“The first grade norming session is Tuesday, February 12 from 3:30-4:30 in CN 118. All composition teachers are encouraged to attend. With new placement procedures, we need to ensure that we are maintaining our standards. Grading workshops help us to do so. During the week before, you will receive several essays and the assignment sheet from which the students worked. Please read and evaluate the essays and bring your copies with you on the 12th.”
A writing center orientation takes about 40 minutes and gives students so much useful information about getting help on campus– when they can use it, early in the semester, if you schedule your orientation soon. Plus, Emily’s presentation was lively, and I think my students actually rather enjoyed it. And, you can ask her to discuss the language center, also, if you think your students need help on the sentence level. Finally, as if all of this wasn’t reward enough, it’s 40 minutes of class time in which you can enjoy letting someone else teach while you sit back and listen.
– Kristina Kunkel
A message from Emily Miller:
The Reading and Writing Center has been bustling with students and orientations and we love it. Please consider scheduling an orientation for your classes. Our data has shown that over 95% of students that visit the visit the Center return to the Center, and they are often our best advocates, as 95% recommend the Center to their friends and classmates. 
Check your email for the orientation request form link. You may bring your class to the center, or we will come to your classroom. I will be in touch shortly after receiving your request.
Hope to see everyone at the spring welcome back meeting January 8, 2013 from 6:30-8:00 p.m. in CN 117. Adjuncts are also invited to attend the Provost’s welcome back meeting from 3:30-5:30 in the CE Forum.
Power Up Your Pedagogy Conference(PUP)
The Eighth Annual Power Up your Pedagogy (PUP) Conference remains OPEN FOR REGISTRATION
January 9th and 10th on the Annandale Campus
A Writing Center Update From Emily Miller:
This is a busy time for us, and during the final days of the semester, our 1:1 appointments book up approximately two days in advance.
BUT! The Center is open for students to visit as a place to study, ask questions, and use educational software–software that provides activities for all stages of the writing process.
Specific information regarding the Center’s missions and services we offer can be accessed at our website:
Looking toward next semester, we are also available for class introductions and presentations regarding the services provided by the Center.
Language and Literature’s annual holiday potluck luncheon is Wednesday, December 5 in the President’s Dining Room in CE from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Come before, after, or in-between classes.
English 111/ ENF 3 workshop is today, 11/8, at 3:00 pm in CT 314.
Two sessions: Tuesday, Oct 16 from 2:30-3:30 or Wed. Oct. 24 from 3-4. This workshop will address grading issues and will include a sharing of grading goals and strategies as well as grading rubrics. RSVP to Katherine Gekker by Friday, October 12 at noon if you’re 75% or more sure you might be coming.
Word has it that classroom projector light bulbs are burning out too often from being left on overnight. From an environmental perspective, I’d like to add a here a plug for turning off not only projectors, but also student computers and overhead lights. When you’re done teaching in a room on campus, you might be the last person in that room for hours or even days. The electricity that is feeding those lights and equipment comes from a factory somewhere out there, a factory that is churning out emissions contributing to air pollution.
Hence, turning off equipment when you leave actually reduces not only energy used, but air pollution as well.
Additionally, hitting the off switch on student computers if you’re in a lab saves a ton of energy, prevents power surges in case of crazy weather, and makes the air quality in the labs so much less rubbery for the next class. I try to leave the rooms on campus the way I would leave my home if I were going to be away for a few days. After all, we spend enough time in those classrooms to call them a second home, right?
– Kristina Kunkel