October 17, 2022 KCC English Department Newsletter
Newsletter Editor Jane Weiss
Online Teaching Essentials Course: Registration Closes Today
CUNY will be offering another session of the Online Teaching Essentials (OTE) online teaching certification workshop this October. Facilitated by the faculty development team at the School of Professional Studies (SPS), Online Teaching Essentials (OTE) prepares faculty for online and hybrid course instruction. Registration for the next 2022 OTE session is open through today, Monday October 17 2022, for the session meeting Tuesday, October 25 – Monday, November 14 2022. The major topics covered in the OTE are: Understanding the Online Learning Environment, Inclusive Teaching, Backward Design & Effective Assessment, Online Presence & Engagement, and Communicating & Interacting Online. The workshop final project is a syllabus and course schedule for an upcoming online or hybrid course. Faculty can find more information on the Online Teaching Essentials Workshop site: https://oteworkshop.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
All faculty are welcome to participate, but those who participated in the CUNY Preparation for Teaching Online (PTO) workshop since 2019; those who have previously completed the OTE or the CUNY WGU workshops; Continuing Education instructors; and full-time, non-teaching instructional staff are not eligible for the stipend associated with certification in OTE. Upon successful completion of the workshop, eligible faculty will receive $500 and be certified to teach online. We welcome participation by faculty who are interested in improving on or consolidating the new teaching practices you have experimented with over the last two years.
Faculty can signal their interest in the October 2022 OTE by completing this linked form: https://bit.ly/OTE_Oct2022 by October 17 2022. This form requires faculty to log into Office 365 using their CUNY credentials (firstname.lastname##@login.cuny.edu & CUNYfirst password). A how-to guide (attached) has been included for those who need help accessing their Office 365 CUNY faculty accounts. Please consult this guide first if you encounter any issues registering. Participants will enter their EMPLID and their department information into the form.
Because all correspondence for the course will occur through Blackboard, please verify that your email address in Blackboard is correct. If you need help doing this, please work with KCC’s Blackboard Support team at Blackboard_Support@kbcc.cuny.edu.
If you do not feel comfortable with Blackboard but want to take OTE, please enroll in CUNY’s self-paced Blackboard Basics course by following the steps in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gF7Llsq_9U&feature=youtu.be If you get stuck, please reach out to our Blackboard support team to help you complete your enrollment: You can send questions to Janine Palludin: Janine.Palludan@kbcc.cuny.edu .
Progress at the Midterm: Professional Development Session
A Message from Hope Parisi, Faculty Mentor
The midpoint is a vital time to reach out to students who have been absent and/or are struggling in our online, hybrid, and f2f classes. We want to send clear messages about where students stand as a way to get them (back) on track and feeling hopeful about passing the course. There are many tools to reach out and this workshop will explore them: well-crafted email messages; Blackboard reports; Blackboard reminders; transparent and “choose your own grade” grading schemes (these are sometimes called “bundles”). ENG 12 instructors of portfolio classes have the added challenge of conveying progress while not giving grades to assignments that may likely go in the portfolio. Not least, there is KCC’s version of Starfish to enlist the support of Advisement and other support services, and which is now conducting its progress surveys until the first week of November. (Let’s learn more about this system with an eye towards trying it out.) All are welcome. Thursday, October 20, at 11:30am-1:00pm, or til 1:30pm, for those who have the time. This workshop is paid for part-timers.
Here is the link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86916141995 .
CRC Meeting 18 October 2022
A message from Greg Bruno and Rachel Ihara:
As of this year, CRC Meetings are open to the entire Department, although only committee members may vote. The next CRC meeting is Tuesday, October 18 2022 from 3:00-4:30; a Zoom link has been sent to your KCC email. Upcoming meetings are on Tuesday, November 22, from 3pm-4:30pm, and Tuesday, December 13th (Reading day), from 11am-1pm.
Open Literatures Project: Help It Grow
A message from Elizabeth Dill:
We have a website for faculty teaching literature! The Open Literatures Project is a website designed to help you explore resources related to teaching literature. It has works of literature organized by theme and genre as well as a gallery of authors with links to their works. All of these resources are available to use! Now Elizabeth needs your help to develop it. If you have suggestions for authors or works of literature you’d like to see added to the site, or a syllabus, an assignment, a lecture, or any other curricula you would like to share, please let Elizabeth know! Just email Elizabeth your ideas or any teaching materials you would like to share (elizabeth.dill@kbcc.cuny.edu).
Course Syllabi For English Department Office
Please send copies of the syllabus for each of your courses to Shelly Benjamin (Shelly.Benjamin@kbcc.cuny.edu) or leave a print copy in the file holder on her desk in C309.
Composition Office Hours
Office hours in C309B:
Greg: Mondays and Wednesdays, from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm;
Rachel: Mondays and Wednesdays, from 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm
Remote office hours:
Greg: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:00 am to 10:00 am:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6372657798?pwd=L28zMVBxenZzR05vbU1GRis5ajRUZz09 ;
Rachel: Fridays, 9:00 am to 11:00 am https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5834566892
Upcoming English Department Meetings
The English Department will meet on Tuesday, October 25, 2022 3:00 PM-4:30 PM (with the English Department Bylaws proposals as the focus); and Tuesday, November 29, 2022 3:00 PM-4:30 PM.
PSC-CUNY Mass Meeting 26 October 2022: Winning a Just Contract
All PSC members are urged to attend the union’s virtual mass meeting Wednesday, October 26, 6:30-8:00PM. This is the big union-wide event of the fall contract campaign. Be there to hear from the PSC bargaining team and your fellow union members, to ask questions, and to learn about upcoming campaign actions at your campus or worksite. We want raises, better terms and conditions, and more, and a union with the power to win that strong contract — a Contract for #APeoplesCUNY — means that we must all be a part of the campaign. A link to RSVP for the meeting has been sent to PSC-CUNY members’ email addresses.
Campus Reopening Hub
For information about KCC’s reopening, visit the new KCC Campus Reopening Hub: http://kbcc.cuny.edu/campusentry/index.html . You can find information about the reopening plan, mask policies, on campus COVID-19 testing, the Cleared4 pass and visitor policies.
KCC Information Technology Services Office
You can call KCC’s ITS Help Desk at (718) 368-6679 or email helpdesk@kbcc.cuny.edu 9:00 – 5:00 on weekdays. For Blackboard support during hours when KCC’s Help Desk is not available, call 1-646-664-2024
CUNY Alerts
To receive notifications by phone, text, or email regarding campus conditions, sign up for CUNY Alert by logging on to CUNYfirst. Once you have logged on, the CUNYfirst Main Menu will be near the top of the screen on the left side. Click CUNY Alert Subscription to sign up; you can update contact information at CUNY Alert Preferences. You can check KCC’s home page www.kbcc.cuny.edu/ for updates about campus conditions.
A Note about the Newsletter
The next issue of the Newsletter will come out on Monday 24 October 2022. Please send newsletter items by Friday, 21 October 2022 to Jane Weiss at Jane.Weiss@kbcc.cuny.edu. Please keep items brief (preferably 100 or fewer words). Longer items will be abridged.
