsberg’s YA novel Honestly Ben