Newsletter Editor Jane Weiss

Open Educational Resources Showcase: Tuesday 14 May 2024 2:00-5:00 PM

A message from Rachel Ihara:

An event on Tuesday 14 May 2024 will showcase ways people are using open educational resources here at Kingsborough, with events from 2-5 pm. The showcase will feature a collaborative keynote, a student panel, and lightning talks from KCC faculty members- all of the details are in the flyer attached.  Please register to join us, and if you have any questions, email Professor Shawna Brandle at shawna.brandle@kbcc.cuny.edu

Peer Evaluations Due 17 May 2024

If you have been asked to observe a colleague’s class this semester, please be aware that the completed observations – including the post-observation conference – are due Friday 17 May 2024. If you run into any problems, please contact Audrey Phillips.

Friday 24 May 2024, 10 AM – 12 PM: Let’s Continue the Conversation: What Students Told Us: Understanding and Building on our Fall ENG12 Student Survey – A PD Session

A message from Hope Parisi:  

Last fall, via the initiative of our composition program coordinators, Rachel Ihara and Greg Bruno, two surveys went out to all students in ENG1200 and 12A0, one at midterm and one after the semester was over. The midterm survey asked students about how they saw themselves as writers, how they were doing so far in ENG12, and what kinds of things were contributing, or not, to their success. The survey for students after the semester was over asked how they did in the class and the things that helped or impeded their success. The Office of Institutional Effectiveness recently helped us to analyze the results, and we would like to share this report with you.  Rachel will lend first-hand perspective, but we greatly need English faculty input as well.

Let’s discuss: Do these results from the recently completed ENG 1200 and 12A0 student surveys match your experiences and impressions of students’ struggles? What strategies can we brainstorm to best respond to this information? 

Join us for a professional development session, Friday, May 24, 10am-12noon, on Zoom, paid for part-timers and open to all. Please come for to this session even if you attended in April (and appreciate the productive overlap!) Here is the Zoom link for the upcoming session, May 24 at 10am.   Let’s continue the conversation! Hope to see you there!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81561761486?pwd=dFpnRDdsZzRsSlVtOGlUM0dxamQwdz09

Meeting ID: 815 6176 1486   Passcode: 779149

Association of Writers and Writing Programs 2025 Conference Event Proposals

A message from Brian Katz:

AWP is accepting event proposals for its 2025 conference. If you are interested, please see below. The deadline is May 23rd, 2024. If you plan on submitting a proposal and would like support (in any form), please let Eben and Brian know. Also note, if you are unable to travel to Los Angeles for the conference, AWP is offering a virtual event: https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/event_proposals_virtual_conference_event.           

Event proposals for #AWP25 are now being accepted! We are so excited to see the writing community come together once again, this time in Los Angeles, California. We hope that you consider submitting a proposal as a program director and that you encourage your students, faculty, and alumni to do the same.

AWP encourages all writers to submit event proposals, even if the participants haven’t yet been published. In particular, we love to see students share their perspectives and gain professional experience by planning or presenting on a conference event. We look forward to hosting more events featuring student presenters in 2025—and we hope you’ll share this opportunity with your current students!

Anyone who is interested in submitting a #AWP25 proposal should review the guidelines detailed in the 2025 event proposal guidelines https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/event_proposals_guidelines and the presenter guidelines AWP: Conference Presenter Guidelines (awpwriter.org) before submitting a proposal. You can find additional resources for crafting and submitting an AWP event proposal on the Event Proposals overview page: https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/event_proposals_overview

For #AWP25, we will continue to accept both in-person and virtual conference event proposals. All virtual conference events will be prerecorded and made available for both in-person and virtual attendees to watch on demand online during #AWP25. Anyone who is interested in submitting a virtual event proposal should visit the Virtual Conference Events page for details: https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/event_proposals_virtual_conference_event

As you navigate the proposal system, please keep the following in mind:

            The submission deadline is Thursday, May 23, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

• You do not need to be an AWP member to propose or participate in an event. However, you must have an active AWP user account. You can create a free AWP account on our website.
• Please note our participation limits. You may be listed as a participant or moderator on no more than three proposals, including both in-person and virtual event proposals. If more than two of these proposals are accepted, you will be asked to step down from one of your events.
•  Once you submit your proposal, your event participants will receive an email asking them to confirm their willingness to be added to your event. Each person must link the proposal to their own AWP account by Thursday, May 30, 2024, or your event will not be considered.
• Your participants will be prompted to enter their own biographies when they link to your proposal. These biographies will be published on our online conference schedule if the event is accepted. 

 If you have any questions about submitting a #AWP25 event proposal, please email events@awpwriter.org.

Writing Center Asynchronous Tutoring

A message from Tony Iantosca:

The writing center’s new asynchronous tutoring program begins this week. Tony has sent the sign-up instructions for asynchronous tutoring, (which can also be used to sign up for regular tutoring) to English department faculty members at your KCC email. As Tony mentioned in the announcement last week, the Writing Center will pilot the asynchronous program with students in English 12 and 24 and later expand this initiative to all students seeking help with writing. This tutoring format is open to all English 12 and 24 students, not only those enrolled in asynchronous English courses. In addition, the KLC’s website has a set of new handouts, with more to come (especially research related handouts). Typically, the tutors and Tony develop these during the summer and winter modules when tutoring is less busy. Here is the link to those handouts: https://www.kbcc.cuny.edu/KLC/TutoringResources.html#english

Composition Coordinators Office Hours for Spring 2024

The English Department’s composition coordinators are available on campus and on Zoom this spring:

Gregory Bruno (Gregory.Bruno@kbcc.cuny.edu)

• Tuesdays in C309B: 11:00 am – 3:00 pm (later on Dept. and CRC meeting dates)
• Wednesday in C309B: 8:30 am – 12:30 pm
• By appointment via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6372657798?pwd=L28zMVBxenZzR05vbU1GRis5ajRUZz09

Rachel Ihara (Rachel.ihara@kbcc.cuny.edu)

• Tuesdays in C309B: 11:30 am – 12:30 pm and 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
• Thursdays in C309B: 11:30 am – 12:30 pm and 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
• Fridays, 9:00 am – 11:00 am and by appointment via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5834566892

Faculty Mentor and Support Hours in E219

A message from Hope Parisi:

Hope Parisi will be in E219 this semester, available for informal chats with new and experienced part-time faculty, and all faculty, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:40pm-2:30pm, with more availability by phone or Zoom according to wish or need. Please come by this welcoming environment if you’re on campus. Hope’s email is Hope.Parisi@kbcc.cuny.edu.

English Department Protocol for Faculty Absences

A reminder of the department protocol when you cannot meet your students during a regularly scheduled class meeting, whether in-person or online synchronously: You must report all absences to our department immediately, ideally before the class session that you will miss. Please send an email to Shelly Benjamin (please cc Christine Marchese), who will initiate the absence paperwork process for you. Please be advised that it is against CUNY and NYSED policy for a faculty member to modify a course’s modality during a semester, so it is not acceptable to meet students online, whether synchronously or asynchronously, when you cannot meet them in person. In such a case, you must cancel class and take an absence for that class period.

When you know in advance that you must be absent, remember that you can contact Shelly Benjamin and request that she try to find another faculty member who can sub your class for you. Please do not arrange for a sub on your own because many of our faculty members are at their maximum hours for the year and cannot be paid more for additional teaching hours.

Good News: Sunday Money, a Novel by Maggie Hill

Maggie Hill’s novel Sunday Money, a historical fiction about Brooklyn and girls’ basketball before Title IX, is coming out on Tuesday, May 14 and there are three launch events over the course of May:

• 5/14 – BookMark Shoppe in Bay Ridge
• 5/21 – P&T Knitwear on Orchard Street
• 5/28 – Barnes & Noble Atlantic Avenue

A Note about the Newsletter 

A message from Jane Weiss, the Newsletter editor:  

The next issue of the Newsletter will come out on Monday 20 May 2024. Please send newsletter items by Friday 17 May 2024 to Jane Weiss at Jane.Weiss@kbcc.cuny.edu. Please keep items brief (preferably 100 or fewer words). Longer items will be abridged. Many faculty members would like to learn more about colleagues’ areas of scholarship, so if you would like to share what you’re working on, the Newsletter will welcome descriptions of your research and recent or upcoming presentations, publications, and performances of all kinds.