Back at It

Hello, all! I start school in less than two weeks!

A couple of posts ago, I lamented about how few resources are available for teachers at the secondary (science) level. As a person who is constantly trolling (not sure if I used that term right, but the imagery of me as a troll is entertaining, so I'm going to leave it) Pinterest and the blogosphere for teaching inspiration, I've often come up empty. Even the very basics would have been helpful for me when I started teaching three short years ago. I had taken a couple education classes in my college years (and those "classes" that teaching fellows provided), but most of us Fellows showed up day one clueless. (Reminder to self to write a post on being new as a teacher/to a school and feeling so completely lost and scared, because there are expectations but you haven't a clue what they are or how to fulfill them and at the same time you are expected to know how everything works. Schools need a new teacher ambassador.)

I remember when preparing for class, the first thing I sat down to do was write my syllabus. So I sat down and stared at a blank screen. But I didn't know where to start, so it stayed blank for some time. Thank goodness for the internet (so weird how it didn't exist in my early school days); I started to google sample syllabi. Some were great templates, others were probably the first syllabus the teacher ever wrote and never went back to make it better. Because there are good syllabi and there are bad syllabi.

In my opinion, a good syllabus is short, but covers all the necessary day one bases. Some important things can be left off and covered in detail along the way. I also think of a syllabus as the "first impression" document for your class. It's probably the first hand out your kids will get and if you're required to post it online, like I am, it's the first document your parents will see. People may not comment, but they notice the little things - like spelling or layout. (Both of which I pride myself on.) I want to be taken seriously, so my syllabus should support that. At the same time, I don't (and can't) pretend that I don't have a weird sense of humor, so I inject that into the syllabus as well.

Below, I've scribd in my syllabus for this school year and also, a "syllabus fishing" assignment. The latter is so that my students actually read the syllabus and get to know it on their own time. In previous years, I've stood at the front of the class reading the thing. No mas. I put myself back into their shoes and remembered how the first day is just reading syllabi and filling out info cards. This year, I'm putting this responsibility on my students. The sooner they know my policies, the less headache I'll have later - "IT'S IN THE SYLLABUS!" :)

I've also linked some other great syllabi that I found while perusing the world wide web. Some of those linked are very graphical and unique! It makes me second guess my format, but I think I'll stick to the "traditional" layout for this year. I hope that this post is useful for those beginning to get back to work!

Ftf Syllabus

Ftf Fishing