Register today for a TYCA conference

Two-Year College English Association regional conferences are coming soon! As you can see from the list below, there are numerous locations and themes from which to choose. I'll be attending three conferences this year, and I wish I could go to them all. I've met people who are enthusiastic, well informed, teacher-scholars at every conference I have attended. I learn about what is new in the field and how my colleagues are developing inventive responses to changes. I'll see long time friends and make new friends as well. I hope to see you there!

For specific information on registration, location, and speakers go to the TYCA National webpage.

TYCA Pacific Northwest Salem, Oregon
Oct. 13-14, "Mapping Diverse Literacies"

TYCA Northeast Providence, Rhode Island
Oct. 19-21, "The Terrible Twos: Defining and Resisting the Role of Two-Year Colleges in the Academy"

TYCA Midwest St. Charles, Missouri
Oct. 19-21, "Crossing Bridges: Encouraging Transitions and Transformations"

TYCA West Park City, Utah
Oct. 20-21 "New Literacies: Teaching Writing in the 21st Century"

TYCA Southwest Galveston, Texas
Oct. 26-28, "Message in a Bottle - or Berry or Palm or Pod: Composition in the New Millennium"

TYCA Southeast Jacksonville, Florida
Feb. 22-24, "Navigating the Uncharted Waters of Learning"

Diana Hacker TYCA Outstanding Programs in English Awards

You know excellent programs, and here is a chance to have them recognized.

The Diana Hacker TYCA Outstanding Programs in English awards are presented each March during the TYCA breakfast held at the 4Cs. The awards “honor two-year teachers and their colleges for exemplary programs that enhance students’ language learning, helping them to achieve their college, career, and personal goals.” Programs can be submitted in one of four categories, and you can even submit electronically via the TYCA Awards website.

Applicants must submit a completed submission form, a brief description of their program (60 words or fewer), and a narrative of the program (1,000 words or fewer). Submission materials must be postmarked, faxed, or submitted electronically by November 10, 2006.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to gain formal recognition, as well as the chance to share your best work by nominating those you know, or your own programs.

We thank publisher Bedford St. Martins, the longtime partner of Diana Hacker, for sponsoring the Diana Hacker TYCA Outstanding Programs Awards.

Guidelines for the Academic Preparation for English Faculty

The first article in the September TETYC is a reproduction of “Guidelines for the Academic Preparation of English Faculty at Two-Year Colleges.” First released in Spring of 2005, this document outlines the academic preparation necessary to work with students at a two-year college.

The document gives a clear rational for a different kind of preparation than graduate schools may have considered before. Two-year college faculty members are teacher-scholars. Their practice is informed by their scholarship and their classrooms inform their scholarship. This work provides both the opportunity and the requirement for deep work theory and pedagogy.

To highlight the "Guiding Principles" section of the document, “effective community college English teachers exhibit the following characteristics:

They are reflective teachers.

They center their classrooms on the student, not the teacher.

They are flexible, not only in their teaching approaches, but also in the different roles they are asked to play…

Because they respect their students as learners, they treat students with consideration.

They ground their lessons in research and theory, and they are able to teach theoretical concepts through practical applications.

They continue to grow and learn themselves so that they can model for their students ways of reading and writing successfully.”

The complete document provides an excellent outline of expectations for professional life at a community college.

The Fall Quarter Begins!

Fall Quarter started today, and I am reminded why the two-year college is never boring. I have students ranging from age 16 to 60. Quite a few of the younger students have been home schooled and are now coming directly to college, never having been in a class with other students working on the same materials. Other younger students are participating in “running start,” a dual enrollment program.

At the other end of the age range, three of my students did not know they were coming to college until last Friday. They were suddenly laid off, so part of their severance package pays for tuition and books. Although they are in a completely unfamiliar environment, they came prepared to learn all they can.

As usual, there are students with children, students caring for siblings, students working full time jobs, and students who were told to go to school or get a job. There are students who know exactly what their goal is while at my college and have already planned where they want to get into graduate school.

They will all be in class together. It just doesn’t get more interesting.

Freshman Orientation

Since my school is on the quarter system, we will begin classes on Monday, September 18. That means that yesterday and today I have been involved with “Centralia College 101”, our orientation for new students.

Because community colleges frequently have students entering at more than one point in the year, finding a way to help new students feel a part of the campus community has always been problematic. At my campus we have a two day class that runs from 8:30 am to 3:00 each day. The time is spent with a major speaker, workshops and time with a smaller “team.” Faculty can participate in a number of ways, as team leaders or as presenters in workshops, for example. The decision to be involved is always difficult because it means I lose significant planning time, but once again, I am thrilled to be participating.

I am a paired with a continuing student, and together we meet with our “team” of about 15 students at four different points during the two day class. I’ve had a chance to get to know this small group in a way that is different from my classroom interactions. These connections with others in the group seem to be pivotal in helping students feel like they belong on campus, that they have people they know already on the first day, and that they have at least one on campus resource (me) who can help them with questions.

September TETYC Now Available

The latest issue of Teaching English in the Two-Year College, (a fantastic journal I must say) is now winging its way through the mail. Those of you who are members of NCTE and TYCA national already know that your journal arrives four times each year, but did you know that you can also access the journal through the TETYC pages on the NCTE website?

TETYC editor Jeff Sommers shares his passion for two-year college faculty sharing their knowledge with each other in his opening editorial. He writes,” I remain convinced that good teachers open the doors to their classrooms to welcome in other teachers and to share what the have learned….. TETYC has served me as a trusted resource for thinking about and thinking through my teaching, and, for the next five years, I am committed to making sure that it continues to do so for all its readers. I encourage you to open the door to your classroom by contributing to our ongoing conversation. My job is to hold those doors open.”

Submission guidelines are located just inside the front cover on each issue of TETYC, and you can also read them online here.

Restructuring our Professional Identity

I just finished re-reading Jeff Andelora’s award winning article in TETYC, “The Teacher/Scholar: Reconstructing Our Professional Identity in Two-Year Colleges”. It was originally published in March of 2005, and if you have a subscription you can access it through the TETYC website. Though I thought I knew quite a bit about the history of English faculty at the two-year college, I continue to be informed by Jeff’s article.

I especially appreciate his emphasis of the call for two-year college instructors to be both teachers and scholars. He writes “If we don’t transcend our institutional culture and take part in the discourse of our discipline, there’s little hope of attaining professional parity.” Yes, I have a significant teaching load (15 contact hours per week, about 100 students a quarter), I have committee work (2 standing committees and usually 2 or 3 more short term committees), I have around 20 advisees, I participate in formal assessment and departmental program review,….. you know the drill. What I didn’t understand until recently is that if I do not write about my classroom, my profession, my growth as a scholar, I am, as John Lovas used to say, “invisible.”

Does it take effort? Yes. But the rewards of writing for publication in TETYC, and other relevant journals far outweigh the complications. Even when I write an article which is not accepted, the act of putting my thoughts into the work, of reading the relevant work of other scholars, and of being a writing teacher who writes is worth every bit of time I can find.

Can I write multiple articles each year? Heavens no. I try to write one article for submission each year. That is a good goal for me because I can fit the work into the space I have.

Keep Paying Attention

According to an article in Inside Higher Ed, the U.S. Department of Education may be planning to make regulatory changes before the final report is even received. The changes are proposed in grants and the accreditation process. This causes me some concern since the final version of the report has not yet been submitted, nor has it been commented on by various stake holders in higher education.

It is too early to know just what these changes are, or might be, but the context of these actions suggests that community colleges need to continue to pay attention.

Regional Conferences Coming Soon

Wow - summer has flown by, and once again it is time to meet with friends and colleagues at the regional TYCA conferences. You can see a full list of conferences at the NCTE page.

The regional conferences will be held throughout October in numerous states: Oregon, Utah, Texas, Missouri, and Rhode Island. The Southeast Region will be meeting in Florida in February.

What can you expect? Speakers from your region will share pedagogy, strategies, and expertise. You can connect with professors who work in community colleges, current graduate students, and professors from transfer colleges who focus on students in their first two years of higher education. An officer from National TYCA will share cross region trends and resources, as well as providing access to NCTE materials relevant to our members. Awards for exemplary work in your region will be presented, and a keynote speaker who will be available to get to know throughout the conference add to the experience.

So plan to go!