“[Becoming an artist] is a total risk of everything, of you and who you think you are, who you think you’d like to be, where you think you’d like to go—everything, and this forever.” -James Baldwin, “The Artist’s Struggle for Integrity,” 1962    Last week was Union Week on our campus, one of 25 colleges in the City University of New York (CUNY) system, a large urban university system. Our union, the Professional Staff Congress (PFC), representing full-time and part-time faculty and staff at the 25 colleges, is negotiating for a new contract amid the many challenges faced by higher education. The Union Week Embroidery Project, an individual artistic project aiming to take a stand, is intended to highlight the needs of our campus with the understanding that all students deserve the right to a fully funded higher education, in clean and sustainable facilities.  Some of the 25 campuses are housed in former office buildings surrounded by highrises, concrete, and glass. They are close to the subway and in some ways indistinguishable from the surrounding city. In contrast, the campus where I teach is almost bucolic, with many trees and open green lawns where students gather on warm days. Geographically, the campus remains part of the city, but is located close to the suburbs and two miles from the subway.  Nevertheless, the physical plants at many of the campuses, including where I work, suffer from years of underfunding and subsequent neglect. Signs of disrepair are hiding in plain sight, with one instance late last year, of interruption to in-person classes. In spring semester 2023 and again this fall, returning to in-person teaching in the continued wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, I could not help but notice the worsening conditions on campus. The Union Week Embroidery Project finds inspiration from James Baldwin’s writing on the risks and responsibilities of becoming an artist, which are akin to the risks and responsibilities of the work of higher education. As the union works to negotiate a new contract, together we draw attention to the need to bear witness to the consequences of the deteriorating conditions around us–there is too much at stake to ignore.  In becoming aware of the consequences and intervening in the current situation, perhaps we can bring into being a hope that is so often absent these days, hope that our students and future generations of students can pursue a meaningful education, and, as a result, give back to a world that must continue to offer opportunities to flourish and grow.   Embroidered banner for Union Week: NO CUTS PSC CUNY   Danger Keep Out   No Trespassing   Yellow Post with Rusted Chain   Untended Air Conditioner with Dandelion     Timeworn Classroom Baseboard   Bulletin Board with Staples, Paper Scraps, and Graffiti. Graffiti Text: "Cliche➡ You go to my head, [you linger like a haunting refrain] ⬅ that’s good"   Portrait of the artist with glasses, black hoodie and black mask against blue skies and green trees   “I support the union because all of us must have opportunities to grow and flourish together in solidarity.” Sign by S. Bernstein black letters on rainbow-colored background   Notes and Credits The Union Week Embroidery Project was made for City University of New York's PSC CUNY (Professional Staff Congress) Union Week, which can be found on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/psc_qc/    The banner and sign are provided by PSC CUNY. The embroidery and other multimedia work is my own. A video for the Union Week Embroidery Project is available here: https://youtu.be/-vkWVmBTPEo  ... View more

As much as I miss teaching face-to-face, online learning has its own rewards, for both students and teachers. One of the many challenges in teaching online is remaining mindful of students’ needs even as students’ faces and voices are often not available to us.    For guidance in this endeavor, I turned to Beth Hewlett’s essay “Anyone Can Teach an Online Writing Course” (see Bad Ideas about Writing pages 356-362). Hewlett suggests that one of the primary most important practices is “to think differently—less linearly and more three-dimensionally” (359). Because of the affordances of my neurodiversity, I have practiced three-dimensional thinking for most of my life.  For me, three-dimensional thinking requires thinking outside the box and detaching from “best practices” that are not necessarily best for everyone on the other side of the screen. Hewlett explains:   online teachers must understand both the legal and moral requirements of equal access as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. They must be able to understand how to use digital tools to enhance learning for students with physical disabilities, emotional challenges, learning differences, multilingual abilities, and varied socioeconomic backgrounds. These are learned, not inherent, digital teaching skills (Bad Ideas about Writing 359).   While Hewlett’s essay was published before the pandemic began, the requirements she describes have become even more dire. As suggested by a recent ACT study, in Spring 2020,  two-thirds of students struggled with the transition to online learning and “one-third of first-year students reported frequent troubles with an unreliable computer and 21 percent said they had unpredictable or no access to the internet” (Inside Higher Education August 25, 2021). While Zoom creates an additional burden on wifi and unreliable computers, the problems of inequitable access to wifi, technology, and quiet places to study were at issue long before the pandemic.    Before the pandemic, students struggled with balancing work, school, and family responsibilities. Then, as now, it was hard to find quiet places outside of the classroom to complete homework. Equitable access to food, housing, and healthcare also were at issue before the pandemic, exacerbated by national disasters and international catastrophes. In other words, the pandemic is more than a temporary inconvenience, and teaching online is not necessarily a contingency plan.     Indeed, the New York Times reports that “Even just knowing that online classes are an option can help students with disabilities by assuring them that there is a safety net.” This safety net is also a literal lifeline for teachers with disabilities. In advocating for ourselves, we are also advocating for our students, creating awareness and honoring, rather than merely performing, a deep care for human diversity that offers alternative forms for facilitating learning. In beginning a third semester of fully remote teaching on Zoom (of course), in my Bits posts this Fall I want to consider what the glitches were and how I might revise them.  I start with the first glitch: Zoom itself.   Problem: In face-to-face classes at the college where I teach, we met 1 hour and fifty-five minutes long, two days a week, with part of that hour devoted to small group work. However, Zoom is exhausting for people with and without neurodiversities, and it cannot replace the rapport and familiarity of face-to-face teaching.    Rethinking it: The first revision was to reduce Zoom time to one day a week. With less Zoom time, I hope to make our meetings more engaging and worthwhile for students. Nevertheless, with fewer hours on Zoom, students might need more guidance for self-paced learning.    Revisions:  ZOOM TIME: Zoom time is used to explain assignments, to ask questions, and to write together. Writing together allows students to practice what they must do away from Zoom, and to ask questions and concerns in real time.  BEYOND THE CHAT BOX: For questions and concerns, beyond the Zoom chat box, I also include a Google Doc Q&A for addressing issues large and small, and trying out ideas. Google Docs work especially well for students with anxiety and other neuro diversities, and also for students whose video conferencing access is less than optimal because of background distractions and privacy issues. Students can access and add to the Google Doc Q&A after class and during asynchronous office hours as questions occur to them. GROUP CHAT: Students initiated a group chat to support each other in a student-centered space away from Zoom.      Problem: The syllabus was incredibly long and unwieldy, which made it difficult to find significant information about readings, assignments, and due dates.   Rethinking it:  In the late 1980s, when I began teaching, there was no internet and our syllabi were often only 2-3 pages. While not nostalgic for the late twentieth century, I wanted to combine the most useful elements of a shorter syllabus with the affordances of the internet.   Revision:  SELF-PACED LEARNING GUIDE: I familiarized myself with pacing guides, learning maps, and unit planners. This CDC handout for health education was particularly helpful. The Guide is color coded to the assignment sheets, and breaks the main features of the syllabus calendar into two pages (three major writing assignments and journals). The guide helps make the key features of the course more visual and offers major components of the course in one convenient handout.  Following is the template I used for the Self-Paced Learning Guide.   First-Year Writing Self-Paced Learning Guide. Changes announced in advance of due dates Assignment Sources Requirements Goals DEADLINES Writing Project 1: Presents the WHAT of Writing Project 1 with a link to the assignment sheet   Content warning for materials with which students will be engaged Link to a sample student essay Links to the readings and other sources on which the writing project is based  Explanation of nuts and bolts: page length, style guide requirements, and use of sources Presents the WHY of Writing Project 1, briefly explaining how the writing project is connected to course goals Draft Due Date Suggested Due Date Extended Due Date*  *Offering extensions in advance allows students to time and space to revise their work   Writing Project 2:   Follows the same pattern as Writing Project 1 Follows the same pattern as Writing Project 1   Follows the same pattern as Writing Project 1 Follows the same pattern as Writing Project 1 Follows the same pattern as Writing Project 1 with draft, suggested, and extended due dates   Journals: Link to the Slides and videos that explain what journals are and how journals are used in the class  Follows the same pattern as Writing Project 1  Follows the same pattern as Writing Project 1   Follows the same pattern as Writing Project 1   Offers critical links to support students reaching their goals for the course Follows the same pattern as Writing Project 1 with draft, suggested, and extended due dates   Offers interim suggested due dates so that students can plan how many entries students will write for each unit in the course ... 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Today's video concludes the "What We've Learned" video series, which brought to you Macmillan Composition, Literature, and Business and Technical Writing authors' reflections on teaching in the pandemic, teaching online, and how they've adapted their pedagogies. We hope you have found these videos useful, and if you missed any of them, just search for the tag "what we've learned." In today's video, Heather Sellers (@heather_sellers), author of The Practice of Creative Writing, discusses creating nonjudgmental workshops for students, as a way to transition from an evaluative mindset to a growth mindset. This takes a different kind of close reading, a lot of student thinking, and an understanding that a piece of writing can be missing specific elements without being "wrong."    ... View more

In today's "What We've Learned" video, Heather Sellers (@heather_sellers), author of The Practice of Creative Writing, discusses the unique structure of an online course, equating creating an intentional online course to structuring a short story or a poem.  ... View more

Today's "What We've Learned" video features Stuart Selber, one of the author's of Technical Communication, on thinking of online environments as models of technical documents, showing the type of technical communication that is asked of from students. ... View more

In today's "What We've Learned" video, Stuart Selber, one of the authors of Technical Communication, reflects on the challenges of being present and available for students in online environments, and creating channels for interacting with and providing feedback to students. ... View more

In today's "What We've Learned" video, David Starkey (@davidstarkey), author of upcoming first edition Hello Writer, emphasizes the importance of following up with students who might be dropping off the radar and of giving feedback to all students, even those who are already engaged.  ... View more

In today's "What We've Learned" video, David Starkey (@davidstarkey), author of upcoming first edition Hello Writer, reflects on teaching in small, 2-3 minute chunks and the necessity of focusing on the most important information to communicate to students, as well as the surprising opportunities offered by the pandemic for reflection, mindfulness, and equity mindsets. ... View more

In today's "What We've Learned" video, Quentin Miller, author of The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature and Literature to Go, reflects on taking advantage of the opportunities presented by technology to broaden the types of assignment and engagement available to students.    ... View more

Today's "What We've Learned" video features Quentin Miller, author of The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature and Literature to Go, on being conscious of the type of requests instructors make of students in online learning, and the resilience shown both instructors and students.   ... View more

In today's "What We've Learned" video, Elizabeth Kleinfeld, one of the authors of The Bedford Book of Genres, talks about engaging students by offering them control of their assignments and outcomes, as well as reflecting on the changes in student-proposed assignments since the move to online instruction.   ... View more

In today's "What We've Learned" video, Amy Braziller, one of the authors of The Bedford Book of Genres, discusses the awkwardness of randomly dropping into breakout rooms during groupwork in online courses - an action that feels much more intrusive than moving from group to group in in-person classes, and proposes a potential solution: shared Google Docs, to allow the instructor to look in on the notes from student discussions.   ... View more

Today's "What We've Learned" video, features Amy Braziller, one of the authors of The Bedford Book of Genres, on the difficulty of connecting to students through the computer screen, and on when and how to ask students to help by turning on their cameras.  ... View more

In today's "What We've Learned" video, Elizabeth Kleinfeld, one of the authors of The Bedford Book of Genres, discusses taking advantage of the chat feature during online synchronous classes. With so much focus on adapting teaching techniques from in-person to online, she additionally reflects on how to bring this online feature into in-person instruction.   ... View more

In today's "What We've Learned" video, Nancy Sommers (@nancy_sommers), author of Writer's Reference, Rules for Writers with 2020 APA Update, Pocket Style Manual, and Bedford Handbook with 2020 APA Update, discusses how handbooks provide a shared language for instructors and students to discuss student writing and writing concepts.  ... View more