May 2009 - Summertime News

As the academic year ends for most of us, we look forward to the renewal summer provides, or at least a break from the routines of the past months. I always look forward to reading books on my “want to read” stack and working outside where the only assessment practices I need to consider are whether the garden has enough water.

Summer can also be a time to think about new projects. The two TYCA position statements, Guidelines for the Academic Preparation of English Faculty at Two-Year Colleges (www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Groups/TYCA/TYCAGuidelines.pdf) and Research and Scholarship in the Two-Year College (www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Groups/TYCA/TYCAGuidelines.pdf) have been very important to us since their publication in 2004. Much has happened in those five years in our profession, and with an eye toward the next five years, I feel we need to revisit the texts and bibliographies in order to position them as viable documents of 21st century literacies and teaching practices in the two-year college. Therefore, I plan to constitute two committees composed of members who have an interest and experience in the fields. TYCA members who are interested in serving on a committee for either of these documents should send an email to tyca@ncte.org by June 15, 2009. The first phase of the project will begin this summer.

A second opportunity this summer is to participate in the newly opened NCTE National Gallery on Writing at http://galleryofwriting.org. As you will read on the site, you can submit one piece of writing to an existing gallery or you can become a local partner, which can be any group, including a family, a few good friends, a club or church group, a class, a school, a workplace group, or an entire city who wants to see their work collected together inside the National Gallery. Or you can become a curator of your own local gallery. Browse the National Gallery website, click on the Local Partners Gallery, and consider signing up today as a contributor or a curator, and let’s get writing!

I wish you a wonderful summer…travel safely, find a “good read,” enjoy!

Sandie