Let's begin by sharing ideas for blogs to get a map going for the site. Come up with a list of topics/issues you'd like to (eventually) create posts about and put the list up here.
Once we have a list of topics we are invested in writing about, we'll develop categories to tag our posts under and begin posting.
I'd like to post about...
ReplyDelete1) The multiple identities I/we navigate as a teacher (i.e., identity in front of the whole class vs. with an individual student vs. with fellow STFs vs. with a tenured faculty member) and the implications of such role-switching. Perhaps we could make a category for Teaching & Identity posts?
2) Re-evaluating what makes a "good teacher." This ties in to reconsidering my work and personal life balance as well as reconsidering what my students want from a teacher and what I want, what my students need from a teacher and what I need. Perhaps we could make a category about Work/Life Balance or Defining your Teacher Role or something about Boundaries?
3) Establishing departmental relationships. This has to do with ways of fighting the isolation of teaching as well as reflections on overcoming those invisible lines between STF, tenured faculty, administration, and staff. Potential category: Professional Relationships?
4) Analyzing the daily discourse amongst teachers and why it is so cyclical. Category: Professional Relationships?
5) Distance - between positions, between concentrations within the same department, and between departments. I'd like to consider what purposes these distances serve and how to navigate them. Category: Professional Relationships? I feel like this category may be too broad.
6) Personal reflections on teaching fully online courses for a 2-year college. Category: Delivery of Instruction?
There are a few ideas to get me started but I have more!
We definitely have a lot of overlap in interests, Katie. Here are some of my other ideas:
ReplyDelete1) Tracking where all the time goes and being honest about the necessity of the tasks. I want to attempt to work a 40 hour week and see if it is possible to successfully teach within that confine. It would be interesting if several teachers did this at the same time and share ideas and reflections on when we are being successful teachers and when we are struggling to maintain boundaries. Work/life balance.
2) The value in naming. Does it matter that we are called Special Temporary Faculty? What is lost/gained in the switch from the title of adjunct, especially when we tend to refer to ourselves as adjuncts to the outside world? I agree that Professional Relationships feels too broad. Maybe we separate it out into Professional Relationships and Labor Politics? I don't want discussions about labor to encourage rants, but I do see value in directly discussing how these politics affect us as teachers and individuals.
3)Making space for research. Our jobs don't require us to continue research, and sometimes it seems like we are discouraged from doing so. However, I feel disengaged from this process and am concerned that my teaching suffers from being so disconnected from the strategies that I am supposed to be grading my students on. Where can we find time to fit this in and make it a logical bridge to our teaching rather than a distraction?
4) Self reflections of feedback. I really struggle with student evaluations. I have conflict, confrontation, and criticism I don't know how to interpret. Obviously, I want to stay away from typical responses like "how would they know what good teaching is" and "they just hate me because they got a bad grade." I would rather voice the anxiety involved in the process and the process of navigating through these emotions into more productive ways of thinking.
5)Expectations. How do we manage or expectations for our selves? Our students? Our department? Should we expect certain things from the University/College? From the state? It's easy to get caught up in the myopic expectations and not think beyond our classroom and possibly the department, but our lives, both personal and professional, are impacted by larger discussions we don't always know are even happening.
6) In line with 5, I would like to become more aware of the broader discussions happening on the institution and state level. We could post news stories and press releases (comment on them?) related to what we do to encourage more knowledge and participation in these discussions.
I'm very excited about your ideas! There are many interesting ideas here that I would love to read about and discuss. I really like the idea of posting relevant news stories, also.
DeletePerhaps we should each plan to do one blog post every other week. This way we have time to plan and draft a quality post while still having consistent contributions. You and I could alternate which weeks we post so there is new content each week. I think we should keep the focus on the English Dept. at CSU for the time being - additionally, as we are shaping our purpose & vision with the blog, I think we should also focus on STF. Thoughts?