syllabi, etc...

I have three syllabi to write up this semester... one for a brand new course. The brand new one was giving me trouble last night. The first draft came off sounding kind of weird and needy. Probably best not to vent all of your fears that the course is going to suck right there on the first day.

Anyway, I now have all my schedules laid out, grading policies set, scary plagiarism sections written... I may be able to print out final versions this week!

The only thing I haven't figured out for all of my courses is exactly what sorts of assignments I'm going to give them. My usual m.o. (weekly readings, write a 1-2 page response) doesn't really work all that well, because their papers just pile up ungraded. For one class I'm considering a journal approach. For another class, I'm considering a student-constructed Wiki. I'm so lazy, though... I'll probably just fall back on my old slightly-ineffective methods of assessment.

The next step in planning is to actually figure out what I'm doing day-to-day for the first couple of weeks. This is particularly important for the new course, since my greatest fear for that class is "dead air". In fact, since the course isn't really in my area of expertise, I intend to come up with a list of "Things I Actually Know About That I Can Talk About In An Emergency". I should also lay out a week-by-week reading list at the beginning, given that there are FIVE textbooks for the class.

T-minus one month... still a lot of work to do. Where the fuck did the summer go?