SI Faculty Newsletter
September 2017
Welcome Back to Skyline College!
Welcome to the 2017 - 2018 school year! We hope that you had a great summer and your semester is off to a positive start. Our dedicated staff have been working hard to prepare for another amazing year, as well as building on the success and accomplishments of last year.
One of the projects I will be working on is providing a monthly newsletter with updates, news, and other announcements so you can stay up-to-date with the SI program throughout the semester. This is our first faculty newsletter, so please feel free to let me know if there's any information you'd like to see in particular!
We are so excited to work with you this semester and support the students in your classes. If you ever want to check-in, please know that my office is always open, and I'm always happy to sit down and catch up.
All the best,
Timurhan Vengco
Program Services Coordinator - Supplemental Instruction
SI Leader Updates and Announcements
- Planning SI Sessions: SI Leaders are working with their faculty, the SI coordinator, and the students to thoroughly plan each SI session. This includes checking-in with you about their sessions, developing plans and worksheets, and identifying strategies for students to collaborate during their learning.
- Facilitating SI Sessions: SI Leaders should now all be running their weekly voluntary SI sessions, that focuses on not just the course content, but how to review content and perform better in the course. Gavin and I are also observing the SI Leaders throughout the semester in order to provide positive and constructive feedback!
- Classroom Responsibilities: You should be seeing your SI Leader being a model student in class. This includes arriving on time, taking notes, asking questions, participating in discussions/group work, and building relationships with as many students as possible in the class. The SI Leader should also be checking-in with you about how to be a model student for your particular class.
- SI Paperwork: There's a lot of paperwork to submit as a SI Leader, which includes a timesheet, planning sheets, weekly reflections, and SI Session attendance sheets (for data and reporting purposes).
- Professionalism, Communication, and other Duties: The SI Leaders are professionals, and this position is helping them develop their skills in punctuality, communication, networking, leadership, and etc.
Sometime in October 2017, be on the lookout for our SI Faculty survey so you can provide me direct feedback about your SI Leader. I'm always interested in learning about if they're doing a great job or if there's areas of concern that you need me to address with the SI Leader.
SI Welcomes a New Instructional Aide: Gavin Townsley
Gavin is a writer, teacher, runner, rock climber, and avid gamer. He's currently working towards a Master's degree in Creative Writing at SFSU . Six years ago, he started his education at Skyline College and found our campus has an incredibly unique, diverse, and inspirational community of students that helped him discover his passions for writing and education. Shortly after transferring, he actually started one of his first jobs in education at Skyline working for the Supplemental Learning Assistance program - a program that shares many similarities with the SI program today.
As the IA2 for SI, Gavin will be helping our SI Leaders run successful and meaningful SI sessions while also supporting their growth as model leaders and students for the campus. His job will be to observe SI Leaders' sessions, provide them positive and constructive feedback, facilitate SI trainings and meetings, and assist with other functions within the SI program.
Please don't hesitate to say hi to Gavin if you see him around campus!
SI Fall 2017 Training and Orientation
The full two days covered a number of topics, including:
- History and structure of SI
- Breaking the Dependency Cycle
- SI Strategies and Activities
- Planning for SI Sessions
- Metacognition in Learning Assistance
- Publicizing SI
- Professionalism
The entire team was engaged and active throughout the two days, and many of them expressed their excitement to start working with all of your students before sessions were scheduled! We also had a chance to take our team photo below!
SI Program Meeting # 2 - Fall 2017
This meeting is mandatory for all SI Leaders, as it's a chance for the entire team to check-in about SI, strengthen SI strategies, and review important upcoming announcements. SI Faculty, as well as our staff and administrative partners, are always invited to attend.
Friday, Oct 6, 2017, 02:15 PM
BLDG 8, Rm. 8-304
Contact the SI Coordinator
Email: vengcot@smccd.edu
Website: http://skylinecollege.edu/learningcenter/supplementalinstruction.php
Location: BLDG 5, Rm. 5-110
Phone: (650) 738-7084