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To: ESL Department Faculty

Fr: Toni Randall, Chair

Welcome to Fall 2011!

Below is information you should be aware of. Please refer to the ESL Dept Faculty Handbook for details regarding other college and departmental policies.

Course Outlines & Syllabi: Course outlines and syllabi for all your classes should be submitted electronically to both the department secretary and the chairno later than the first Friday of the semester. They must include the date/time of your final exam! See the class schedule for that information. Syllabi/course outlines for core courses (10G/W, 11A/B, 21A/B) should be submitted to the department secretary, chair, and the course coordinator. They should be posted on eCompanion as well. The college requires that instructors distribute hardcopies of these documents to students even though they are available online. Instructors are encouraged to confer with the course coordinator and/ortheir colleagues when creating their syllabi.

Course outlines/syllabi should include:

  • the course description (from the course outline of record)
  • any prerequisites/advisories
  • required texts and other materialsincluding ISBN’s (if scantron answer sheets are required, instructorsmust alert students to buy them because the ESL office does not store large numbers of them)
  • the course objectives and SLO’s
  • methods of presentation
  • methods of evaluation
  • grading scale
  • course content
  • absence and tardy policy
  • behavior policy
  • contact information (instructor’s office hours/location and email address);
  • overview of assignments
  • policy on cheating
  • a request for medical condition information.

Thesyllabus should also include:

  • dates of tests, quizzes, and major writing assignments
  • the date and time of the final exam. Instructors must hold the final exam on the date and time posted in the SMC Schedule of Classes.

Course outlines must clearly indicate how students’ grades are calculated. All instructors MUST use eCompanion to post their students’ grades and syllabus. Rubrics and other scoring tools should be distributed and explained to students BEFORE they complete their assignments. Instructors teaching the same course are expected to use identicalrubrics and norm/grade with their colleagues when possible.

Course Coordinators: ESL 10G/W – Janet Harclerode

ESL 11A – Melody Nightingale

ESL 11B – John Hoover

ESL 21A – Emily Lodmer

ESL 21B – Sharon Jaffe & Judy Marasco

Support/Online Courses – Toni Randall

Class Roster: Instructors must go to their online rosters and print them out. From the SMC homepage, go to “Faculty and Staff” > “Class Roster/Staff ISIS” > log on with your SMC network account information. Activate eCompanion for each of your classes so that rosters are transferred over.

Diagnostic Testing & Moving Students: Instructors teaching core courses administer a common diagnostic test during the first week of classes. These should be reviewed immediately to identifystudents who may have been misplaced. Before you suggest any changes to the student, confer with the chair, who will review the diagnostic test results with the course coordinator. If the chair agrees, you may recommend to the student that he/she take a different course. Note that you may only recommend to a student that he/she move; you may NOT insist upon it. If the student agrees, DO NOT drop him/her from your course yet. First, in consultation with the chair and/or colleagues, identify an alternate class that the student may enroll in. The student will drop the class at the same time he/she adds the new one. Remember that such changes MUST be made no later than the end of the second week of classes. After that date, students will be (re)charged tuition to enroll in the new class. You may view a student’s placement history by going to the class roster, clicking on the student’s name, and then clicking on “placement history.” Remember that ALL information about the student is private and may not be shared with other parties (accd to FERPA regulations).

Adding/Dropping: CAP for core writing courses is 25 and 35 for support courses. Add codes are provided on your online class roster page. Students may be dropped at the same site. If an add code doesn’t work, give the student another one, but if he/she is still unable to enroll, send him/her to the counseling office because there may be a problem with the student’s account. It is strongly recommended that you NOT distribute add codes until the end of the first week of classes in order to remain aware of the actual number of students enrolled. Remember that students may self-enroll until midnight before the second class session, so you may encounter newly self-enrolled students the second class meeting. An enrolled student who does not attend during the first week of classes may be dropped. It is recommended that you not drop such students until the end of the first week to allow for special circumstances that may have kept them from campus (parking problems, late flights, emergencies). All students attending a class after the first week MUST be properly enrolled (for insurance purposes), so check the online rosters frequently. Instructors are responsible for keeping accurate attendance records. If you wish to drop a non-attending student later in the semester, it is advisable to email that student first. Remember that F1-visa students MUST carry 12 units. Dropped students may be reinstated at the instructor’s discretion by giving them a “reinstate” code. Instructors teaching combo 8-week courses (i.e. 11A/B, 21A/B) will need to enroll thestudents wishing to attend the second8-week course by issuing add codes to them the first day of that class.

Wait Lists: If there are enough international students waiting to add a closed course, the college MAY be willing to open a new (contract ed) section. Those students should report their need to the International Counseling office. If you have more waiting students than open spaces in your class, you should conduct a “lottery” to determine which of the waiting students will be added.

Credit/No Credit: Students may apply to receive C/NC rather than a grade, but they must do so directly to the Admissions office no later than the 4th week of the regular semester. This is the student’s responsibility, not the instructor’s, and you will not know whether or not a student has chosen this option until after final grades have been submitted. Advise students who inquire about this option to speak with their counselor before choosing it as it may have implications for those wishing to transfer to other institutions. Instructors should fill out their final grades with letter grades; the ISIS system will convert them to C/NC afterwards as appropriate.

Office Hours: Part-time instructors are paid for and must hold 30 minutes of office hours per 3 hours of teaching/week. 3 hours of teaching per week = 30 minutes of office hours. 6 hours of teaching per week = 60 minutes of office hours; 9 hours of teaching per week = 90 minutes of office hours. You must inform the chair, no later than the end of the first week of classes, when and where you plan to meet with your students. Full-time instructors are responsible for holding 4 office hours/week, scheduled over at least 3 days/week. Any given office hour should be no less than 30 minutes long and may not begin or end less than 10 minutes before or after your class time. It is possible to fulfill a portion of your office hours online AFTER consultation with and agreement of the chair. Usually, this is an arrangement limited to online instructors.Holding office hours during activity hour (T/TH 11:15-12:35) is discouraged but may be necessary. LV125-126 is reserved for part-time instructor office hours.

Flex Time: All instructors are paid for additional non-teaching hours, termed flextime. For example, a part-time instructor who teaches 6 hours per semester is responsible for fulfilling 6 hours total of flextime within that semester. Full-time instructors are responsible for fulfilling 24 hours of flex time per semester. These forms should be available online.

Homepages & Email: The college provides each faculty member with a homepage (using FrontPage) and SMC network account (aka ISIS). Faculty should check their SMC email accounts frequently. Important information from the department, students, and the college is sent via SMC email. Even if an instructor has a homepage, he/she must use eCompanionto post students’ grades and basic class information e.g. syllabus and instructor’s contact information. You may link eCompanion to your homepage. In addition, instructors’ SMC email and homepages are linked from the ESL website. It is important that homepages be kept current! To use eCompanion, you must first go to your class roster and “activate” the eCompanion feature for each class you teach. This will automatically fill the class roster in eCompanion. To access eCompanion, from the SMC site go through your ISIS page for the link. Log on to the eCompanion site with your Lastname–Firstname (e.g. Doe-Jane) and password: 4-digit birth month and day (e.g. April 20 = 0420). There is an eCompanion instructor tutorial for those wishing to learn more about its features.

Absences: Absences must be reported to the chair, and an absence form (available from the secretary) must be completed ASAP. If you are ill, you should call the department secretary (310-434-4260) or the chair (310-434-4882). If you are unable to speak with either (are sent to voicemail), you should call the SMC Police (310-434-4300) and ask them to post a notice on your classroom door. If possible, you should email your students (via eCompanion) as well. The chair is responsible for assigning a substitute. If you are ill, a substitute will be paid for all 3-hour classes and for the SECOND consecutively missed 1hr 20min class. The college will also pay a substitute in order for the instructor to complete jury duty, observe religious holidays, or attend to personal emergencies. There are NO paid substitutes for conference attendance. Remember, for ANY absence, you MUST immediately notify the chair and complete the necessary form.

Reprographics (Media Center): (310-434-4828) Instructors should use their SMC network accounts to send electronic docs through Digital StoreFront (linked on your ISIS page). Send them 24 hours in advance of pickup. You may scan hardcopies from the copy machine located in the ESL office or at the Media Ctr, or you may make copies on them (limit is 500 copies/semester). Please do not habitually make multiple copies on the ESL office copy machine. It is meant for last-minute emergencies or a small number of copies.

Multimedia in the ESL bldg, LA243, and BUS101: BUS101 is the only smart classroom assigned to the ESL Dept. Instructors scheduled to teach in that room must make arrangements to be trained on the equipment in order to receive a key to it. Contact Steve Levine () in the MediaCenter or attend one of the workshops offered. Multimedia carts(housed in ESL116) are available to instructors teaching in the ESL building, and LA243 includes one as well (you must obtain a padlock key from the chair in order to use the LA243 cart). In addition, there are two doc read cameras available in ESL116. DO NOT allow students to operate any of the equipment, and DO NOT unplug any of the equipment housed in classrooms. If you need an extension cord, ask the secretary.

ESL Office: The department secretary is in M-Th 12:30p.m. – 3:00p.m. and Fri 7:30a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Her primary duties are to field questions from students and maintain the office and equipment. The secretary is NOT responsible for acting as a liaison between the instructor and his/her students. Students should contact their instructor directly during office hours or via email for course information and to report their absences. Instructors are responsible for informing their students of these policies and providing them with appropriate contact information. A student may leave a written message for his/her instructor at the main office; it should include both the student’s name and the instructor’s name and will be placed in the instructor’s mailbox. There is a mail slot on the faculty workroom door (ESL116) into which students may place work or notes for their instructors.

Tutoring: The ESL Department tutors are available (in ESL120-121) for ESL students across campus. Students should schedule their appointments online (there is a link from the ESL Dept homepage). The department secretary will show students who are not familiar with the system how to do this. Note that tutors do not proofread or edit student papers. They may assist students with specific errors or concerns in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and grammar. Tutors do not review “personal statements” for admission to other colleges or universities. Remind your students that they will lose their privileges if they miss appointments without cancelling them first (also online). Faculty MAY NOT REQUIRE students to visit tutors or offer them extra credit for doing so because we cannot accommodate large numbers and such a policy could disadvantage a student who is not able to set aside time outside of class for this activity. Inform your students that they MUST show their I.D. at the time of their appointment. Any questions about tutoring should be directed to Janet Harclerode, who supervises the tutoring program.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me (x4882; ; ESL107), and have a great semester!