Denver is cold and rainy today and supposed to remain that way all weekend. I can hear the patter of raindrops and the flow of rainstreams through my window, and the sky beyond is grey.
School starts Tuesday, but I plan to drive over on Monday to fully familiarize myself with the campus. Plus: make some copies, set anything else up, all the good administrative stuff.
In the meantime, I’m planning my syllabus. Somewhat difficult: never built one mainly from scratch before. I know what goes in one, of course, but otherwise? (any teachers/instructors: if you have advice for me, leave it in the comments. I could totally use some. Or generally: if you were taking a college class, what would you expect from your instructor and his syllabus?)
Besides that, I’m planning to clean up iTunes and finish a short story.
Have a good weekend.
August 15, 2008 at 8:02 pm
1.) A theme for the course(something that may be common in all your assignments), separate from what the class is titled in the course catalog.
2.)You need an overview of what students will learn in your class.
3.)Your expectations for the students. (materials/attendance policy/cell phones/late assignments/etc.)
4.) A general description of all major and minor assignments.
5.) And of course, contact info, office hours, etc.
That’s all I can think of for now.
August 15, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Offer extra credit. Alot, but for like insane things.
1 points extra credit – have your cat/dog neutered/spayed by a licenced professional.
2 points extra credit – find out why some one said one day to them selves, “I want to cute off animal nuts for a living.” and write a papper about it
3 points extra credit – Write a GOOD papper about it
4 points extra credit – Write a REALLY GOOD papper about it
5 point extra credit – write a papper so good I’ll cry
You get the idea?