Part-Time Faculty Loads

Did you know that the new contract between PFF and the District has revised the language regarding part-time faculty loads?

The old contract has this article (on p. 4 of this linked file):

4.1.9 A part-time faculty member’s assignment may include day, evening and/or weekend work, and work at more than one (1) location. The assignment is determined by the Dean, or first level educational administrator to whom the faculty member reports, in consultation with the Department Chair and with reasonable input by the faculty member. There shall be no rule or arbitrary practice that prevents any part-time faculty from receiving an average of a sixty percent (60%) load. In no instance will a part-time faculty member be allowed to exceed sixty percent (60%) of a full-time teaching load during a single academic year.

The new contact, on the other hand, has Article 4.1.11, which is on p. 3 and p. 4 of this linked file. The revised language contains these critical changes:

1. No load can exceed 67% in any single semester.
   
2. Any single-semester load exceeding 60% requires a one-year temporary contract.
   
3. A load exceeding 60% in a single semester must load-average to be no more than 60% for the academic year.
   
4. Over 3 academic years, only 2 semesters can exceed 60%.

As dept. chair, I have been instructed to examine part-time faculty loads that fall into these categories and make adjustments now.

The implementation of our new contract in this regard may cause problems for both the impacted faculty and the departments that have adjunct faculty who regularly teach above 60% one semester and below 60% the next to average out at 60% for the year.

One thing that remains unclear to me is whether or not the newly passed AB 591 state legislation would necessitate a renegotiation of Article 4.1.11 of our new contract. The new state law redefines a part-time community college instructor as teaching no more than 67%, as opposed to the existing 60% threshold.

Collocations: Important But Neglected?

In my opinion and experience, even when grammar is mastered by an ESL learner, expression continues to be a challenge. How can an ESL learner express his or her ideas in a more idiomatic way? What words go with what other words in American English?

Our curriculum typically gives more attention to teaching grammar and the four language skills than to teaching collocates. What then would be an effective way to raise student awareness of English "word friends," besides correcting them one instance at a time? For example, most Spanish-speaking students use "put attention in...," translating directly from their native tongue. Is there a good way to impress upon them that saying "pay attention to" is more idiomatic than "put attention in"?

Concordance programs are basically searching tools to run through a text data base and show the KWIC (key word in context). Here's one such concordancer online: http://www.lextutor.ca/concordancers/concord_e.html. So if you have your students type "put attention" in the "keyword(s)" box and then select a corpus, say "Brown's one million words" before hitting the yellow "Get concordance" button, they will see that there is no such combination. Repeat the same for "pay attention" as keywords, and they will see at least a couple examples pop up.

A better way to have the students discover the collocates would be for them to just input "attention" as the keyword and then try to find out what verb most typically goes with "attention" in English.

There are other ways to use concordances to teach English. This article, though written to advertise an $85, good concordancer called MonoConc, provides a couple suggestions.

Another free online concordance program with three English corpora--two American and one British--is here at http://view.byu.edu/.

I know in our dept., Lynne Henson, Gary Sosa, and Tracy Fung have been using concordancers in their teaching. I would like to hear them and other colleagues share their specific methods.

San Marcos PM Teachers Held Event

The afternoon and evening teachers of San Marcos met for their annual summer potluck from 2 to 6 p.m. today at Carlsbad Inn Beach Resort, thanks to a generous arrangement by Angela, who owns a timeshare at the resort.

All but three colleagues in the two General ESL Programs were able to make it. Several brought their family members. As always, the event provided the colleagues with an opportunity to get to know each other better. With the relaxing atmosphere, the scenic location this time, and the delicious dishes everyone brought to share, a good time was had by all.

Call for Presenters

This year's San Diego Regional CATESOL Conference will be at SDSU on Sat. Oct. 18. The conference theme is "Literacy for Life." If you would like to share ideas, lessons, research, and materials for developing literacy skills, please consider presenting them at the conference. Go to http://www.catesol.org/regional.html to read more details and to submit a proposal online. The deadline for submission is Sept. 8. Summer may actually be an ideal time to get your presentation proposal ready.

Summer Salute

I always admire our students as I watch them filing into class, most freshly showered, nicely clothed, and ready to go. They give me energy. When I'm tired and feel as if I've practically had to drag myself to class, I look at them. I know they've been working all day, too. Or - worse yet - I know they have to leave my class at 9:20p and go to work! I don't know where they get their energy from, but I'm grateful they unwittingly share it with me.

Given that our students come to us in the midst of a busy schedule, juggling work and school and family and all the other responsibilities, it is no wonder to me that so many drop out. Year after year, semester after semester, I see it happen. And I never know what to do.

This summer I started with 35 students. I had a few no shows, so I added six students the first week and one this. I've had several not show up again this week. So, even though the roster is up to 40 now, there are only about 35 that I'm expecting. Of them, 5 people were absent yesterday. And five the day before.

What can I do?

On Lee's message board, he has asked us to survey our students to find out how they found us, and I think that's a great idea. Indeed, I'm (still) working on my MBA thesis built around a survey we did last summer. The research question is: How can we better reach the population of ESL students? In class, though, I have a different question: How can I keep the students who've already found us? How can I keep the students I have? I think it's the more difficult query.

For some, being in this country is a real life and death issue. We know this. Financially, I believe many are just making ends meet and often doing so by living in conditions we wouldn't consider. Emotionally, I'm sure many are simply stealing themselves to continue everyday, so far from family and friends and all they hold dear. I personally couldn't do it.

My grandmother left her home off the west coast of Africa pregnant, with three little kids, to join a husband somewhere on the west coast of America. She sailed into Boston and made the trip across country on a train with three little kids and a baby. My aunt Carol was born on the crossing. My mother was born here a few years later.

Growing up, I had no idea I was from an "immigrant" family. We lived closer to my Dad's family and they figured they were from Texas. Period. It wasn't until I was studying to become an ESL teacher that I inquired of my mother about her native language. She took me by surprise when she got upset, "I speak English!" I pushed. Your mother spoke Portuguese. That must have been your cradle language. She cut me off.

Clearly growing up in an immigrant family had not been easy for her. I'd known that somehow. Her dark skin made life in Lily White Lakewood tough. I knew that though she never spoke of it. Many great talks were to follow that initial question. And I came to know of the sacrifices.

That was then. This is now. And like every immigrant before them, our students are making sacrifices. In this case, they sacrifice to come to class four nights a week, week in and week out. So, I try to tell them how proud I am of them. I try to explain that I understand what courage it takes, what effort is required. I try.

I wish I could do more.

As talk of yet more FENCING along the border continues, I want them to know that I am glad they are here, that I wish coming here were an easier thing, and that I have faith in them. I wish we'd build more bridges and less fences because I trust them to succeed like countless before them. And on the eve of our Independence Day, I salute them.

An OHP Survey

Apparently, the Blogger poll to the right does not quite work. So here is my new try. Hope it works this time.

Opinion Polls & Market Research