Weekly Newsletter: Tuesday Is News Day

Summer 24 (5B) Syllabi and Peer Dialogue Forms

5B Syllabi Due July 15

Please scroll down the  Academic Year 23-24 Collection Form until you see the following:

🙂Summer 24 Syllabi, Option #1🙂

Follow the directions and provide the link to the folder containing your syllabi or, alternatively, upload each summer syllabus in the Option #2 section.

Be sure to hit SUBMIT before exiting the Google Form!

You do not need to resubmit documents you previously submitted, e.g. syllabi from previous semesters.  Those have already been deposited in your folder for review by the Faculty Evaluation Committee.

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

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Reminders about Professional Development 

Required PD 

Check in on Workday to make sure that are you are up-to-date on your required professional development.  Here's a quick reminder of the required PD:

• Cybersecurity Awareness Training - complete every year

• ADA Awareness (Tapestry) - complete every other year

• Harassment & Discrimination Prevention (Groundswell) - complete every other year

• Title IX and Sexual Misconduct Training (Meridians) - complete every other year

Full-time faculty are required to complete 12 hours and adjunct faculty 4 hours of professional development every fiscal year.  

Logging additional PD 

Please make sure that you log all of your professional development in Workday.  If you attended the CCC (CLS Curriculum Conference), the LAG Student Symposium, and/or the Vertical Alignment Content Swap, be sure to enter your Professional Development Hours in Workday.

• CCC (CLS Curriculum Conference), up to 4 hours PD; select Conference from the drop down menu in Workday

• LAG Student Symposium, up to 2 hours PD; select Symposium from the drop down menu in Workday

• Vertical Alignment Content Swap, up to 4 hours PD; select Conference from the drop down menu in Workday

Visit the CLS Faculty Handbook for step-by-step directions about accessing required PD or logging your PD. 

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New CLS Mental Health Resources Hub

Jill Bosche has pulled together some FABULOUS and much needed resources into our new Mental Health Resources Hub for CLS. Big thanks to our intrepid and totally awesome web site designer, Colin Shanafelt, for his work. Please take a moment to review the new site. It has so much Information--I am so grateful to Jill for taking this from a brilliant idea to a fully developed resource we so heartily need!

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Congratulations, Kendall Dingee! 

Kendall Dingee received the Riverbat Excellence Award for Spring 2024 at Round Rock Campus.  Congratulations Kendall, and thank you for all you do for our department and ACC students! 

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Help English Majors Graduate! (It Takes a Village. A Medieval Village? Maybe So!)

This summer we are on a mission to get our nearly-graduated English Majors pointed toward that shiny, glorious, hard-earned degree.  We know that a personal email is one way to really help them--and we've got several just so close.

If you'd like to assist with this enterprise, please volunteer to run a degree audit on one or two students who are near completion. It takes about 10 minutes (once you figure out how to do it). I'd really appreciate it if we could have a few more hands on deck.

Email me--Wendy Elle or Theo Yurevitch--to get the student names; we 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!

Eli Ryder has generously offered some virtual drop In sessions to walk you through the process:

July 2, 10:00AM - 11:00AM 

July 3, 1:30PM - 2:30PM

English Degree Audit Process

English Degree Audit Form

How to Access Student Transcripts - YouTube Video

The English Degree Audit Form - YouTube Video

Thanks for pitching in--hopefully, we can get 50 more graduates this year. (I believe that's what we call putting theory Into practice. Ahem. Huzzah!)

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Invitation to Participate: Research Study on Initiatives at Community Colleges

Audrey Ellis, a doctoral student at the University of Maryland Campus is wrapping up her final week of research at ACC! She is studying the experience of participating in multiple initiatives at a community college. She is hosting a few more focus groups for Faculty this week and is looking for more participants to make sure she has enough faculty represented in her study. The focus groups are 90 minutes and held virtually over Zoom. You can sign up at the Schedule Here.

To provide a more flexible option, I also wanted to offer the opportunity for some 30 minute, 1:1 interviews and conversations across the next two weeks on a more flexible schedule. If you are able to attend, I encourage you to sign up for a slot here. I hope we can find a time to connect, as your perspective on my research topic would be invaluable.

If you have questions, please contact Audrey Ellis directly: allis66@student.umgc.edu

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Please Promote: Student Focus Groups 

From Alex Watkins: 

Thank you so much for your help with recruiting participants for the usability study of ACC's course registration system. We were able to have two fruitful and well-attended focus groups because of you sending students our way!  We're currently moving forward to the next step, which has two different components that students can participate in: 

• User testing: Participation in this component of the research would involve attending a one hour Zoom session and completing a series of tasks while members of the research team watch. They'll also have the opportunity to share your thoughts about each task. These sessions are extremely valuable, and will help us make more informed and detailed decisions about the system. Participants will receive a $5 gift card for participating, as well as contributing to the college. Our sessions will be held at the following dates/times on Zoom: 

  • 1. • 6/18 at 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. 

       • 6/20 at 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. 

       • 6/25 at 1 p.m. or 2 p.m.

       • 6/27 at 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. 

       • 7/2 at 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. 

• Online survey: Participation in this component of the research would involve completing a 15-20 minute online survey (see link). Participants will provide information that will help us understand basic experiences with the course registration system. We won't be able to offer compensation for this component, but these data will also help us with understanding the course registration system. 

I appreciate your ongoing support of the college and my students! Please feel free to distribute the survey, or give students my contact information (alexandra.watkins@austincc.edu) if they are interested in participating in the user testing study. Please let me know if you have any questions!

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Participate in the Liberal Arts Gateway for Fall 2024!

The Liberal Arts Gateway (LAG) is a student success initiative that seeks to link the student’s lived experience to the heart of each Liberal Arts discipline. LAG faculty focus on community building and engagement strategies within themed classes that involve students in meaningful avenues of inquiry. As a LAG member, you will redesign an existing composition or literature class while participating in a Community of Practice that offers collaboration and support. If you would like to be a part of LAG, email Chris Berni: cberni@austincc.edu.

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Please Promote: Student Submission to Curiositas

Curiositas is ACC's academic journal for the Liberal Arts, Humanities, and Communication. We are dedicated to publishing excellent student work that showcases curiositas, the meddlesome, intense curiosity that underlies our disciplines. As you're completing your final grading, please nominate or submit your best student work to be considered for next year's edition. You can check out our current issue at our website, and submit there too! Please reach out to Alex Watkins, alexandra.watkins@austincc.edu, if you have any questions!

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Please Promote: Submission for Student Research Symposium

From Chris Berni 

The Student Research Symposium will be back in April 2025, and we are accepting submissions through February 28, 2025. This event was super fun this year and reminds us all of why we love teaching! Please submit (with student permission) or encourage your students to submit their best research projects via the LAG website. We will consider any work that can be turned into a poster, presented on a laptop, or read aloud.

Please reach out to Chris Berni (cberni@austincc.edu) if you have any questions!

Also, if you would like to read student submissions, let Chris know!

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Student Writing Group

Join us Wednesday, July 17, at 7 p.m. for the second brainstorming session for the Student Writing Group (both creative and academic) set to launch this fall. Click here for the link. Last week I met with enthusiastic students bursting with energy and ideas. Although the meeting went well, we need more faculty participation and input if this group is going to be successful. Send me an email at bvillarr@austincc.edu if you have any questions, as well as the names and email addresses of students interested in taking a leadership role in this endeavor.

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Update on English Major Concentrations

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!

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CLS Blackboard Shell, Review and Comment

At the CLS Tres de Mayo Meeting we got a sneak peek at the Blackboard shell that the Textbook and Technology Committee has been working hard to build.  CLS Faculty can now VIEW the Shells in the demo area of Blackboard. Please keep in mind that we are in the perusal and feedback phase of this process. The Shells are not ready for you to export and use yet. 

Access the BB Shells by following this link: https://austincc-demo.blackboard.com/ultra/stream 

Click on COURSES and find Template 1 and Template 2

Share your feedback on this form: Blackboard Shell Comments and Suggestions

CLS faculty have been added to the BB Shells as Facilitators.  This means that you will be able to look around in Instructor View, but you will not be able to change any content.  So please don't try to change any content!

If you are unable to access the BB Shells, please contact Anja Ketcham and include your ACC ID in the email (it's the fastest way to add you).  

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Become a CLS Mentor 

At our Tres de Mayo CLS meeting, Luanne Preston mentioned our need for faculty mentors.  

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. 

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CLS Love Notes 💜

Sometimes students shout us out in emails, brief notes, evaluations, and thank you cards.  If you're willing to share these Love Notes from students, please add them to our Love Notes repository by filling out this form: CLS Love Notes.  CLS may share these on the CLS Department Profile or website.  

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Asynchronous Writing Tutor for Students

Send students my way for asynchronous writing help at bvillarr@austincc.edu. As an English teacher and writing tutor via LELA, I assist with completed writing assignments via email with less than 24 hours notice. Just ask students to send me the instructor's detailed instructions and the paper as a DOC file. Click here for more information.

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Please Promote: Fall '24 Honors CLS classes

Do you have curious, highly motivated students you think would do well in an Honors CLS course? Please let them know about our available Fall '24 courses! Below are the course titles, and you can take a look at the course profile page for more in-depth descriptions. 

• English Composition II: Texas Writers (ENGL 1302, 701), Joe O’Connell

• British Literature 18th c. to the Present: Gothic Literature (ENGL 2323, 700), Hyflex, RGC, MW 10:30-11:50 am, Melissa Holton 

• American Literature Civil War to Present: Sunrise in the Americas: Contemporary Indigenous Arts & Activism  (ENGL 2328, 701), Hyflex, CYP TTh 10:30-11:50 am, Heidi Juel 

• American Literature Civil War to Present: American Apocalypse: Wrecking and Rebuilding (ENGL 2328, 700), HLC, MW 1:30-2:50 pm, Anne-Marie Thomas

We also offer Honors courses in 14 other disciplines. If you have potential Honors students this semester who might be intimidated by the prospect of taking Honors courses, please give them a little nudge in our direction and encourage them to fill out an application. Alternatively, consider sharing our TLED-produced student impact video with your classes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPMmfxvpOoA.   

Please contact athomas2@austincc.edu with questions.

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Support English Majors

English Major Interest Form

In an effort to provide a seamless pathway for students to express interest in potentially joining our ranks, we've created an English Major Interest Form. It'd be fabulous if we could have this posted to your Blackboard sites! Pinned announcement, maybe? Or, Menu item in the "Student Support" section? Wherever it fits, we'd love to have the space!

English Major Interest Form

English Major Site Featured Faculty

Our magnificent English Major Website features a few faculty so that our majors can see who they have in their corner. We opened the site with the idea that we would all rotate through these featured spaces, providing a spotlight for many different voices and perspectives. Basically, you're all ROCKSTARS and we want to share the stage with all of you. If you're interested--and why wouldn't you be interested? --give the link below a click and submit your info. Help us show our majors how cool you are!

Featured Faculty Info Collection Form

English Degree Audit

The fillable form allows anyone--you, me, the student, English-major curious folk--to audit a student's transcript and help them see how close they are to becoming an English AA.  Students can take the completed audit to their advisor. (The videos explain how to access a student's transcript and fill out the form)

English Degree Audit Form

How to Access Student Transcripts - YouTube Video

The English Degree Audit Form - YouTube Video

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Drag the BAN!

June 26, 2024 • 7-8:30 PM

ACC HLC 4000 Downstairs Atrium

Features Austin Community drag performers, reading excerpts from their chosen banned books in a continuation of the Creative Writing Banned Books reading series.

FEATURING: ALEXANDER THE GREAT • IMA HOOT • LILITH AZAZEL • SELMA BAWDY • SIR BEAUREGARD ELLIOT

“BECAUSE CENSORSHIP NEVER STOPS, WE NEVER STOP FIGHTING!”