Wayne Butler's Home Page

Wayne Butler's Homepage

A Little Bit about Me

I was born on the 4th of July in 1957 in New York City. I grew up in the Mid-Hudson valley, about 50 miles north of the city. After high school it took me a couple of years to find my calling, so to speak, as I attended community college, worked as a travel agent, a stage hand at the Metropolitan Opera house, a cook in both diners and "fine" restaurants, and a waiter at various other establishments. By 1979 I had earned a bachelors degree in English Education at SUNY Oneonta in upstate NY. Upon graduation I toured Europe for three months, spending a significant part of that time exploring Joyce's Ireland and Hemingway's Spain. Upon my return I began teaching English at a suburban NY high school (Nyack) and then a middle school (Scarsdale). I embarked on my next journey when I accepted a teaching job at the American School in Mexico City. During the two years I lived in Mexico, I wrote poetry and fiction, climbed pyramids, did a little community theater, and collected masks and folk art. I also met my wife.

My desire to get an MA led me to Austin, TX, where I enrolled in the English Education program at the University of Texas, was first introduced to computers, worked in the University of Texas's English Department Computer Research Lab, and fell in with a crew of grad students and faculty members who would eventually dub themselves The Daedalus Group. I also became a father of a daughter and a son. In 1992 I earned a Ph.D.in English Education at the University of Texas. Upon the completion of my doctorate, I was hired by the English Composition Board at the University of Michigan.

Professional Affiliations and Activities

Senior Lecturer at The University of Michigan

Associate Director for Instruction of The English Composition Board at the University of Michigan.

My instructional roles include teaching Freshman Practicum, First Year seminars, and the ECB's Peer Tutoring Seminar, and holding Writing Workshop appointments. In addition, I also participate in other department responsibilities such as portfolio assessment, community outreach programs, and co-directing the peer tutoring program.

Courses I Am Currently Teaching

UC 153.005 "Writing the Information Superhighway."
ECB 300 "Peer Tutoring Seminar"

Educational Consulting

Also during my time in Ann Arbor, I have consulted at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, the Gilbraltar, MI school district, and the Hamtramck schools on isssues of Writing to Learn and Computers and English.

Professional Affiliations

I am also a founding member and Executive Vice President of The Daedalus Group, Inc., an education company that designs and produces LAN applications for the use of CMC in the writing classroom.