A former college instructor with 20 years of experience across multiple institutions (University of Illinois, Virginia Tech, Clemson, College of Charleston), Warner now works as a writer, editor, speaker and consultant. In addition to his work in education, for over a decade he’s been a weekly columnist for the Chicago Tribune, writing about books and the habits of reading as his alter ego, “The Biblioracle.” In 2021 he started an associated Substack newsletter, The Biblioracle Recommends, which was a Substack Featured Publication for 2021.

Warner is the other of five other books, including the Washington Post #1 best seller, My First Presidentiary: A Scrapbook of George W. Bush (Crown, co-authored with Kevin Guilfoile), a parody of writing advice books, Fondling Your Muse: Infallible Advice from a Published Author to the Writerly Aspirant (Writer’s Digest), a novel, The Funny Man (Soho), and a collection of short stories (Tough Day for the Army (LSU Press). His fiction, humor, essays and commentary have been published in dozens of outlets including Slate, The Washington Post, and Salon.

From 2005 until 2009 he was editor of the McSweeney’s website (mcsweeneys.net), winning two Webby awards in the process. He continues an association as an editor-at-large for the site. Every year he joins his friend Kevin Guilfoile in the commentary booth for The Morning News Tournament of Books, an annual March Madness tournament to find the “best” work of fiction in a given year. A native of Chicago, Warner lives with his veterinarian wife Kathy in the Charleston, SC area. He is a faculty affiliate at the College of Charleston.

This year's conference will feature 45min sessions around four themes as well as hands-on sessions that provide an experiential window into our classrooms.  

ONE – Student Engagement Refresh: Successful change instructors have made in the last few years to better engage students in learning

TWO – Reclaiming a Liberal Education: Deeply and explicitly engaging students in a liberal education

THREE – Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Telling the story of teaching excellence at GVSU

FOUR – Equity-Minded Approaches: Meeting the needs of all students, multicultural approaches to course design

Experiential Sessions: Hands-on sessions wherein participants can experience a colleague's classroom firsthand and learn how instructors are tackling common questions, such as the following. Each session will feature two faculty providing ~15min instructional demonstrations, followed by a debrief and Q&A.  

1. How can I encourage students to contribute to class discussions?
2. How can I make the most of small group activities in class?
3. What are ways to ensure that students do the reading?
4. How can I help students think more conceptually?
5. What are ways to establish a welcoming learning environment?
6. How can I better engage students with the syllabus?
7. What are ways to have a productive dialogue on a challenging topic?
8. How can I balance structure and flexibility in my course?
9. How can I best assess and build upon students’ prior learning?
10. What are ways to adopt a more multicultural approach in my classes?
11. What are ways to set the stage for experiential learning, whether in or outside of the classroom?
12. How can I make the most of the fixtures and features in an active learning classroom? 
13. How can gamification of aspects of my course increase engagement and learning?

Faculty are invited to propose a concurrent session by completing this webform. Proposals that involve multiple facilitators, staff and/or students are welcomed. Priority will be given to Pew FTLC funded/supported projects. Session proposals deadline: Friday July 12.