Sorry about the formatting! 

 

Spring 2014 Syllabi:    Eng 204          Eng 102 Campus         Eng 102 Online        Eng 94        

 

Professional Self Reflection

Holly Bailey-Hofmann, February 2014

 

Interpersonal Priorities:

With my students, my goals are to be fun, fair, respectful, professional, transparent with grading, and provide an open, nurturing, safe learning environment.

With my colleagues and in general, my goals are to be professional, encouraging, receptive, collaborative, and teachable (open to new ideas).

Teaching Goals:

Goal 1. Teach per the course outline of record,                    

               and perform my contractual obligations.

·       It sounds basic, but I like to make sure I am teaching what I am supposed to be teaching, so I actually always look it up on the course outline. Also, I give a syllabus and a schedule of assignments the first day of class, if not earlier (by email), and I distribute revised schedules as necessary, so students know when stuff is due, and how they will be graded. I also keep my contractually obligated office hours. I fulfill all my faculty obligations such as submitting grades on time, completing flex, etc. 

·       I stay current in my discipline, especially MLA updates! 

·       I dialogue about methods, texts, activities, etc. with colleagues in my division, in other divisions, across the district, and across the country.

·       I assess the effectiveness of my curriculae on an on-going basis. Long before I began participation in SLO assessment, I have always independently assessed each course’s effectiveness by archiving representative student work, passing out course evaluation forms to my students querying them about the texts and activities they found helped them the most.

·       I use all available current technologies to enhance the class, like digital projection in the classroom, video clips, overhead note-taking in Word that gets uploaded to Etudes, and a supplemental Etudes shell for every class as a resource (no small amount of effort goes into that). 

English 102 students prepare a class presentation as a way to review for the final.

 Goal 2. Connect students to the world. 

·      provide socio-historical context (and whenever possible, music, video,    

       Powerpoints, or art!) to contextualize the works we are reading

·       show writing’s practical applications in the professional fields they will 

        enter

A.     I ask them their majors and give them specific examples.

B.     As applicable, I show my own writing, describe my own process, as an example of revision, peer review, etc. (It’s really fun to show them early drafts of West Guide chapters!)

C.     I originally designed the Student Project Showcase to teach students the skill of academic/professional poster presentation they might need in the workplace or in transfer institutions.

·       connect them whenever possible with current research in the subject

A.     I have had guest speakers in English 103 every semester for the last 5 years,  always graduate students, or recent Ph.D.s and Ed.D.s, to speak about their research and connect it to the students’ own class research project. I always ask the speakers to talk about their metholodogies.

ABD Daniel Olmos, UC Santa Barbara; ABD Jerry Flores*, UC Santa Barbara; ABD Rachel Tapia, UC Santa Barbara;  ABD Nichole Garcia, UCLA; Dr. Celena Alcala, USC. 

B.     Students read these speakers’ research whenever possible, if it relates to our class text, not only to experience scholarly writing, but to create a link between the writing/research I am asking them to do, and the writing/research that is currently being done in the Academy.

1.     For example, every semester I use Angela Davis’s book Are Prisons 
        Obsolete in my English 103 class, students also read Jerry Flores’ 
        article* about girls in prisons, recently published by Routledge Press, 
        whether or not he is the speaker that semester.

2.     Eng 185 students read scientific research articles written by their  
        STEM professors, write about it, and ask them questions about their 
        research choices and methodologies.

                                     C.    I make students do a primary research project/essay in English 103 

                                             (Composition and Critical Thinking). Here is a video that one group 

                                             produced for their class presentation. (There are some misspellings on 

                                             the video, but a video was not even required!) This video features 

                                             college president Abu-Ghazaleh!)

 

·       make connections to other classes/disciplines on campus whenever possible, either through inter-disciplinary collaboration with my peers, or peers as guest speakers, or both.

·       I designed English 185, a science writing class, at the request of the Science division chair, Abraha Bahta. I corresponded with several scientists and engineers working now to get their input on “pet peeves in science writing” which helped me design the course, and which I shared with students.

·       My Eng 185 students are required to share their papers with their STEM subject mentors and work those instructors’ discipline-specific feedback into their meta-writings.

·       I am collaborating with Jack Ruebensaal to connect English 204 with the Global Studies Program-- Jack Ruebensaal will be guest lecturing on Chinese civilization in one of my 204 classes in which we analyze Chinese vernacular literature.

·       Whenever possible, I incentivize students, usually in my lit classes, to attend local readings, such as the Wanda Coleman reading at the WLAC Cultural Arts Extravaganza some years ago, the Derek Jensen reading at USC, and any local reading I hear about that relates to our material.

·       Spring 2014, I will holding a Saturday haiku reading in the Japanese Garden at Kenneth Hahn park for Eng 102, 204 students and their children.

·       Summer 2013, Winter 2014, and forward, my English 28 classes read texts about recycling, and get a presentation from Mr. Bruce Hicks, WLAC Operations Manager, and a field trip up to the West Recycling Plant behind MSB (pictured below).

English 28 students see recycling up close!

  Goal 3. Empower students for success in all classes.

I send pre-semester emails to enrolled students with syllabus and text info; I use the early-alert notices in the SIS; I teach test-taking and in-class essay techniques, I give tips for effective study and work completion, I encourage peer study groups, I collaborate with DSPS, the tutoring center, and the Writing Center to accommodate students in every possible way, follow former students’ progress through the sequence in my colleagues’ classes, connect them with counselors, refer them to resources, etc. I make it a point to say "when you transfer" instead of "if you transfer."

•       Several semesters in English 21 I have opened class the first day with prior English 21 grads talking about their projects to encourage and welcome students to (a sometimes stigmatized) basic skills class.

•       Every time I teach English 21, 28, or 101, students learn how to take an in-class essay exam, and then take one credit/no credit (so it is low stakes). We have a chapter in the West Guide specifically about in-class essay exam strategies that prepares them. During the essay exam, I walk around and coach students through the experience. After the experience, they complete a meta-writing to immediately reflect on the experience. I talk about how they will need to apply this skill even for non-English classes, as for the exams of Prof. Siever and Prof. Ruebensaal, among others.

•       I joined division colleagues Clare Norris and Kathy Boutry in designing and writing a composition text, The West Guide to Writing, which students can use in every class we teach, 21, 28, 101, 102, 103, 94, saving them a huge amount of money. The West Guide includes the most essential MLA and APA citation guidelines to save students buying an expensive MLA manual. 

•       When I give students assignments, I also give them examples of exactly what I expect them to do. I don't just give them assignments and hope they figure it out. 

Goal 4. Use creativity to make each class a transformative 

             experience.

A.     On Election Day, Nov, 8, 2012, my English 103 students, who had just completed primary research projects on subjects related to the political process, web-cammed via class volunteers with voters outside Starbucks about the voting day experience—and it was the students’ idea!

B.     My Spring 2013 English 101 class, which read the book One Amazing Thing, threw a end-of-semester food party called “One Amazing Food” where each student brought a food native to his/her homeland—among us, we represented 13 countries of origin! 

C.     My Fall 2013 English 103 students, having just read Peter Singer’s compelling book The Life You Can Save (about how those in the first world should give more to those in need to help) had the idea to donate money as a class to the heifer.org charity organization. Together we donated a llama to a needy family in Peru!

D.    In English 102 classes, I often stage a “press conference” with the antagonist of a class text, such as Lolita’s Humbert Humbert, or Six Degrees of Separation’s  Paul. Students must play all the parts in this scenario, attorneys for both prosecution and defense, legal teams, witnesses, judge and jury. This gives them a fun, revealing way to inhabit the text and shows me what they have learned and how they can apply it!

E.      In English 102, I take students outside on one of the days we analyze poems, either to the library roof with an ocean view, or around the globe outside CE, to enjoy poetry and nature at the same time.

F.    To embrace and celebrate L.A.’s wonderful diversity, I always do a count, with each new

group of students, of how many countries we represent. I encourage students to bring their unique ethnic/national/etc. experiences into every conversation so we can all benefit from so many perspectives. When possible, we celebrate our diversity in a food celebration at the last class.

G.     When reading literature in translation, such as poems, I always ask for volunteers to read portions of the work in its original so we can experience it as it was “meant” to be experienced. This is always magical.

It’s not a teaching goal, but I have also used my creativity to try to transform our division into a friendlier place to work, both for full-timers and adjuncts.

·       I initiated celebration of division birthdays, with a “Happy Birthday” banner we hang on the person’s office door, and birthday cake!

·       I coordinated the “import” of the Great Writers posters from the old building for use in our GC suites, and had them hung.

·       I furnished mail slots for internal use in our kitchen and our adjunct room; they are 
        very handy.

·       I organize gift baskets when someone in our division has a loss, or celebration.

·       I keep the adjunct room staffed with supplies out of my own budget, in order to “give back” (since I was an adjunct once myself!)

·       I have decorated our division lobby with brochures about campus services. 

·       I initiated the teambuilding activity of doing a puzzle in our division kitchen, an idea I got from Academic Affairs.

I won’t go into all my committee work…suffice it to say, I’m a workaholic!