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Newsletter Archive - Edition 8

Edition 8: May 2022

Maya EsquividoSPOTLIGHT: MAYA ESQUIVIDO
(NOR REL MUK WINTU & HUPA)

PT Lecturer in Art, Humanities, and Social Sciences and Project Coordinator-NEH Grant

Hestum! My name is Maya Esquivido, and I am an enrolled member of the Nor Rel Muk Wintu Nation, Hupa, and Chicana. My tribal people come from present day Northern California, and I am honored to be a guest here on Coast Salish lands. I am a SCC alumnus and going full circle, I have returned after being awarded a Teaching & Curriculum Design Fellowship. As a new part-time professor in the American Ethnic Studies Department, I have been developing curriculum for American Indian and Indigenous Studies. Alongside the Fellowship position, I am the Project Coordinator and a Co-Faculty Lead for the National Endowment of the Humanities Grant to redesign the Humanities curriculum to center Native American histories, culture, and lived realities.

As a first-time instructor, I felt the most successful when I received an email from one of my students stating that I was “making a difference” to her and others who had the opportunity of taking my course. In that same email, she stated, “The ripple of this class is immense, and you may never know the impact of those seeds of knowledge nor where they may take route (sic. root).” She went on to share her frustration with the lack of public transportation access to the Duwamish Longhouse and the “sorry, no destination” message she received after entering the location into the King County Metro destination routes. This barrier was a real-life example of colonialism and Native American eraser, a common theme I covered in class. So, she filed a complaint with King County Metro. Now we get to watch this seed take route and activism in root!

Having the opportunity to work on the NEH Grant, Faculty Learning Community, has been a ‘behind the scenes’ look into the passion and dedication our faculty have with the student’s best interest at heart. The SCC community, students, and faculty is what I enjoy most about our college!

Also In This Edition

Comfy (Un)Conference Banner

Comfy (Un)Conference Info

eLearning and Professional Development are hosting a one-day (un)conference focused on comfort and hearing from our DDLC learning communities on June 3, 9 AM – 4 PM. The conference will include share out sessions from our three learning communities looking at anti-racist teaching, building community and alternative assessment and grading, a Canvas show and tell from faculty, and conversations with our Instructional Designers. All faculty participants and attendees will receive a stipend. Stay tuned for more details including a detailed schedule coming soon.

Faculty Equipment

The District Distance Learning Committee (DDLC) purchased equipment for lending to faculty. Faculty representatives from last year's committee (Alex Tang, Earl Sedlik, Pamela Wilkins, and Karlee Ikebara) sent out a survey to help determine what faculty needed. Based on those survey results and funds available, the committee purchased items and distributed them to the three colleges' eLearning departments for distribution. Each campus has a small collection of equipment for faculty to borrow to support teaching across the modalities. Equipment includes laptops, portable document cameras, digital drawing tablets, clip-on microphones, and portable ring lights.

Our current stock (as of 02/01/2022) at each campus:

NORTH

5 -- DELL LAPTOPS

6 -- WACOM TABLETS

3 -- DOCUMENT CAMERAS (NOT WEBCAMS)

6 -- CLIP-ON MICS (LAPELS)

3 -- RING LIGHTS

CENTRAL

5 -- DELL LAPTOPS

6 -- WACOM TABLETS

6 -- DOCUMENT CAMERAS (NOT WEBCAMS)

6 -- CLIP-ON MICS (LAPELS)

7 -- RING LIGHTS

SOUTH

4 -- DELL LAPTOPS

4 -- WACOM TABLETS

6 -- DOCUMENT CAMERAS (NOT WEBCAMS)

5 -- CLIP-ON MICS (LAPELS)

6 -- RING LIGHTS

Canvas Merge Project Update

In March of 2021, the Presidents and Chancellor made the decision to merge the three eLearning teams. Though merging Canvas has been in discussion for several years, this move to a single team provided the resources necessary to bring the project to fruition.

By combining our three Canvas sites into a single site, we provide

  • A single-entry point for all courses at Seattle Colleges.

  • A reduction of multiple accounts for students and faculty across the colleges.

  • The ability for eLearning to provide faster support to students, faculty, and staff.

  • Greater consistency across student and faculty experiences in Canvas.

For more information, including a video explanation of the whole project and you can prepare please see our new Canvas Merge Project homepage. There you can also request an appointment with our LMS (Learning Management System) Admins to discuss individual situations, submit scenarios for usability testing, and visit our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).

See the project homepage and this newsletter for future updates.

Canvas Updates

In April Canvas released a few minor updates including:

To read more about these and other minor updates please read the April update release notes.

Teaching as Labor

Teaching is labor and is labor that comes with many rewards but also challenges, especially in our current moment. As we recognize another May Day (What is May Day?) we celebrate and recognize the accomplishments of the past and present labor movements that gave us some of the rights we have today, like a 40-hour workweek and basic safety protections. Teaching, however, is unique as we take on many roles when we teach. We are designers of instructional material, we share and deliver content, we grade and provide feedback, we mentor and collaborate with fellow faculty, we care for students and their needs, and so much more daily. Many times, those that teach usually cannot follow the regular 9-5, Monday-Friday schedule, even though we have other life responsibilities and need essential break time. College teaching is also unique in its reliance on contingent labor, especially part-time labor, who might split their time between multiple jobs and institutions.

It is now (and always) important to recognize this labor. From the academic administrative labor of teaching to the emotional labor of teaching, all labor needs to be valued. That recognition must be more than just a nice email or encouraging note, instead, we need to find ways where labor is truly recognized in an authentic way that improves the conditions and lives of those that teach. Colleges cannot be successful without a supported and strong labor force that instructs students and guides students to successful personal outcomes. Along with the labor of essential staff, the labor of many inside and outside the classroom makes the Seattle Colleges the success they are.

For this section of the newsletter, we want to recognize and ask the question: what is the labor of teaching? In the following link add to our community Jamboard that asks, what is the labor of teaching? Answer this in whatever way that prompt moves you. Click here to participate.