Check your Hunter email for the Zoom link, and feel free to write me if you can’t dig it up.

• LitHub@Hunter: site with occasional posts and links to resources about teaching (and especially teaching of course courses beyond 220: 252, 285, 304, 306, 307, and 320). If you’re teaching one of those latter courses and aren’t part of its corresponding private “group,” with sample syllabi, assignments, links, and more, email me and I’ll add you).

LitHub@Hunter Resource for instructors of core courses at Hunter English lithub.commons.gc.cuny.edu

• Susan Blum’s edited volume, UNGRADING: a trove of great scholarship on the topic.
• My initial stab at contracting with students in ENGL 306, “Introduction to Theory”

I wanted to post the discussion Nancy Hightower and I had this week in lieu of our October workshop:

I also wanted to include Nancy’s helpful overview of how to implement some of these strategies, which she generously shared. Here goes:

How to Scaffold the Conversation of Mental Health and Self Care throughout the Semester

• Put wellness statement on syllabus, up near the top so students see that it’s a priority. I modified the template that Sara Goldrick-Rab created in her Medium article.
• Create a dynamic, ongoing narrative about self care:
  • On the first day, I read the wellness statement aloud and say that this will be an ongoing conversation through the semester.
  • October 1st is a great check in time with students as some will begin having midterms and feeling the stress of multiple deadlines. We also know that daylight starts decreasing at this time, and some students might be particularly sensitive to this in terms of depression and anxiety.
  • Checking in on how the class is collectively doing, especially if they seem tired and disengaged. If unresponsive to a more open ended question, can turn into a game: “How many got 2 hours of sleep last night?”
• Reframe the language around absences late work:
  • I’ve been trying to erase “deficit” and shame-based language from my rhetoric when emailing students. I try emphasize their health and safety come first and that we will work collaborative to get caught up.
• Create a climate of authenticity and inspiration:
  • Help create a narrative arc about your class and how it fits into their college narrative, focusing more on story while also emphasizing the kills being taught.
    • As Hunter is a commuter school, how to foster community given time constraints is an ongoing conversation, and one that is important when trying to bring in a dialogue about mental health.
  • Fluorescent lights, crammed classrooms, and sterile offices really don’t foster the kind of dynamic interactions we long for in the humanities.
  • Also, this student body has experienced deep PTSD with lockdown, family deaths, and other traumas that have happened over the past three years, all the while becoming more digitally dependent and isolated. Given that, creating safe physical spaces needs to be given more priority in these conversations about mental health.
    • I’ve done this with a theme of “whimsy,” which means any student who comes to our adjunct office gets a cookie, and we have lamps to cut out the harsh fluorescent light that makes everything look rather gray. I’ve taken these ideas of from other professors who have been writing about making their classrooms and offices more inviting and accessible.

Colleagues: I’m organizing an informal panel for ACERTs Lunchtime Seminar series and need your help!

The title is “Working the Room,” and it is inspired by the, let us say, challenging spaces I and others have been assigned in recent semester, what with the remarkable crowds at Hunter. Examples in my experience include:

• an unventilated, partitioned space in the Library basement intended for 10 computer scientists but packed with 25 humanists
• A D:F/M room with fixed “cinema” seating and blackout curtains
• an early childhood ed dedicated room with paper mache everywhere, a guitar in the corner, and laughably huge dimensions for my 20 students

I’m sure you have your own examples. I’m interested in griping about facilities, yes, but mostly in what strategies you devised (or would devise next time) to make the space more conducive to good teaching.

We’ve scheduled it for 10/31, and I really want to lean into the Halloween theme: I wanted to call it Nightmare on 68th St. but thought better of it to avoid unwanted attention from upstairs.

Please contact me if you, or someone you know, might have something to say on this topic and are available Tuesday, 10/31 from 12-2 on Zoom. Minimal preparation required: a tight 5-10 minutes of talking, maybe  a couple of slides. If you’d be willing to sit for a brief “talking head” video and/or share photos of nightmare spaces, I’m interested in that as well.

Just wanted to pass along this flyer for those interested in attending three upcoming workshops organized by CUNY Academy (and featuring our own Jack Kenigsberg) on “generative AI,” the technology behind ChatGPT et al. The details are in the link, but here’s the 411:

Session 1: Friday, September 29 (11a-12p)

“What is AI and What Can it Do?”

Register

In this introductory session, we will discuss what AI is and what it can do, while also discussing our concerns and challenges. The session is designed to deepen our understandings of current and possible future landscapes of AI.

Workshop Leaders:

Andrea Fabrizio (Hostos Community College)

Jack Kenigsberg (Hunter College)

Ruru Rusmin (CUNY School of Professional Studies)

Topics include:

• What Generative  AI is and what it can do
• Prevalent concerns about AI in educational settings
• Possible positive impacts of AI

Session 2: Friday, October 27 (11a-12p)

“AI in the Classroom”

Register

The second session of the series will focus on how AI has been and can be used in educational settings. We will brainstorm and exchange ideas for how we can use AI tools in positive ways.

Workshop Leaders:

Mohammad Azhar (Borough of Manhattan Community College)

Jeremy Caplan (CUNY School of Journalism)

Roderick “Shane” Snipes (Borough of Manhattan Community College)

Topics include:

• Using  AI  to increase student engagement (and reduce plagiarism)
• Improving productivity to develop instructional content
• Integrating  AI  into assessment

Session 3: Friday, November 17 (11a-12p)

“Bias, Accuracy, and Ethical Issues of  AI”

Register

As effective educators, we continue educating ourselves (and our students) to improve our AI literacy. It is crucial we understand the limitations and ethical aspects of AI. In the third session of the series, we will discuss some “sticky” issues surrounding AI.

Workshop Leaders:

Matt Gold (CUNY Graduate Center)

Carlos Guevara (Hostos Community College)

Olena Zhadko (Lehman College)

Topics include:

• AI’s limitations and flaws
• Incorporating AI  policies in your syllabi
• Improving our and students’ AI  literacy in an ever-changing landscape