TYCA events at the Cs

For those of you attending the 4Cs in Chicago, there are several TYCA events you will want to make room for in your schedule.

TYCA Talks will be 6:30-7:30 on Friday night. We’ll be focusing on letting people get to meet others from their regions and across the country. There will be snacks and drinks, so come by for a relaxing chance to visit and network. For those who wish at the end of the hour, there will also be an opportunity to coordinate with others who want to submit proposals for next year’s conference.

The TYCA Breakfast is a “must go” event. Be sure to purchase a ticket on your registration form so that you can join us for a hearty breakfast, great company, and warm recognition for the Diana Hacker TYCA Outstanding Program Award winners. The Fame and Shame award winners are also announced at the breakfast!

And of course, there are numerous sessions that you will want to attend. Just a few are highlighted below. You can also search the entire Cs program online at http://www.ncte.org/program/cccc/

The First Two Years: Space for Change
Session: A.01 on Mar 23, 2006 from 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM
Cluster: 107) Institutional and Professional
Type: Featured Session
Level Emphasis: 2-year
To say that the first two college years, or the first year, is crucial for success, understates the obvious. In spite of that, the tradition in American higher education has been to say that some students are “cut out” for college, and some are not. It is not [ More ]
Participants: Jeffrey Andelora (Chair), Frank Madden (Respondent), Bodmer Paul (Speaker 1), Wiley Ben (Speaker 3), Jay Wootten (Speaker Additional), Lynn Troyka (Speaker Additional)


Assessment, WAC, Teaching Technologies, and Working Conditions” (TYCA Strand)
Session: D.22 on Mar 23, 2006 from 3:15 PM to 4:30 PM
Cluster: 105) Research
Type: Concurrent Session (3 or more presenters)
Level Emphasis: 2-year
Measuring Composition in the Two-Year College Space: National Survey Data on Assessment, WAC, Teaching Technologies, and Working Conditions Supported by a CCCC Research Initiative Grant, TYCA has begun measuring how the two-year college functions as a central space between high school and college, the work force and academia, and [ More ]
Participants: Jody Millward (Chair), Jody Millward (Speaker 1), Leslie Roberts (Speaker 2), Patrick Sullilvan (Speaker 3), Lois Powers (Speaker Additional)


Cyber Teaching in the Center Spaces (TYCA STRAND)
Session: E.43 on Mar 23, 2006 from 4:45 PM to 6:00 PM
Cluster: 106) Information Technologies
Type: Concurrent Session (3 or more presenters)
Level Emphasis: cross-institutional
Presentation Title: "Cyber Teaching in the Center Spaces: Maintaining Course Integrity While Enhancing Student Retention and Learning": College composition Web instructors striving to maintain course integrity, while improving student learning and retention, can help achieve these goals through better preparation and advising of students, course scheduling and the [ More ]
Participants: Jane Wagoner (Chair), Lisa Shoemaker (Speaker 1), Michael Johanyak (Speaker 2), Jane Wagoner (Speaker 3)


TYCA TALKS (TYCA STRAND Friday night 6-7 p.m.)
Session: FSIG.01 on Mar 24, 2006 from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Cluster: n/a) Not Applicable
Type: Special Interest Group
Level Emphasis: 2-year
The purpose of this special event is to bring together two-year college faculty and those with shared interests to meet one another, learn of exemplary two-year English programs, form liaisons, and become better informed about the work of the Regional organizations and National TYCA. [ More ]
Participants: Sharon Mitchler (Chair), Gwen Gresham (Session Contact Person)


A Call for Creative Collaborations and Border Crossings: Preparing Faculty to Teach in Two-Year Colleges (TYCA STRAND)
Session: G.29 on Mar 24, 2006 from 9:30 AM to 10:45 AM
Cluster: 107) Institutional and Professional
Type: Concurrent Session (3 or more presenters)
Level Emphasis: cross-institutional
(TYCA STRAND) Speakers #1 and 2 "Shifting Sands of Academic Discourse: Mediating and Managing 2-Year, 4-Year Border Crossings": Panelists will discuss how student populations in two-year colleges are different from (not lesser than) students in university settings; how these differences call for teaching strategies that recognize, affirm, and support different [ More ]
Participants: Georgia Newman (Chair), Howard Tinberg (Speaker 1), JoAnn Buck (Speaker 2), Sean Murphy (Speaker 3), Anne Clark Bartlett (Speaker 3)

Pass It On: Baby Boomer Faculty Share Their Experience” (TYCA STRAND)
Session: H.34 on Mar 24, 2006 from 12:15 PM to 1:45 PM
Cluster: 107) Institutional and Professional
Type: Concurrent Session (3 or more presenters)
Level Emphasis: 2-year
(TYCA STRAND) As the Baby Boom generation prepares to retire, many of the nation’s teachers and college faculty will be among their numbers. This situation is particularly acute in two-year colleges because the great expansion and hiring in two-year colleges occurred as baby-boomers were preparing to enter the teaching [ More ]
Participants: Gwen Gresham (Session Contact Person), Mark Reynolds (Speaker 1), Ellen Andrews Knodt (Speaker 3)


Composing in Marginal Spaces: How Non-Traditional Students Respond to Teacher Feedback
Session: J.03 on Mar 24, 2006 from 3:30 PM to 4:45 PM
Cluster: 101) Practices of Teaching Writing
Type: Concurrent Session (3 or more presenters)
Level Emphasis: 2-year
At the 2005 CCCC in San Francisco, Nancy Sommers challenged audience members to perpetuate her work on responding to student writing, and our session will describe the ways in which we have attempted to extend Sommers’ work in the context of community colleges. Each of the [ More ]
Participants: Carolyn Calhoon-Dillahunt (Session Contact Person), Dodie Forrest (Speaker 1), Carolyn Calhoon-Dillahunt (Speaker 1), Ashlee Brand (Speaker 2), Steve Reynolds (Speaker 3)


Led by Theory, Bound by Practice: Building Community from the Center of the Academic Border Town (TYCA STRAND)
Session: J.32 on Mar 24, 2006 from 3:30 PM to 4:45 PM
Cluster: 107) Institutional and Professional
Type: Concurrent Session (3 or more presenters)
Level Emphasis: 2-year
(TYCA STRAND) In Border Talk, Howard Tinberg writes, “To teach at a community college is to be ‘in translation’ or between places. With their mission to provide vocational training and to prepare students for transfer to colleges and universities, community colleges have always had a complex purpose” (vii). [ More ]
Participants: Sonja L. Andrus (Chair), Witt Salley (Chair), Marsha Millikin (Speaker 2), Sonja L. Andrus (Speaker 3)


Preparing to Teach in a Two-Year College (TYCA STRAND)
Session: K.25 on Mar 25, 2006 from 9:30 AM to 10:45 AM
Cluster: 107) Institutional and Professional
Type: Concurrent Session (3 or more presenters)
Level Emphasis: 2-year
TYCA STRAND The purpose of this panel is to share information about two-year college teaching with graduate students still preparing to teach and undecided about teaching in a two-year college, new professionals seeking jobs, adjunct teachers seeking a full-time position, and administrators involved in the hiring process. The panel [ More ]
Participants: Gwen Gresham (Chair), Gwen Gresham (Session Contact Person), Camille Ziolek (Speaker 1), Tonya M. Scott (Speaker 2), Gwen Gresham (Speaker 3)


TYCA Strand: Beyond "Adversarial": Community Voices and Student Voices Converge on “Civil Liberties” in the Composition Classroom
Session: M.06 on Mar 25, 2006 from 12:30 PM to 1:45 PM
Cluster: 101) Practices of Teaching Writing
Type: Concurrent Session (3 or more presenters)
Level Emphasis: 2-year
CHAIR "Do the Changing Demographics of Students and the Changing Political Climate Warrant a Change in the Rhetoric of Argument?" The chair will give background information on how our institution, in general, approaches the teaching of argument. She'll give examples of how various instructors develop their curriculua, and some of the [ More ]
Participants: Sandra Schroeder (Session Contact Person), Gordon Koestler (Speaker 1), Sandra Schroeder (Speaker 2)

Sharing Your Ideas with the Profession: Drafting NCTE/CCCC Proposals, Turning Presentations into Articles (TYCA STRAND)
Session: SW.07 on Mar 25, 2006 from 2:00 PM to 5:30 PM
Type: Workshop: Sat. Afternoon
Level Emphasis: 2-year
(TYCA STRAND) The purpose of this workshop is to promote the notion of the Two-Year College Teacher/Scholar. Panelists will provide practical advice and encouragement for two-year college teachers who wish to share their ideas and research through conference presentations and publications. All panelists are published scholars and have experience reviewing [ More ]
Participants: Marilyn Valentino (Chair), Gwen Gresham (Session Contact Person), Marilyn Valentino (Speaker 2), Frank Madden (Speaker 3), Mark Reynolds (Speaker Additional), Lynn Troyka (Speaker Additional), Kip Strasma (Speaker Additional), Howard Tinberg (Speaker Additional)


Theory to Exemplary Practices and Programs from the Two-Year Colleges (TYCA Sponsored)
Session: W.5 on Mar 22, 2006 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Type: Workshop: All-Day Wednesday
Level Emphasis: 2-year
This workshop deals with exemplary programs and practices in the two-year college classroom. Facilitators will discuss reaching out to other colleagues and the community, motivating resistant composition students, active learning through group work and assessment of student work, and making the transition from adjunct to full-time faculty. Participants will return [ More ]
Participants: Jane Wagoner (Chair), Esther DiMarzio (Speaker 1), Marsha Millikin (Speaker 2), Elizabeth A. Butts (Speaker Additional), Sonja L. Andrus (Speaker Additional), Sarah Bowman (Speaker Additional), Karla Brown (Speaker Additional), Sue Peters (Speaker Additional), Linda Barro (Speaker Additional)


Research Report on The Public Image of Two-Year Colleges: Hallmarks of Fame and Shame
Session: WSIG.5 on Mar 22, 2006 from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Cluster: n/a) Not Applicable
Type: Special Interest Group
Interest Emphasis: not applicable
Level Emphasis: 2-year
(TYCA STRAND)Public Image of the Two-Year College is a TYCA Committee; 2005 marks its eighth year of proposing a program for the CCCC. The purpose of the program/committee is to discuss the results of on-going research in the media's coverage of two-year college students, faculty, institutions, and programs with the [ More ]
Participants: Sterling Warner (Chair), Sterling Warner (Session Contact Person), Mike Matthews (Speaker 1), Barbara Cooper (Speaker 2), Janet Henderson (Speaker 3), Gwen Gresham (Speaker Additional), Don Holt (Speaker Additional), Bill Swanson (Speaker Additional)

I love my job!

So just what is it that drew you, reader, to teaching at a two-year college? For me, it was the opportunity to spend time with students who are highly motivated, yet often dramatically different from each other. I started teaching in a community college setting in 1995, and in the years since then I have never had two similar groups of students. The drama of discovery keeps me enthused and on my toes every day in the classroom. These students include the bold, the brazen, and the barely able to keep up.

One of my classes currently includes students who range in age from 16 to 55 years old. Most students came from the local public schools, several students have been home schooled, two are from countries other than the United States, and six others got their K-12 education in other states. There are at least four of my 28 students who speak a language other than English as their first language. In the same group, I have three students who have never left the county in their lives. Several students are working at such an advanced level that I must constantly provide them with additional challenges.

I teach on a quarter system, so I teach three five credit classes to make up my full time load. My other two classes have their own mix of students. What works in one section of a class often needs to be adjusted to meet the needs of another section.

For those who are considering a professional life in the two-year college setting, the TYCA publication “Guidelines for the Academic Preparation of English Faculty at Two-Year Colleges” is a great place to start. You can peruse an online copy at the NCTE website: http://www.ncte.org/groups/tyca/featuredinfo/119956.htm

Saying Hello, 2/12/06

Welcome to the TYCA chair's blog.

TYCA, the Two-Year College English Association, has members across the United States and Canada. Each of seven regions holds an annual conference, either in October or February, where teacher-scholars can meet for professional development, shared insights, networking and rejuvenation.The purpose of this blog is to share information across the seven regions, to make public the conversations that matter in our professional lives, and to build on our strong sense of community.

I'm Sharon, and I currently serve as the national chair for TYCA. Writing a blog is a new experience for me, but I'm looking forward to the conversations ahead.