Last week, after I checked my email, got a snack, took a walk, used the bathroom, and cleaned out my backpack, I took my grading-avoidance to a new level: I made an appointment for my yearly mammogram.

I wish I could say I started grading after that. I did not.

The new and improved adjunct review

If you’re like me, you always want to give a refund to the students who experience your first semester teaching, the first time you teach a new assignment, the first time you use a new textbook (BYU, you may be contacted by my current students). First times = lots of growth opportunities.

Which brings me to the first adjunct faculty annual review we did last winter semester. The University Writing team, captained by Amy Williams and assisted by Meridith Reed, learned a lot from both participating in the review process and listening to our feedback about the review. Then they went to work with Sam Dunn, Tyler Gardner, Brian Jackson, Shannon Stimpson, and me on crafting a new, more helpful review.

So what’s the new review all about? Come find out next Friday (December 15) at 11 am in B032 JFSB when UW presents the new and improved Adjunct Faculty Annual Review!

Don’t panic if you can’t make it: I’ll send you all the information you need later that day!

We are curators and curates

We are curators. We curate readings, assignments, activities for our class. We select and organize artifacts and plan the experiences our students have with them.

We are also “curates”: “a person who is invested with the care or cure of the souls of [our students]” (thank you, Wikipedia).

These two ideas from Senior Associate Dean of Fine Arts and Communications Amy Petersen Jensen’s talk “Becoming New Creatures Again and Again: Fostering Creativity and Spiritual Reasoning” last Friday at GE’s Inspiring Teaching series got me thinking about teaching in new ways. I hope they do the same for you.

The WRTG 150 contest

One of the worst parts about teaching writing is that most of our students never get the opportunity to share their writing with people outside of the classroom: the real world.

That’s where the WRTG 150 contest steps in—students can submit their writing in one, two, or all three categories, and winners will get to read their writing to an audience at the English Symposium. (Please encourage your winter-semester students to attend the WRTG 150 winners’ readings! Watch for an email announcing the schedule. I find that extra credit gets quite a few students to attend.)

Your students from winter, spring, summer, and fall 2023 semesters can enter. All entries must be submitted by January 15.

Stuff for your calendar

DECEMBER

December 15: Student Ratings End. All information is good information! (Well, sort of.) Encourage your students to give you feedback! Some of the best changes I’ve made to my class are thanks to student ratings. (Also a few of my most teeth-grinding moments are also thanks to student ratings. Que sera, sera!)

December 15: Launch of the new and improved Adjunct Faculty Annual Review @ 11 am in B032 JFSB! Come come come! (We hope to have Zoom running, and we plan to send an email out with all the information you need. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Amy Williams!)

December 15: Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all adjunct faculty. For unto 6 days the semester ends, which is December 14. And this shall be a sign unto you: on December 15 ye shall find lunch in 4087 JFSB at noon, laying upon the tables with your colleagues gathered round, saying, “Glory to the end of the semester, and peace, good will toward our students. (Well, most of them.)”

December 15: Last day to sign up to read Verified along with your fellow adjunct faculty for the winter semester edition of the Adjunct Faculty Book Club. Please sign up right now (or by 11:59 am on December 15). I plan to let Juli Todd know how many books to order after the semester lunch!

December 29: Grades DUE by noon. Make your Christmas bright by submitting your grades by December 20!

JANUARY

January 5: Fall 2023 Student Ratings are available! May we all get helpful information!

January 9: Winter Semester 2024 starts. May you show up for your classes!

January 11: Application for CCC DUE by noon! Want to attend the 4C’s? Complete an application by noon today. (Need an application? Contact UW’s Jen Lindsey.) Remember, BYU will pay for your travel out of your travel stipend.

January 15: All English symposium and WRTG 150 submissions are due!

January 16: Add/Drop Deadline. Your class rolls are set!

FEBRUARY

February 13: Treat Yo’Self to a Professional Development Book! This is just a reminder that you can spend your $200 professional stipend all 2024 long.

MARCH

March 7–8: The English Symposium. Check out its awesome new website!

March 18–22: Adjunct Faculty Book Club Lunch. Sometime during this week we’ll meet to chat about Verified over lunch. For those of you who signed up, keep an eye out for an email to vote for the best day and time to meet.

March 28: Student Ratings Start! Encourage your students to complete ratings for all of their classes, but especially yours.

APRIL

April 3: Withdrawal Deadline. Use the week before this date to have the a-W-is-better-than-a-F conversation with your students who have many absences and/or are failing. You’ll be grateful you did.

April 18: The Adjunct Faculty Biennial Conference! One of the best days of the year! Great presentations with new ideas and strategies! Please consider presenting! And please come! Your teaching lamp will be refilled! Keep an eye on your email for more information.

April 18: The Adjunct Faculty Award Luncheon! After the biennial conference, we’ll meet for lunch and celebrate all of our good works. Both the conference and the luncheon will take place in the WILK.

April 18: Student Ratings Close. Perhaps request a rating analysis from the Center for Teaching & Learning SCOT program—and go for the big picture: ask them to sort and categorize your last three years of student ratings (don’t worry if you’ve been at BYU that long :).

April 30: Grades DUE by NOON!

Our makeshift website

As I’ve noted before, Ansalee Greenwood, Greyson Gurley, Kelsey Smith, and I are hard at work writing content for our Adjunct Faculty Website (and we are continually surprised at how much stuff we need to cover!). Until this website is up and running, here are links to some helpful Google docs (which you can also find in your “swag” folder that’s sitting in your mailbox right now):

Adjunct Faculty Sunshine Fund

Book and Travel Stipends

How to Train to Teach Other WRTG Courses

Meet Your Course Coordinator

Observation Opportunities—sign up to be observed or find someone to observe!

Syllabus Requirements: I just added another option—the RWC’s official syllabus statement that you’re welcome to customize!

Write NOW!—want to get some of your own writing done? Write NOW! can help!