Welcome Back, Inclement Weather!

I don't know if you've noticed, but it's snowing outside.

 

I'm sure your students have noticed. I'm sure the four students who were missing from my 9:30 a.m. English 102 will use it as an excuse for missing the first class of the semester, even though the snow didn't really become snow out here until about 11 a.m. As of noon today, the college has officially cancelled activities after 5 p.m. -- and those students with evening classes aren't worried, anyway, because evening classes don't begin at SCCC until next week.

 

How did I know about the cancellation of activities after 5 p.m., you might ask? The SCCC homepage. THEN, because I'm on campus, I received a voicemail message from the President's office. If you're not in the office yet you can also check with News Channel 12 if, for some reason, you can't check the SCCC page -- but I have a feeling that if you can't check one, you're probably not going to be able to check the other, either.

 

This post isn't about finding out about cancellations, anyway. It's about what to do once your ambitious course schedule for the semester -- the one you agonized over during the break, the one you balanced down to the minute -- becomes ferkockteh and you find yourself fermisht.

 

If classes are cancelled at SCCC -- or if you find yourself forced to cancel classes on your own because of illness , etc. -- or if you're non-teaching faculty and it isn't a classroom schedule that's disrupted but rather a project -- try to take a deep breath and remember that deadlines can and should be flexible.

 

For teaching faculty, I think we worry sometimes about making sure we cover enough material. We worry that if we have cancelled classes, we won't be able to fulfill our obligations to our students and SCCC within the time remaining.

 

One way to help yourself adjust or revise your course outline after a cancellation is to revisit the course description and learning outcomes as established by the college for your courses. Technically, we're all required to include these course descriptions and learning outcomes in our course outlines, but if you weren't aware of that requirement, don't worry -- you can begin including them next semester.

 

Where might you find these course descriptions and learning outcomes? Here, under Academics on the SCCC web site. Enter in the course number, and you'll be given a link to a document that looks something like this:

 

Stunning, isn't it?

 

These syllabi are part of a recent undertaking on the part of the College (spurred by the Middle States commission) to centralize and make available the syllabi for all of the courses offered at our institution. Their creation means this: the college course syllabus is a syllabus -- NOT the paper that you hand to your students on the first day of class. I know -- shocker, right? Rather, the description of your course as you teach it -- complete with your schedule of assignments and classroom policies -- is considered a COURSE OUTLINE.

 

On a related note, were you aware that your course should not list objectives? Because objectives are things that one intends to attain. OUTCOMES are definitive end results -- and even though you have no control over variables such as your students' intelligence or their individual work ethics -- if a student completes the course (READ: "Complete" equals a grade of D or higher), in the language of the course syllabus, "students WILL BE ABLE TO . . . "

 

No matter who they are. No matter how smart they are. No matter how good of a student he or she turns out to be.

 

Oh, the English Language! We. Have. Fun.

 

Anyway, pet peeves such as GroupThink and Institutional Language aside, it is useful for our students to see that a course being taught by several different instructors across three different campuses will have commonalities. It also helps when they try to transfer credits they earned here to  four-year institutions.

 

So . . . back to keeping your Grand Semester Plan chugging along! I find that these course syllabi are useful to instructors, too, particularly when you find yourself short on time and long on material to cover. The syllabi act as good reminders: there are very particular aims for each course, and those aims as detailed by the college rarely include specific material. As long as you can ensure that your students have met, in some way, each of the outlined outcomes, you've met your obligations as an instructor.

 

Do we meet our obligations more thoroughly and more efficiently some semesters? Sure. But that's the ebb and flow of an academic's life.

 

And I guess that's my point. Your career, and our students' education, occur within the context of lives. We all know that our students aren't going to die or suffer or become impoverished because they don't get to read Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. In fact, some English majors can go their entire academic careers without ever reading it. (*Cough* RIGHT HERE *Cough*) So don't worry too much over whether or not you get to accomplish all of the brilliant lectures and group discussions and writing assignments you laid out before your students when the semester was bright and shiny and new. Your students will think of your class as bright and shiny even when it's no longer new to them if you remember to relax, breathe, and allow some flexibility in your classroom.

 

OH, and now classes are cancelled as of 3 p.m. today. So some of us will be adjusting those class assignment schedules sooner rather than later . . .

 

* * *

 

p.s. Check out this press release about New Members Meredith Starr and Richard Mack! (Or better yet, go see their show!)

Guest Post: Some Experiences From the Front Line of Battle

by Glenda Denicolo, Ammerman Campus Coordinator, New Member Mentoring Program

 

Editor’s Note:  SKG here! Lest you become weary of hearing from me (and enduring my flagrant abuse of parentheticals and exclamation points), I thought that occasionally I’d mix things up on the blog by bringing new voices to you. I’m especially pleased to announce that our first guest post comes from the Ammerman Campus’ New Member Program Coordinator Glenda Denicolo, who makes me exceedingly jealous by being one of those people who can master the languages of math and science while also excelling at the written word. Enjoy!

 

I was asked to write something about my experiences in the college, and most recently what is on my mind is the “art” of professor-student interaction in class. By no means I intend to tell you what to do in class – we all have our very valuable academic freedom. I just want to share what has worked for me.

Caumsett Hall, Grant Campus

I love stories of war and strategy, so I have this irresistible impulse to use them for comparison. The classroom is not supposed to be an inhospitable place like a battlefield, even though I bet, at some point during the semester, all of us will eventually detect an atmosphere of mutiny in class (for example, after a test). This is first and foremost the battle against lack of sense of responsibility, and ignorance of the rules. These are some of the “strategies” that have helped me ease the tensions in class, and move through the semester much more smoothly and enjoyably with my students.

The most efficient strategy I have adopted soon after I started teaching at SCCC was to write a well tied down course outline. I have improved it over the years, worked on constraining several loopholes students were still able to find, included a disclaimer that contains a pep talk about taking responsibility for their results and grades. Nowadays I even ask my students to sign a slip at the end of the outline attesting they are aware and understand all the information contained in that document. Our department chair says I have a lawyer-proof outline, which I find pretty funny. These well-established “rules of the game”, or “our contract” (!), as sometimes I explicitly refer to it in class, have straightened up the students’ expectations about my class, and calmed down the nerves in general. Of course little reminders need to be administered during the semester, and at strategic moments as well. It works for me.

A website for the class has also proven to be a very important and rather strategic tool. It may be in D2L, or hosted at a college server: I use both. I post a list of relevant books available at the library on reserve; the schedule for our student Help Center; my schedule; link to the Physics Club website; links to other websites pertinent to the class. The grades are posted in D2L, avoiding FERPA issues (otherwise we basically we cannot communicate grades/performance unless face-to-face with students). This tool has been important for my classes. It places the charge on the students again: they are responsible for keeping track of their own progress at all times during the semester.

The next best strategy, I would say, are weekly assignments, which are to be collected and graded. The more feedback a student gets, the better his/her performance. Also, students will have fewer complaints because practice will really help them understand what you want. I am very aware that it can be a lot of material to grade every weekend. I have been using online homework assignments lately, for certain classes. My homework assignments are all about solving problems, so sometimes I roll a die in class, in front of the students, and select only one question to carefully examine and grade, while I make sure students receive the answers and solutions to all other remaining questions as well (this is mostly done in higher level courses, not entry-level classes). There is no easy way out with laboratory reports though; I must read everything.

I was writing this on the weekend of my birthday, which I celebrated with a Sunday brunch. We do not consider ourselves brunch aficionados (ha!), but my husband suggested –as this blog can contain all sorts of information (like the edition of the Underground) to help you adjust to SCCC and surroundings, that I post a list of our top brunch places so far. Hey, a battle soldier needs to rest too! Here is the short list:

• Mirabelle Tavern, Stony Brook
• Danfords Hotel, Port Jefferson
• Lombardi’s on the Sound, Port Jefferson
• Windows on the Lake, Lake Ronkonkoma
• Cooperage Inn, Baiting Hollow (for this and the next: thank you, Chris Scott!)
• The Milleridge, Hicksville