Weekly Newsletter: Tuesday Is News Day

Peer Dialogue Forms, Due Aug 15

Peer Dialogue Forms Due August 15

The new ACC Faculty Evaluation Process will include a new component: Peer Dialogue.  During the period of annual and portfolio evaluations, the Faculty Evaluation Committee will assess your Peer Dialogue activity and form as Complete or Incomplete.  Although ACC requires multiple meetings for this dialogue, instructors will submit only one report (form) per academic year. 

Follow these steps to report your Peer Dialogue activity:

1. Make a copy of this Peer Dialogue Form

2. Complete and save as a PDF

3. Upload to the Peer Dialogue Collection

You can find more resources in this shared folder: Peer Dialogue Shared Folder

------------------------

Updates from INRW

• Fall 24 Coreq Enrollment - As you know fall registration is afoot. As a friendly reminder, if students email you requesting access to your coreq, please forward those requests to Ursula or Linda. You may share this link as well Fall Coreq Registration.

• When you have a moment, please check out the new and improved INRW Website courtesy of Colin, Wendy, & Ursula. We are pleased with the work and some edits are still in progress.

• Once again, thanks to all English Faculty who are INRW partners. We are making coreqs work for our students. If you are interested in becoming a partner, let Ursula Parker know.

------------------------

A Quick Note about Textbook Adoption

Please make sure that all course material that needs to be purchased for your class is listed through the ACC Bookstore as soon as possible and definitely before the first day of class.  This includes textbooks, workbooks, apps/software or any other materials that students are required to buy in order to succeed in your class. 

This is really important because some students get financial assistance for their course materials, but they will only receive those funds for materials that are listed through the ACC Bookstore.  

Now is a great time to check the course materials listed for your F24 sections.  Find your name on in the Online Course Schedule and click the Textbook link for each of your sections.  

And thanks for all that you do to keep your textbooks accessible for our students!

------------------------

Syllabi Prep: Reminders and Resources

Campus Closures, Fall 2024

In addition to Labor Day and the Thanksgiving break, mark your syllabi calendars for these dates:

• ACC campuses will be closed on Friday November 8th for General Assembly  

• ACC campuses will close at noon on Wednesday November 27 in addition to the the Thanksgiving break

Schedule Fall 2024 Library Visits Now!

From Jeremy Donald and Maria Ruelas in Library Services:

Dear ENGL 1301 faculty, 

Just an early and timely reminder to submit your requests for library instruction for the fall semester. Our faculty librarians will work hard to accommodate your first choice of date, and will be happy to customize our instruction to fit your needs.

To request a library instruction session by a faculty librarian, please fill out the form that matches your classroom location. A librarian will contact you to finalize details and arrangements.

ACC Campuses and Centers Form

High School Campuses Form

Reduce Student Reliance on AI

Chris Berni shared some amazing suggestions in Ways to Reduce Student Reliance on AI. Try one! Ta

Incorporate Black Poetry Into Your Classes!

Alana King shared these amazing resources from The Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University: 

• Information about the Furious Flower Syllabus Project 

• Tons of resources from the Furious Flower Poetry Center

------------------------

Creative Writing, Job Postings

from Prudence Arceneaux: 

Creative Writing job posting open-- Adjunct (R-5945, closing 1 September).

Many of you have MFAs or MAs with Creative Writing or PhDs in Creative Writing, and we'd like to see if you are a fit for the department! The goal with opening up this adjunct post (which, Full-timers, you would be in CW) and developing the adjunct pool is to give students a greater variety in learning experiences, with different voices and different approaches. If you are hired on as adjunct in CW, along with your teaching, you would be responsible for helping the department with assessment, and encouraged to help the department with events and tabling. You will also be responsible for a portfolio cycle in CW. This is an external posting.

------------------------

Technical Guidance with Blackboard Shells,  PD Opportunity

Are you interested in finding out more about uploading a Comp I or II shell in Blackboard? 

As a dual credit instructor interested in utilizing the CompI/II shell, Amber Drown has requested a short PD session with a technological advisor to help walk through the process of uploading the shell in Blackboard. We will hold a virtual question/answer session on Thursday (8/8) from 2:30-3:30 pm. As per Wendy, anyone who attends the session can self-report an hour of PD in Workday. Please join us if you are interested in finding out more about this topic. RSVP here, and we will send you a calendar invitation and a zoom link!

------------------------

Student Writing Group, Aug 7, 7pm 

From Becky Villarreal

Our final brainstorming session will be held via Zoom Wednesday, August 7, at 7 p.m. All faculty members are welcome to attend, as well as students.

During the first 20 minutes of the meeting, we will have a warm-up creative writing activity. The rest of the time will be devoted to discussing how this hybrid student writing group will operate next fall and set some dates.

Please mark your calendars, encourage your students to participate, and come collaborate with us. If you are interested in taking a leadership role in this endeavor or being a guest speaker, contact me at bvillarr@austincc.edu. 

Click here for the Zoom link.

------------------------

Faculty Publication: "Running Toward Reprieve: One Faculty Member's Experience with Precarity During the COVID-19 Pandemic"

Dr. Dania Dwyer recently published "Running Toward Reprieve: One Faculty Member's Experience with Precarity During the COVID-19 Pandemic" on Modernism/Modernity.  

Dr. Dwyer's article is part of a cluster on precarity, caregiving, and the COVID-19 pandemic that emerged from an MLA roundtable of the same title, and introduces "a wide range of perspectives: community college professor to renewable contingent faculty at a four-year private university to independent scholar to tenure-track faculty and variations in between. These scholars are from the US, Jamaica, and the UK. They identify as white, Black, and Asian. All are caregivers. All are women—not because we intentionally excluded men or non-binary colleagues, but because, statistically in the Venn diagram of precarity, caregiving, and faculty, women are the overlapping majority." 

------------------------

Alejandra Campoverdi at Book People, Aug 8

Alejandra Campoverdi will be reading from her book First Gen: A Memoir at Book People on August 8th at 7pm.  It's a free event, but they ask that you register here. 

A bit about the book and author (read the whole blurb at Bookshop): 

"An unflinching memoir and 'invaluable resource' (Kirkus) about navigating social mobility as a first gen Latina--offering both a riveting personal story and an examination of the unacknowledged emotional tolls of being a trailblazer.

Alejandra Campoverdi has been a child on welfare, a White House aide to President Obama, a Harvard graduate, a gang member's girlfriend, and a candidate for U.S. Congress. She's ridden on Air Force One and in G-rides. She's been featured in Maxim magazine and had a double mastectomy. Living a life of contradictory extremes often comes with the territory when you're a 'First and Only.' It also comes at a price."

------------------------

Host a Table at the All-Adjunct Assembly on Aug 29

Are you interested in representing the CLS department at the Adjunct Faculty Association's first-ever All-Adjunct Assembly?  

This would be a great opportunity to spread the word about CLS course offerings and events and potentially increase participation because adjuncts are in positions to refer students to courses within our department. Maybe you can even find some qualified instructors to join our adjunct ranks! 

Sign up to host a table here.  Contact Amber Luttig-Buonodono with questions.

------------------------

LAHC: Pathway Discovery Session - Call for volunteers!

On Tuesday, September 10th from 10 AM-12:30 PM, the Liberal Arts Humanities: & Communications division will be hosting a Majors Fair at the Highland campus.

CLS is planning to have a big presence there to get students excited about the Liberal Arts generally and majoring in English specifically. What we do is up to us–and it can be up to you!

If you want to get involved with planning or attending (you can get PD hours!!!), or if you just have questions, please reach out to Theo Yurevitch!

(FROM WENDY: There will be candy and swag!)

------------------------

Results: ACC Course Registration Usability Study

This summer, under the guidance of Professor Alex Watkins, students in ETWR 1391 conducted a usability study of ACC's Course Registration system and presented their findings to VC Gaye Lynn Scott and VC Beth Knight.  Check out the results and their conclusions here: ACC Course Registration Usability Study. 

------------------------

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. 

------------------------

Update on English Major Concentrations and Degree Audits--AND BE READY TO VOTE AT OUR AUGUST MEETING

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 me 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 me the completed form. We have a template for the email to the student/advisor and me. 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

From The Revitalizing the Major Team: 

Greetings, CLS Faculty! 

In the fall, we'll vote to ratify the content and structure of the three English Major Concentrations we've created together. The documents governing the concentrations are linked below. We'd love your feedback and suggestions, or just general questions, so that we can work the final crafting stages smoothly and collaboratively.

Concentration in Honors English and Composition

Concentration in Multicultural Literature

Concentration in Popular Culture

Please direct questions regarding concentration content and structure to Eli Ryder or Theo Yurevitch. And, if you have questions about or would like to volunteer to work with our fabulous students with their concentration portfolios, direct those inquiries to Wendy Elle.

We look forward to hearing from you!

------------------------

Become a CLS Mentor 

Quick Details about the Mentor Role: 

Mentor requirements:  Three years teaching at ACC; "very good" or "excellent" student evaluations. Complete online ACC mentor training.

Mentor stipend:  $200 per mentee per semester; an expectation of about 10 hours of contact with mentee, including in-person meeting (if possible) and optional classroom visit.

If you are interested in mentoring a new or returning CLS faculty member in the Fall 2024/Spring 2025 semesters, then please complete this I Want to Be a Mentor form.