In-service

I promised in my last post to post a bit about my in-service session at BCCC. First off, I'd like to say that I have few complaints about the way BCCC handles in-service. They hold in on an evening during the week between summer session and the fall semester, which allows most, though not all, to attend, even if they have another job. (BCMU holds theirs during the day, the week before *their* fall term starts. And since their fall term always starts the week before BCCC's, I have a choice of missing in-service or missing the first or second day of my own classes at BCCC. I've never been to a BCMU in-service). Second, recognizing that some people will still not be able to make it (people who teach summer session often like to schedule a short vacation during the week off, and of course some people's other jobs are in the evening), so attendance is encouraged but not mandatory. I generally RSVP, "I don't know, I'd like to get out of town if I can afford it, but I don't know...." and then end up showing up anyway. No one has ever given me grief about this). Thirdly, recognizing that many people will come to in-service straight from work at another job, and also that others may benefit from some light encouragement to attend, they give us dinner. The dinner is always a fairly good catered buffet, with salad, bread, soft drinks, dessert, and a couple of main-dish options. This time they had pasta with beef tips in a red sauce, baked fish of some kind, and chicken cooked with almonds and grapes, along with potatoes and two vegetables. It's free, perfectly edible, and all-you-can-eat.

The first part of the event is the worst, a half hour of speechifying from main campus administrators. I managed to miss it this time, owing to genuine confusion over when the thing actually started. (The schedule of events includes a half-hour window for "check in," (in other words, picking up your name tag), a half hour for speeches, and then the dinner.) I wanted to get there at the end of the check-in period, but instead got there at the end of the speeches. Sad for me. Had I heard the speeches, I probably would have something to complain about--I remember at the last one, the college president said something about "thanking you for helping us teach our students"--where "you" is the faculty, and "us" is the administration. Somehow, no one else at my table caught what a ridiculous an offensive statement this was, until I pointed it out to them. The same president also pointed out how we are the only college in the immediate area without a union, and that contributes to the sense of "collegiality." Uh, yeah. Okay.

So anyway, I missed the speeches, and we had the dinner. The theme for the table decorations was golf, which, given how much (read: little) we are paid struck a false note as far as I was concerned, but I'm not going to quibble about it. I met two new English teachers--one, an older man, had taught at other regional colleges before, and the other teaches at the local high school. Both seem nice, and I was able to catch them up on things like how to get their class roster off the web.

Then we went to breakout sessions by department/division. (English is actually the only department that gets its own, because we're always the biggest group once you fold in ESL and Reading). The session was mostly about what to put on your syllabus, which was useful for the two new people, although not for the rest of us. One weirdness happened when the department chair alerted us that there was new boilerpate we were supposed to put on the Freshman Writing syllabus--the college had changed the old "Course Objectives" to a new set of "Learning outcomes." Mild flurry of distress from everyone who had already made and copied their syllabi. I muddied the waters by asking if there was any difference between a "course objective" and a "learning outcome." (The short answer is, no.)

Last event of the day was the breakout sessions. They give us three or four sessions to pick from--the only catch is that you have to pick, ahead of time, by session title, and it's hard to tell from the titles whether a given session is going to be worthwhile. I've been to several that were complete wastes of time. This time I went to "Keeping students on course with feedback." In that session, I learned that in Rocket Science, feedback is communication between a space vehicle and ground control, and it's very helpful because out there in space, the people in the rocket can't tell if they're heading where they want to go or not. Interesting metaphor, but I'm not sure I learned much about giving students feedback on work. We talked about how feedback should be frequent, timely, and specific--was there anyone there who didn't already know those things? I kinda doubt it.

So, in summation, BCCC inservice is relatively painless, and there is free food.