Weekly Newsletter: Tuesday Is News Day

LAHC: Pathway Discovery Session, Sept. 10, 10 am-12:30 pm 

Like the Liberal Arts? Want to show students what’s cool about composition? Yearning to share your love of learning (and literature)?

Join us for the Liberal Arts Pathway Discovery Session on September 10th at HLC Building 2000 between 10 AM and 12:30 PM! CLS will be in Room 2226 - Building 2000 with lots of fun activities (including, but not limited to: a book swap, BookTok, photo-ops, and Literary Jeopardy!).

For more information, email Theo Yurevitch!

Additionally please let your students know about this event and the book swap specifically! Feel free to take the message below and drop it right into a BlackBoard announcement:

Hello, class!

Please join the CLS Department on September 10th at the Highland Campus Building 2000 between 10 AM and 12:30 PM for a Liberal Arts Majors Fair! This will be a chance to meet with different faculty and departments within the Liberal Arts. There will be a kick-off event at 10 AM in room 1409 and then from 10:30 AM on, Composition and Literary Studies will be in room 2226. Come for fun games, to get goodies, and to join our book swap (bring a book, take a book--or just take a book)!

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Attendance Certification

Please remember to certify attendance for all of your class sections.  This process is quick, painless, and really important to our students and ACC. (Plus, they'll come find you if you miss this deadline!)

You will receive an email from the Registrar/Glynis Miller titled "Class roster student attendance certification" with these instructions: 

Student attendance certification is submitted using the MyACC / Course Management / Attendance Certification system. 

1. From the main ACC web page, go to Faculty & Staff and choose MyACC

2. Find the Course Management heading, and then click Attendance Certification

3. Select the desired Term and Course

4. Once in the course, find the View box options, and select the Certify Attendance Roster. 

5. All entries in the drop-down field default to an initial entry of 'Attended' to begin with. Faculty will then change the entry using the drop-down field to 'Never Attended', as needed. A selection must be made for each student.

6. Hit 'Submit' at the upper right corner of the roster to have your certifications recorded.

If you have questions like what counts as attendance? you can check out the Attendance Certification FAQ page. 

Deadlines by semester 

16 week - September 11

14 week - September 20 

12 week - October 3

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VOTE by Sept 17: CLS Faculty Evaluation Rubric

As discussed at the CLS Faculty Meeting (Fall 2024),  ACC has tasked all departments with adopting a new Faculty Evaluation Rubric.  On Aug. 21, 2024, CLS shared a rubric with the department and invited comments on it. On Sept. 3, 2024, the Faculty Evaluation Committee reviewed the comments and incorporated changes.  Now it is time to vote.  

Please review the CLS Rubric for Faculty Evaluation.  ACC does require minimum percentages for each category, and those percentages are noted in the leftmost column.  

Voting will be open between September 10 and September 17.  Cast your vote here: VOTE: CLS Faculty Evaluation Rubric

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CLS Portfolios, now due in Spring 

ACC is in the process of updating the Faculty Evaluation process and that has affected the portfolio cycle in CLS.  CLS will begin collecting AY 24-25 portfolios on March 1, 2025 with a final deadline of May 30, 2025.  To be clear, this means that no portfolios will be due in November 2024. If you are curious about your Portfolio Due status, you can check out the CLS Due List.  P1, P2, P3 = portfolio due.  A1, A2 = no portfolio. 

We know that these changes can be confusing, but the Evaluation Committee is working hard to guide CLS through the larger changes at ACC.  In the coming weeks, we'll share a brief video with more specific details about the new process.  

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CLS Adjunct Staffing Problem-Solving Session, Sept. 18, 5:30pm

Hi Adjunct Faculty,

The Spring staffing--to be honest the Fall staffing--had some hiccups and some hurdles that we'd like to iron out. At the very least, we would like to improve.

So, we're going to have a  meeting for adjuncts on Wednesday, Sept. 18th, from 5:30-6:30 (so our Dual Credit colleagues can join us). We need to find a better way to handle the ebb and flow of classes (the August rush), the demand for face to face classes that we struggle to meet because many people are only accepting DIL, whether people feel like the pathways to teaching on ACC campuses is working, etc. This is a practical meeting--Sue and I will share what's got us stumped and listen to some possible solutions. I wish I could do more about pay rates and class sizes--I can say what little I know about all that--but the real focus here is how to make it better for all in our staffing and scheduling world.

Join Zoom Meeting:

https://austincc.zoom.us/j/89997883148?pwd=pESVXSpIbL7EAbb5cP2711uWZJsgd0.1

You can get paid to attend this meeting; we will also record it. It is NOT mandatory, though. But, we'd love to hear from you.

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CLS Fall 2024 Institutional Program Review SWOT Survey, Due Sept 30

It's time for our SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) Survey!

Overview

Every three years, all ACC Departments are asked to conduct an instructional program review; Spring 2025 is the Composition and Literary Studies (CLS) Department’s year for this! We must gather feedback from people who have an interest in the CLS Department to help identify the positives and negatives inside our department (the “S” and “W”) as well as outside of it, in the external environment (the “O” and the “T”). Gathering this information can help us with both strategic planning and decision-making. 

Take the Survey before September 30th

CLS Fall 2024 Institutional Program Review SWOT Survey

Questions?

Contact Carla Coleman

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Collect and Tag ENGL 1301 Research Papers

From Rebekah Starnes, CLS Assessment Committee

Dear CLS colleagues--

This is just your friendly reminder that, for the 2024-2025 school year, the CLS department is collecting FALL 2024 ENGL 1301 RESEARCH PAPERS. (To reiterate, we are ONLY collecting research papers from ENGL 1301 this year. If you are not teaching ENGL 1301, you don't have to tag/submit anything.) We will be collecting our samples via BLACKBOARD.

To make this process successful, however, we need your help! Please make sure you do the following by the last day of fall classes--that's Sunday, 15 December for most classes, or Sunday, 20 October if you are teaching an 8A class. 

• • • Have your students submit at least this ENGL 1301 paper through Blackboard, in a slot set up as an ASSIGNMENT.

    • Include your PROMPT with the assignment, either as part of the text or as a PDF attachment.

    • Appropriately TAG your assignment so we can include your section(s) in the sample.

To help you with this process, we have several resources. Attached to this email, you will find three PDF Guides:

1.    Adding an Assignment to Blackboard

2.    Tagging Student Work  (which explains which three tags you need to put on each assignment)

3.    Walking Students Through Submission

In addition, here is a short video talking folks through the process of creating an assignment and tagging it. 

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CLS Fall Book Club

From Chris Gardner

Were you looking for some kind of "Fall Into Books!" opener? Wrong place, friendo. But we are excited to choose a nonfiction text to read in our CLS Book Club this autumn.  We've thus far chosen memoirs or essay collections, but any non-fiction text available in paperback will do. 

As usual, we will gather at Easy Tiger by the Highland Campus to discuss at a date to be determined. 

Voting for both the text and the meeting date will begin Wednesday 9/18. You are encouraged to sign up for our non-binding interest list to keep receiving emails, propose a text if/when you feel the urge, or consult our CLS Book Club site to peruse previous selections. 

Two Reminders: 

1. We are an open group. The invites go out to CLS, but you can always bring a +1 or forward this to interested parties. 

2. Book Club is paired with a book swap. Bring a book or books you are willing to part with, and let's spread some stories around. 

Happy reading, readers. Hope to see you there!

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Blackboard Q & A, Fridays 3pm-4pm 

Need help setting up your Blackboard page?  Have a quick question about a Blackboard function?

Email Amber Clontz for the Zoom invite; she's hosting regularly on Fridays 3-4pm. 

• Can’t make the day/time? Send your availability to request an alternative :) 

Brought to you by the Textbooks & Technology Committee 📚🪱💻

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Please Promote: Student Advocacy Center

Make sure that your students know about ACC's Student Advocacy Centers. Located at every campus, these centers support students with food, clothing, transportation, childcare, and other basic needs and connect them to additional resources. They also host great events for students and their families!

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Call for Volunteers! 2025 Co-Req Summit 

We're in the process of building a Committee to Coordinate the 2025 Co-req Summit: Co-req Yo'Self before You Wreck Yo'Self!

Please contact Ursula Parker if you are interested in being on the committee to develop the 2025 Co-req Summit.

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Please Promote: Online Writing Tutor

Becky Villarreal, ACC English instructor and LELA tutor, assists students with papers via email. They can email her directly at bvillarr@austincc.edu (with their papers in a DOC file and their instructor's directions) or click here to fill out a form. Email Becky if you have questions or check out her website. She is also hosting writing workshops on Monday mornings and Wednesday evenings this fall:

• Manic Monday Workshops 10 - 11 a.m. (Click here to sign in/up; Click here to join Zoom): 9/16 (MLA Part I); 9/23 (Admissions Essays); 10/7 (Literary Analysis and Research); 10/21 (Grammar Part II ); 11/4 (MLA Part II); 11/18 (Scholarship Essays); 11/25 (Literary Analysis and Poetry); 12/2 (Creative Writing & Art); 12/9 (Resumes) 

• Wednesday Writing Workshops 7-8 p.m. (Click here to sign in/up; Click here to join Zoom): 9/11 (Creative Writing-- Figurative Language); 9/25 (Scholarship Essays); 10/9 (Haiku); 10/23 (Creative Writing -- Dialogue); 11/20 (Memoir); 12/4 (Literary and Academic Competitions)

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Please Promote: Join the Club! 

Please share this announcement with your students to help them get involved at ACC:

Do you wish you knew more ACC students? Interested in connecting with others with similar interests? 

Join the Club!  Come learn WHY and HOW to GET INVOLVED at ACC!

Join us for a feature documentary on the life of a social scientist, Robert Putnam, and his work on the loss of American community life over the last half-century. 

The film screening will be followed by opportunities to join a discussion on the film or to learn how to get involved through student organizations, volunteer opportunities, and voting. 

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Film Screening
Highland Campus (HLC), Building 2000, Room 2.1550 (Presentation Hall)
Followed by a discussion and information tables on ways to get involved until 1:00 PM
Highland Campus (HLC), Building 2000, Room 2.1550 and Room C1401 (outside the Presentation Hall)

RSVP HERE

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Register for Teaching: The Spiritual Practice, deadline Sept. 16

Check out this Fall 2024 Faculty Interest Group (FIG), hosted by CLS faculty Amy Wink.  Teaching: The Spiritual Practice will explore teaching as a spiritual practice and "focus on how we come to understand our work as calling, what keeps us going, and how we can deepen our understanding of the inner meaning that fuels us." Click here for more details about Teaching: The Spiritual Practice. 

Time: 10:30-12:00 pm

Modality: Zoom (online synchronous)

Dates: September 20, October 11, November 15, December 6

Registration form: https://forms.gle/j2xUu8h6SDmsRg2Q6

Deadline to register: Sep 16, 2024 EOD. 

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Mental Health, PD Opportunities

We are so pleased to bring you two awesome professional development opportunities this fall! 

1) The Meditating Professor with Lupe Mendoza has been specifically geared toward CLS faculty to give you what you need to help build resilience in your students and yourself while promoting creativity in your classroom and your life. 2) Students come to us with some heavy stuff. We are not trained to deal with it. Emily is. Let her help you navigate choppy waters by attending Faculty Consultation sessions with Emily Olson. 

Click here to register for one or both opportunities now. 

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English Major Degree Audits

If you'd like to help our majors graduate on time, please volunteer to run a degree audit on one or two students who are near completion. It takes about 10 minutes. 

Email Theo Yurevitch to get the student names; he will get you onto the spreadsheet you need to be on and will assign you a student or two.

Basically, you get a student's ID, look up their transcripts, fill out the English AA audit form, and email the student, their advisor, and Wendy Elle or Theo Yurevitch the completed form. We have a template for the email to the student/advisor. So, the lion's share of the work is you + the audit form. Then copy, paste, attach, and send!

English Degree Audit Process

English Degree Audit Form

How to Access Student Transcripts - YouTube Video

The English Degree Audit Form - YouTube Video