End of the Quarter Pressure!

There is too much to do (force) and too little time left in the quarter (area).     In the future, Scott and Suzy will try to move some of these required tasks further away from the end of the quarter to relieve some of that pressure.  For this quarter, we are thankful for your stamina and your patience.  Here is a list of what each faculty member needs to get done.

Assessment Charts

Submit an assessment chart for each of the course sections you are teaching for the English department this quarter.   Remember that adjunct faculty are paid $40 per completed chart as long as the charts are submitted by June 30th.   You will find instructions on how to this at https://bc.instructure.com/courses/829528

Student Evaluations

Opt-in to online course evaluations AND provide an incentive to your students to complete the online course evaluations.  I (Suzy) cannot tell you how many times I have put this off and then forgotten about it.   I am guilty of not doing enough to encourage my students to evaluate me.  I regret it.   And as soon as I’m done with this post, I’m going to create an assignment for extra credit to encourage my students to evaluate me.   Opt-in at https://www.bellevuecollege.edu/classeval/educator/

Remember that you can arrange for Seda Markarova (seda.markarova@bellevuecollege) to administer student evaluations with your students face-to-face if you wish, although, at this point in the quarter, she might be booked.    All tenure-track and adjunct faculty are contractually required to have students evaluate all of their classes.  All full-time faculty should evaluate all of their classes, but they are required to evaluate the classes they were assigned to evaluate at the beginning of the school year.

OK.  I’m going to set a timer so I don’t forget to this when I’m done with this post.  

Course Outcomes Working Meeting

Friday, June 13th we will meet as a full department from 1:30 – 4:30 and rewrite all of our course outcomes.  We are doing this to support the college’s preparation for an accreditation visit.  Adjunct faculty will be paid for attending.  Please don’t hesitate to come for only part of the workshop if that is all you can manage.  Your expertise and insight are needed!

Winter 2015 Course Preferences

Suzy will be sending out a draft Winter 2014 schedule on June 12th and I will be asking adjunct faculty for their preferences.  Please provide me with a bit of context.  Are there times of the day you cannot teach for us?  Are there modalities you do not feel prepared to teach well in?  Are there classes you don’t feel comfortable teaching?  And then, finally, what would be some ideal schedules?

Suzy will take the requests and then use them, during the summer, to build a Winter schedule.  You won’t be able to find out what you’ve been assigned before mid-summer.  The room assignment schedule and publishing schedule just put some critical deadlines in the middle of the summer. 

Remember that the English department decided that starting Winter 2015, no instructor will be assigned three classes completely online. 

English Program Coordinators 
Fire Up Again!

Program Coordinators were established when Maggie Harada was chair of the English department to help shoulder the huge leaderships tasks that come with a huge department.

Creative Writing – Laura Burns and Jeffery White
Literature –  Elizabeth Harazim and Nan Ma
Pre-College Programs – Sean Allen
Accelerated Program – David Lopez-Kopp and Donna Miguel
Composition and Technical Writing – Natalie Martinez

Heat’s On!  Course Outcomes –
Working Meeting Friday, June 13th 1:30 – 3:30

One of the first tasks the coordinators will be leading us through is the redesign of course outcomes for ALL of our English courses.  This work must be done by June 30th, 2014 in order to help the college prepare for our upcoming accreditation visit.  (Yes, we, too, are rolling our eyes.  Again?  Revise them again?!)

We need the expertise of as many English department faculty members as possible at this meeting.  We would like to move through  all of our outcomes in this single three hour meeting.  Adjunct faculty will be paid for attending.

On Fire!

Affiliation Re-ignites

Scott and Suzy are happy to announce that eight faculty members have been granted affiliated status for the 2014-2015 school year.  Congratulations to Barbara Butler, Donna Cowan, Karrin Peterson, Debbie Pope, Cassie Cross, Tobi Rosenberg, Paula Sebastian, and Lynne Walker.    These annually affiliated faculty will join our life-time affiliated faculty, Nancy Eichner, James Goldsmith, and Kathleen White.   If you have questions about affiliation or are interested in applying for affiliation next year,  contact Suzy Lepeintre or Scott Bessho.

Dissertation Defended!

Hyesu Park has successfully defended her dissertation!  Please congratulate Dr. Park when you see her next.   Hyesu’s dissertation is focused on post-1945 Asian American literature.  She  explores the continued formation of Asian American literature after WWII as well as investigating how it interfaces with American literature.  She pays particular attention to how authors choose to reframe historical events to  create innovative fictions.

100-level Technical Writing Course to Pilot Fall 2014

Karrin Peterson is on track to pilot a 100-level Technical Writing class this Fall.  The course will run as  ENGL 194 – Special Studies in English while she pilots the curriculum.  All seats for the pilot will be reserved for students in the Autism Spectrum Navigators Program.    Maggie Harada, Michelle Chavez, Susan Roselle, and Sara Gardner (from the Disability Resource Center) are all part of the team Karrin is working with to bring this about.   We are very grateful to everyone involved for seeking to create this option for students.

Discipline Specific English 101 Sections to Pilot Fall 2014

Nan Ma, Jim Dicus, Paula Sebastian, and Lynne Walker will launch discipline specific English 101 sections for Fall 2014!  Nan has been working with programs across the campus to develop discipline specific English 101 sections.  Faculty in Business have been the first to engage fully with the project and because of that engagement, Nan, Jim, Paula and Lynne are ready to move forward and offer Business content specific English 101 sections this Fall.

Superstars Seeking New Horizons

Tenured English instructor Roger George and reading lab instructor Belle Geodeke are retiring.  It’s unbelievable.  How can we picture the English Department and the Reading Lab without them?  They are joining other stellar colleagues like Pat Andrus, Arline Davis and Linda Leeds, who officially separated from the college earlier this Spring.

WAC Workshops in the Faculty Commons Spring 2014

Nan Ma has been working for the Faculty Commons, developing and leading a variety of workshops designed to help faculty across the disciplines teach and assess writing in their classes.   Nan organized the following workshops this Spring 2014

• Writing Prompt Design with co-presenters Catherine Berkenfield, Donna Cowan, and Roger George  
• Grading Rubric Design and Revision Guidelines with co-presenters Natalie Martinez and Gordon Leighton
• Effective Peer Reviews with co-presenters Elizabeth Harazim, David Lopez-Kopp, and Garrett Nichols

Each workshop generated rich and productive conversations about writing and teaching.  Instructors from Anthropology, Economics, Psychology, Chemistry and the Writing Lab participated and shared their approaches to teaching and using writing in their classrooms.  

University of New Mexico Mentoring Institute Conference

Catherine Berkenfield is the outgoing Faculty Lead of the Mentoring Programs in the Faculty Commons.  She’s built an amazing program and now gets to share her insights as a presenter at the October University of New Mexico Mentoring Institute Conference (http://mentor.unm.edu/).   

Reading Lab Revisioned

 The Reading Lab is experimenting with new models for supporting students’ reading success across disciplines.  All reading lab instructors will be taking the Reading Apprenticeship course and all accelerated 092/101 and 093/101 courses for Fall 2014 will bring their classes to the Reading Lab for small group and one-on-one reading support.    Questions?  Contact Megan Hansen

Program Progress

The Creative Writing Program faculty have met and decided upon an annual schedule of classes, complete with faculty course assignments.  They have provided Suzy with the 2014-2015 course schedule and faculty assignments.  If you are interested in getting involved with the Creative Writing program, contact Laura Burns or Jeffery White.

The Pre-College Program faculty have been developing shared curriculum for the STEPS program.  If you are interested in this curriculum project please contact Sean Allen.