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FYC Instructor Policies

Conditions of Employment Contact Information Update your contact information, photo, and office hours at http://fyc.usf.edu/Lists/Staff/AllItems.aspx. If not uploaded by the second week of classes, please send all materials and information to the Community Manager via email. You are expected to post and hold regularly-scheduled office hours each week. If you teach 1 or 2 courses, post and hold three (3) hours of regularly-scheduled office hours each week. If you teach 3 or more courses, post and hold five (5) office hours per week. Use your USF email whenever conducting USF business and conducting correspondence with students, faculty, and university committees. (Be aware that USF email may be delayed when it is transferred to Yahoo, Gmail, or other Internet mail accounts.) Be sure to check your USF email account at least three times a week on different days and respond to student inquiries within 72 hours. Do not email grades to students unless you are emailing to a USF email account. Teach our curriculum as described at the fyc.usf.edu site for First-Year Composition. Be sure to follow the general pace of the sample detailed schedule for the model/section/course you are teaching. If your schedule gets delayed for some reason, you may get a note from the FYC program administrators. Use My Reviewers to grade and provide feedback on the intermediate and final drafts of Projects 1, 2, and 3 in ENC 1101 and 1102. At a minimum for intermediate drafts use the My Reviewers document markup tools and/or Common Comments, rubric score sheet, and endnote. Students also deserve feedback on their final papers. Exemplary papers may require only an end note, but all other graded papers should include an end comment that specifies what areas a student needs to consider as s/he continues on to the next writing project or in the case of the final paper in the course, how the student might continue to improve as a writer. Moreover, areas that are addressed in the end comments should have an
Updated: January 19, 2013

Office Hours

USF Email

Curriculum

Grading

accompanying in-text comment (e.g. sticky note) that helps the writer to make connections. If your grading schedule falls behind, you may get a note from the FYC program administrators. Instructors must require students to conduct at least two peer reviews on My Reviewers for intermediate drafts (Projects 1, 2, and 3 in ENC 1101, and Projects 1, 2, and 3 in ENC 1102). Students should utilize My Reviewers markup tools, Common Comments, and endnote features. Return assignment and project grades within one week and no more than ten days. Blackboard should be used to record students grades and attendance. Update the Blackboard Gradebook at least twice per month. At midterm and finals, you need to submit e-grades to the Registrars Office (this will be completed through Blackboard). A significant number of major assignments must be graded before mid-term (usually Week Nine of the semester). Respond to each project three (3) times (a response to an early draft might be done verbally in class or during a conference, but intermediate and final projects require written response via My Reviewers). The grade of I (Incomplete) will be given for only very compelling reasons. Assigning a student the grade of I for ENC 1101 or II must be approved by the instructor and the Director of Composition. For more information, refer to the USF Undergraduate Catalogs I Grade Policy: http://www.ugs.usf.edu/catalogs/catdl.htm. Conferences FYC instructors must hold a minimum of two 15- to 20-minute conferences with each student during the semester. The first conference must be held prior to the semester withdrawal deadline. You may cancel class meetings during each conference period, but cancel no more than three hours of classes/set of conferences. When you cancel classes to hold conferences, assign additional course work such as readings or online peer reviews. In the course of a semester, you may cancel no more than two weeks of classes for student conferences.

Updated: January 19, 2013

Collaborative model teachers must notify the English office of their small group meeting schedules and locations and alert the office of any changes in schedule/location. Class Cancellation Frequent class cancellations will handicap your ability to complete the required curriculum and will affect your students and undercut your professionalism. More than one consecutive cancelled class must be approved by Dr. Dianne Donnelly (ddonnelly@usf.edu). Contact the English department front desk when you cancel/miss a class or office hours or if your office location changes. Classes that are cancelled on the day of class (regardless of reason) are considered a missed day, a cancellation. This cancellation applies to situations where a teacher might email students on the same day of class to give them an alternate out-of-class assignment. Note: This cancellation policy does not include classes cancelled for conferences. FERPA FERPA guidelines state that astudent has aright to privacyof his or her education record. As such,students' records areconfidential. FERPAguidelines prohibitteachers from discussing the status of a student/students' record with parentsor others.Pleasereviewthe FERPA guidelines in the USF Handbook (page 44-45 "Student Records Policy) You may respond to documents that are published in public spaces and students may do likewise; however, you may not publish grades or evaluations in public spaces (e.g. the open Internet as opposed to gated Internet sites like Blackboard or our Rubric tool). It is acceptable and professional to discuss grades with the Athletic Office because student athletes have signed a FERPA waiver. Do not display graded student papers with names via computer projection system (or transparency). First-Week Writing Assignment Ask students to hand-write an assessment essay to verify if students are writing appropriately for college level. Please contact Dr. Dianne Donnelly (ddonnelly@usf.edu) with any student writing concerns.

Updated: January 19, 2013

First-Day Attendance Policy

According to USFs policy on the first day of class, you must take roll using Blackboard and select the names of students who are not present. To account for late arrivals, please wait until the end of class to finalize the attendance. Student may only drop/add a course through OASIS. Instructors do not have the ability to increase the cap or register students. Students should register with OASIS, not the English department.

Classroom Policies Agreement

Ensure that all students sign and date the Classroom Policies Agreement during the first week of classes. The Classroom Policies Agreement can be found at the ENC 1101 and 1102 home pages (fyc.usf.edu) under 1101 Documents and 1102 Documents. Keep these copies on file for the semester. During the first week of classes, review the plagiarism policies (http://fyc.usf.edu/Policies/Plagiarism%20Main.aspx) with your students and have them complete the Plagiarism Quiz (under ENC 1101 and 1102 Secondary Assignments on FYC site). Have students complete a teacher evaluation during class, preferably in the last week of the semester. You should receive the evaluation forms in your department mailbox near the end of the semester. Feedback is an integral part of how our FYC program continues to better its practices. One consistent method of retrieving both student and teacher feedback is through the use of surveys. Several times per semester (e.g., after orientation; mid-semester; end of the semester) you will be asked to 1) complete instructor surveys on your teaching experiences and 2) have your own students complete surveys at equally regular intervals. These surveys must be completed by the date specified. As celebrating student success is an integral part of our FYC program, all instructors are encouraged to participate in student success events, including Student Success Week and Rhetoric in Action Day. In addition, instructors may nominate student papers for a Bullitzer Prize (please see the Student Success website for more information: http://fyc.usf.edu/studentsuccess/SitePages/Home.aspx). The FYC program strongly suggests that instructors constantly strive to maintain professional personae that positively reflect USF, the FYC program, and its constituents. As such, "friending (on Facebook or
Updated: January 19, 2013

Plagiarism

Teacher Evaluations

Surveys

Student Success

Social Media Position

similar networking sites) students during the semester is not permitted. We strongly encourage you to be careful and professional in all of your professional online work. General Practices ID Get a USF ID card. For more information visit http://www.it.usf.edu/services/usfcard. Log into Blackboard at my.usf.edu using your USF Net ID. Under Courses You Are Teaching, you will see a Blackboard site automatically created for each of your classes. USF populates the roster for your class and the grading tool is easy to use and much appreciated by students. If you do not see your class once you login, this may mean the course has not been associated to your name in the university OASIS Banner system. NOTE: A wealth of information is available online about using Blackboard. Our IT department maintains an instructional wiki with instructions on using popular Blackboard applications (http://wiki.it.usf.edu/index.php/Category:MyUSF) and a blog with updated news on Blackboard (http://myusfnews.it.usf.edu/wordpress/). The official Blackboard documentation is also available online (http://tinyurl.com/bbmanual), as is a series of video tutorials created by Blackboard: (www.blackboard.com/quicktutorials/quicktutorials.htm). If you have any problems with your office computer, contact Deedra Hickman via email (dhickman@usf.edu), email the Helpdesk (http://it.usf.edu/help/) or you can call the Helpdesk at 813-974-1222 or 866-974-1222. Contacting the Helpdesk first could take about a week for response, so you need to find out if you have any computer problems as quickly as possible. See Deedra Hickman for your office assignment. Space is limited and all efforts will be made to give everyone a space. Sometimes instructors teach in other buildings, so do not assume that your office will be located in Cooper Hall or near your classes. You will not receive an office key in your department mailbox. The key shop usually sends a postcard that arrives in your box announcing that your key is ready for pickup; however, in many cases, no postcard will arrive. If you do not receive your postcard after a week, call the key shop at 813-974-2845. If you do not pick up your key within 30 days, the order
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Blackboard

Office Computer

Office Location

Office Key

will be cancelled; as a result, the Department Chair will need to sign a new order for your key. Office Sharing The FYC Program depends on you to work out desk space and office sharing among yourselves. We expect you to consult with your office mates concerning which desk should be yours and when to schedule office hours or conference times so that you can have space for meeting students. Remember that your office is not your home, and we expect you to be professional and neat. Cleaning up your own messes and limiting your personal items will ensure that everyone is comfortable. To dial a number within the Tampa campus, dial 4 + the four-number extension. Most adjunct and TA offices do not have voice mail. Please be sure to give your students an alternate way of contacting you. Students should only leave messages at the front desk in an emergency; otherwise they should contact you via phone or email. If you do have voicemail, you can access it by calling 4-2100 or 4-1300. Please visit your classroom before classes begin. If there are general problems with the classroom contact Nancy Morriss (nmorriss@usf.edu). If you have technical problems contact the Helpdesk (http://it.usf.edu/help/ or 813-974-1222). Check the Class Schedule at http://www.registrar.usf.edu/ssearch/search/php before your class starts. Room changes are often made as late as the day before your class starts. Nearly all ENC classes are held in hybrid rooms. If your classroom is locked and you need to visit it to check your equipment, contact Deedra Hickman if your class is in Cooper Hall or the Physical Plant; if your classroom is another building, then call 813-974-2845. To schedule a Library Orientation for your class(es), fill out the online reservation form at http://www.lib.usf.edu/services/forms/instruction-session-request/. Also take advantage of other library services and the 1101/1102 guides (http://guides.lib.usf.edu/enc1101 and http://guides.lib.usf.edu/enc1102). Ask Questions If at any time you need assistance, please remember to ask Joe Moxley (moxley@usf.edu), Dianne Donnelly (ddonnelly@usf.edu), Megan McIntyre (mmmcint2@mail.usf.edu), and staff (located in the FYC suite in Cooper Hall).
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Office Phone

Classrooms

Library Instruction

By signing and dating below, you agree to all of the above policies. Full name: __________________________________ Date:____________________ Signature: ___________________________________

Updated: January 19, 2013

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