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Golden Gate Bridge Campus
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| In
this issue |
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From the Chair |
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Glory
& Applause |
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• Hansen, Hemingway, and Steinbeck
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In the
English Department |
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• Exclusive holiday party pics |
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• News from the Labs |
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Did You Know? |
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Technology Tip of the Month |
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english@ccsf.edu
basicskillsenglish@ccsf.edu
cyberia@ccsf.edu
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60.2
(Oct./Nov. '05)
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60.1
(Sep. '05) |
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59.7
(May '05) |
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59.6
(April '05) |
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59.5
(Feb '05) |
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59.4
(Dec. '04) |
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59.3
(Oct./Nov. '04) |
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59.2
(Sep. '04) |
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A major contribution to the study of 19th-century literature was made
Monday with the handing-in of "Silas Marner: Paper #1" by Lori Durst, a
student at the University of Connecticut.
Read
more and revise your lecture notes!
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In the
mood
for a
little
holiday
music?
Try here
or
perhaps here
or
maybe here
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from the chair
From John
Batty-Sylvan, department chair:
Happy
holidays and thanks for all of your hard work this semester. I'll look
forward to seeing you as the new semester starts on FLEX Day, Friday,
Jan. 13th at 10:30 am in Science 100. Our extended meeting,
12:30–2:00 pm, will be an opportunity for level coordinators and
the eligibility coordinator to meet with instructors, answer questions,
and prepare for the upcoming semester. Of course, there are also
additional FLEX activites planned across campus, and I hope you'll take
the time to look through your FLEX Day packet at all of the offerings.
Best wishes for a prosperous new year!
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Barbara Scrafford finally has
Batty-Sylvan right where she wants him -- in the kitchen.
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glory
& applause
From Carol
Hansen:
Carol Hansen will be presenting a paper titled "The New Man in
Hemingway and Steinbeck" at the Steinbeck and his Contemporaries
conference to be held in Sun Valley, Idaho from March 22-26, 2006.
She'll be presenting on March 23rd on a panel with Stephen George,
chair of the conference.
From Publius:
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Greetings
from the
Holiday Party at Barbara and Don's House!
Thanks
to Barbara and
Don!
Thanks
to the Bill McGuire Set-up/Clean-up Crew--working without Carol Fregly!
Of
course, the favorite English Department holiday party tradition is the
Annual Purse Contest. This year's theme, as voted on by the
Personnel and Curriculum Committees, is based on the California dream
of shopping without sales tax. In other words--the American dream
of New Jersey, the Garden State.
More specifically--The Paramus Mall.
And here are your three nominees in the English Department of City
College
of San Francisco Holiday Party "Paramus Mall" Purse Contest 2005:
Please phone in or email your vote to John Batty-Sylvan, Department
Chair, English Department, before 6 am, December 20. |
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From the English
Department lab elves:
| New
this spring! |
Faculty
reading tutors at the Reading Lab! |
New lab verification forms!
New Cyberia Activity Form! And CYBERLAB! |
And
don't forget that the Reading Lab's computers are online and have
Inspiration. |
| Weekly
student reading groups! |
Koret
links with whole-class lab time! |
Lab faculty training and lab student orientations! |
Lab
coordinators on massive doses of Kava Kava! |
From
Cindy Slates & Alisa
Messer, Writing Lab co-coordinators:
Peer Tutors STILL Wanted for Spring
As in the past, the Writing Lab is
enlisting your help in recruiting new tutors for the Spring 2006
semester. If you have students who are doing well in your 1A, 1B,
or 40 class and who work well with their classmates, would you take a
moment to encourage them to come talk to us about tutoring in the
Writing Lab? Copy of an informational flyer are on hand in the
English Dept, and students may also contact us directly in the Lab or
at cslates@ccsf.edu/452-7095
(Cindy Slates) or amesser@ccsf.edu/452-5552
(Alisa Messer). Thank you for all your great referrals in the past and
for continuing to help us find enthusiastic students who would like
this opportunity to help their peers (and to improve their own
writing).
| back
to top |
From Julie Young and your humble lab boy:
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Basing their applications
on Manel-Grangaard’s
findings regarding off-task behavior and
physiological response to physical classroom environment, the Cyberia
team conducted a highly controlled study on the relationship between
color of window coverings to sentence-level errors (see Chart A1).
While the study is
still under peer review, early reports indicate a startling drop in the
number of fragments and comma splices since the shift from brown to
blue craft paper on the window (see photo).
Not everyone’s
convinced
it’s a good idea, however. Jessica
Brown, English Eligibility Coordinator, had this to say:
“We
just can’t coddle our students with unnecessary high-tech
blue interventions
like this. What will happen when they get into the real world and
there’s no one to design a pleasant workspace for
them?”
Speech instructor Michelle Gorthy conveyed a similar sentiment
during a rally organized by her young anarchists: "Paper? Who the
hell needs paper to write?"
Meredith Rose, however, felt inspired by the blue paper taped to the
windows, adding, "Let's put everything on the windows, the computers,
the chairs. Gravity's just another capitalist myth. Our students
need sunlight."
H. Brown Miller, Daniel Brown, and Eleanor Brown declined to comment,
citing conflicts
of interest. Herb Green also declined to comment.
Chart A1
| Frequency of Error |
October 2005 (brown paper) |
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November 2005 (blue paper) |
| 100% |
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| 80% |
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| 60% |
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| 40% |
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| 20% |
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| Type of Error |
splice |
fragment |
dangler |
|
splice |
fragment |
dangler |
Physiological and
intellectual response to blue craft paper on Cyberia's windows
(10/05-11/05, CCSF)
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But what about the students?
One
anonymous English 90 student claimed that the shift from brown to blue
paper has not only alleviated her depression, it has finally cured her
confusion over it's versus its. An English 9 student has sworn
that her reading speed has increased 20% since the shift to blue.
However, one English 92 student had a more negative reaction.
"Now my writing stank--and I keep getting sinus headaches.
I
used to get A's in high school, but not no more. Maybe you should
install new
blinds." Bob Gabriner's research and development team
will be conducting further studies on the Cyberia environment and
reporting back to the department. Please note that current
learning outcomes do not take into account the impact of Cyberia's new
sign (see photo), a potential ethos enhancer, or the effects of the HAL
9000
screensaver (see photo) on electron rate in the medulla oblongata.
Those studies, funded by the Carnegie grant, will be conducted
during spring 2006. |
February is National Black History Month
Will it be a part of your
spring syllabus? Perhaps you'd like to encourage students to join the
17th National African American Read-In with over one million other
readers. More information and recommended reading lists are available
at http://www.ncte.org/prog/readin/107901.htm
Finally! Philosophical proof
that procrastination is, well, functional
Favorite
time-wasters
Surnamed dorkiness. Francophilia memetics.
Unspecialized metalheads. Whimsicalities wideawakeness. What do
they all have in common? They're GoogleWhacks.
Find your own--if you can.
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technology tip
of the month
From Randy, Cyberia's
main man
 |
The
Randy Tip of
the Month: Gifts for the Holidays
First of all Happy Holidays--even though it's already Hanukkah 365 nights a
year in Cyberia. Well, except on Purim. Here's my holiday tip:
don't keep your menorah on a laptop or a Palm Pilot. Go with a classic
mainframe, like my old IBM. It's all about balance, man, as long
as you keep the punch cards away from the flames.
Well,
that's one of my holiday tips, man. My real tip of the month,
however, has to do with the gift of lab integration, which you can
prepare over the semester break and then give to your students next
term.
1)
Understand what is in the labs and assign or suggest specific
tasks for them to do, tasks that clearly relate to what you are doing
in class at that time.
2)
Integrate suggested or required lab tasks right into your course
calendar, and if you can, take advantage of your CCSF Web space and
post your course calendar online--with hot links; you'll blow your
students' minds, man. They'll take your syllabus and links everywhere!
3)
Bring
your students to the labs for orientations or at least give them a lab
scavenger hunt or have someone from the labs go to your class.
So, happy holidays, and remember,
the
gift of lab-classroom iintegration is the gift that keeps on giving . .
. , man.
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