Letters on pages in Times New Roman, 12 point font staring me in the face either telling me or my students what they (we) will learn and how we will learn it. They're not only terrifying for students, but they're intimidating for teachers. Am I going to be able to write everything that I expect on this one page? Will it be overwhelming for my kiddos? Will they shut down immediately when they see this?
I can't be alone in this. We all have to have these thoughts...right?
Well, my wonderful mentor Kristy (@kmkteach) found a great infographic syllabus on Pinterest and sent it to me. Immediately, I knew that this would be the form my syllabus would shift into this year.
I'd be lying if I said that writing this syllabus took less time AND looked better -- it took about triple the time a normal syllabus would take to write, but it definitely looks better. It actually just feels better to me. It feels more like who I am as a teacher, and I'm excited to have students have this first little glimpse into who they will have as a teacher.
To see the full quality, you'll probably need to go to the website and have a QR code reader handy (inigma is fantastic if you're using an iPad/iPhone). I tried to make it as interactive and pleasing as possible while also getting down to the nitty gritty of my expectations and goals for the course. If you're interested in having the web version, please shoot me a tweet and I'll be happy to DM you the link.
I won't go into too much detail, and I just finished it today, so I'll probably find misspellings and change some things before the troops come in, but I wanted to share in case any of you are interested in using this format for your own students.
I created it using Piktochart.com, which can take some getting used to. I suggest using a desktop or laptop and sitting down for a few hours with it. It's worth the time, in my opinion.
And without further ado...
Until next time,
Ms. Z
@hanzarz
