Making a FUN Syllabus... sorta. :)

I've used numerous online tools to create my course syllabi over the years. Back in the day, we had to print them and send them home (I think we even had to get them signed!) but nowadays, a visual syllabus posted to a course website generally will suffice. But, they sure can be boring!

Over time, I have decided a syllabus should be an overview of the course, not a list of do's and don'ts (some of my college syllabi were 5 pages long!). I don't think it's a place for all the rules or a restatement of school policies. I think it should include some degree of expectations, what is needed for success in the course, and what the learning outcomes are. But, some schools may require specific information that you have to include.

In the past, I used Piktochart, and it's great. But, you are limited to 5 documents (so... I might have two accounts, one with my personal email and one with my school one).

This year, I picked up a new course (Business Law) so I decided to create a syllabus in Google Slides. You can check it out below or view it here (and feel free to File> Make a Copy and edit if you want to use it as a template for your own). I started by downloading a template from Showeet because they had some nice "techy" artwork.



I did use Piktochart to create an About Me page to post in the room and on my Canvas page for the students to learn more about me (I love their infographic options and clipart icon gallery that is built-in). I think it's important to give students some background information so they can better relate to me when school starts. Here it is (their site provides an embed code and I embed it on my class page like this, too):

I hope this is helpful!

Going Fishing at School... icebreaker!

I'm knee deep in curriculum development today and ran across a "fun" little "go fish" activity from We Are Teachers. Go check it out there! You can even download a template and create your own. Here's mine:  (PDF)

I'm gonna go pick up some tree limbs (maybe.. or maybe I'll buy some sticks...lol), grab some string, get some magnets and let the kids get in groups and fish for questions. Students struggle making conversations, so my rule will be that you:

1. Get in groups of 5 (I think that's a good size).
2. Dump the fish in the sea (I had to decide whether I want to put them in something so it's more random or let them see the colors so they can somewhat pick the fish... decided on the latter so my shy people would feel some element of control over the questions). 
3. Take turns fishing. After you fish, you read the question out loud and answer it. Then, at least two people in the group (you could make rules about who... like the person to the left and the right of you, for example) have to ask a follow-up question and you have to respond. 

Looking forward to seeing how this goes over and hoping no one gets "seasick."  :) he he

Why I Work All Summer....

So many people "get on me" about going to school in the summer. First, let me be clear. I don't get up at the crack of dawn to get to work in the summer. I sleep in, roll in to work around 9:30 or 10 AM and stay only a few hours and not every day. But, the building is generally empty with few teachers around when I am here during the summer break.

So, why?

First, I am a technology teacher and keeping up with technology is not something I can "do well" by just managing during the school year. Sure, I can try to catch a random YouTube video or follow the Adobe Twitter feed during the school year and learn about a new feature, but I cannot dive in and really immerse myself in the software during the school year when I am busy trying to teach my "five prep" schedule. It's just not possible. So, summer it is. I must update myself on my technology skills, learn the new things that are happening in the Adobe and Microsoft worlds, and get comfortable with it so I can teach it when school resumes.

Second, curriculum doesn't update itself.  I'm not dissing my Social Studies and Math friends; I know you also do a ton of prep outside of contract time. But, history and math are pretty static. Business and technology are always changing and it's a disservice to my students to just continue to teach content that's a few years old. I have to update articles to match what's happening now. My projects and curriculum must reflect current industry standards and expectations. And, if I don't do it, no one will... unless I can somehow find some little curriculum elves around here (no luck so far).

Third, backwards design requires me to evaluate and update assessments OUTSIDE of school time. I give a pre-test and post-test in each of my classes. Over summer, I review the data to see what questions were low scoring. Then, I either update the assessment to better reflect what I taught OR I update my lesson on that content to better prepare students. I find it is MY FAULT if they cannot score well on my assessments and I have to be responsible to find the solution. I use Zipgrade to review item analysis and consider low scoring questions... clearly, I need to focus more on the "Principles of Design" unit on Web Design for next year:

Finally, being a teacher is part of who I am. I love to teach. I aim to do it well. Though I often feel my efforts are unnoticed or unappreciated, I don't do it for recognition, better pay, or a pat on the back. Whether my students or administration appreciate it or not, I know if I am making my best effort. Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

So, don't feel sorry for me for working during the summer. It's part of who I am. I am devoted to being the best teacher I can be and I don't apologize for it. But, don't worry. I make time for ME and my kiddos, too. I already watched the entire new season of the Flash and am a few seasons in on Heartland right now, I've seen the new Men in Black, Child's Play, and Toy Story, and I've attended a few conferences. All work and no play makes anyone crazy, right?  :)  I hope your summer is moving along beautifully!

It's not the first day yet! But, planning for a good year!

Like most of you, I am on summer break. In between revising curriculum, conducting teacher training, planning for conferences I present at later this summer, and RELAXING, I am still searching for ideas for next school year. I always want to improve from year to year!

I was thinking today about how important starting off on the right foot is for students. My daughter is a good student, but she takes it very personally if she has a bad "teacher encounter" early on in a class. We had one such example her sophomore year (and, truly, that teacher did not treat her properly, so her reasons were valid). A teacher did not like the fact that she wasn't thrilled about his science class and put her on the spot about it (oh, let me mention, she made an A in the class). He damaged that relationship to the point of no return within the first two months of school saying that if she didn't "act like she liked this class more" then he "won't help her in the future."

WOW.

I try very much to avoid judging students. But, I think it's important for students to judge themselves. They know themselves way better than we do. So, in looking for resources, I found this self-evaluation and goal-setting sheet from MathGiraffe.com (go to their site to download!).

I love the idea of asking students to self-evaluate before they even begin your class. How did they feel about last year? What were they proud of? What do they need to improve on? And, what are their goals for MY CLASS?

Do you ask students to set goals? I often put on a student information form something like "target grade" for my class. I typically put: 

• Straight A (no minus!)
• A range
• B range or higher
• C range
• I just want to pass!

You'd be surprised what students are not "okay" with just something in the A range. They do not want that A- and are discouraged by it. Others are going into your class just expecting to get a C. They don't even aspire to higher than that. And, others simply want to not fail. Some put what THEY want and others put what MOM AND DAD expect. 

KNOWING THIS INFORMATION IS GOLD.

You can connect with your students to help them reach their goals and, for some of them, help them realize that they can set higher goals. I encourage you in the fall to take a little time out and have your students set a goal for your class. Perhaps that goal is related to effort, communicating, remembering to log in before the bell rings, not being late, checking grades daily, being open to helping others... sometimes they have to start small. But, come back to this goal and call them to task. If a student puts that they want to "become better at answering essay questions" and they leave a question blank on a test or they write one sentence as a response, you should bring them up to the desk and have a conversation about how this effort is not helping them meet the goal. Instead of griping them out for leaving a question blank, writing in an angry face with your -5 points, or just writing "poor effort," having that conversation related to their goals that THEY set, can help show more of a relationship and concern and less of a judgment.

Good luck!

Illustrator and Photoshop Mock-ups! Smart!

I've participated and viewed Logo Design Contests online for years (mostly to get project ideas). Some of the entries are so fancy, with billboard and glass windows with the logos on them. I always wondered how they took the time to do that for these contests. And, I know the concept of mock-ups....

But, friends, I didn't know you could just download tons of free mock-ups that you could place your artwork into!

My kids are going to love this in the fall!

Have you ever had your kids design artwork for can? A box? A bottle? It's "fine" when you look at it on the computer, I guess, but using a mock-up will get them much more excited and bring their ideas to life.

Here are a few sites that you can get them from:

• https://www.mockupworld.co/all-mockups/
• https://originalmockups.com/free-mockups
• https://www.graphberry.com/category/mock-ups
• https://graphicburger.com/tag/mock-up/
• http://freemockupzone.com/  <--- that one is my favorite!

Just watch my short video here and you can see how to use them. I'll be using this in a workshop I'm doing next week on Illustrator!

Here's my example with my family cycling logo, put nicely on a cup (and I show you how in the video!):

Curriculum Work... Tylenol Murders!

Well, school has been out for less than a week and, while also prepping for a workshop I am giving next week, I am already working on curriculum for next year. I am picking up Business Law (yay!) next year and wanted to try to find a few podcast episodes to work in to the class.

I was listening on my way to work yesterday on the How Stuff Works podcast and they had an episode on the Tylenol murders. I had been reading about the biggest recalls of all time for the unit on product liability and that sort of thing and thought this was timely. So, here's the episode I listened to:

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-stuff-you-should-know-26940277/episode/the-tylenol-murders-part-ii-45475709/

I think the students will enjoy it. It's pretty long, so might do a few time cues and have them skip some things so it can fit into one class period and leave time for discussion (this is part 2, I didn't listen to part 1).

My thought is to play it and have a visual "notes sheet" they will work on while they listen to help them listen (more of a scavenger hunt to figure out why the words/dates/etc. are important).

I honestly think this would work in a variety of business classes since it really discusses the public
relations needed to come back from a crisis like this one.

Anyone have any other good podcast episodes kids might enjoy?

Old School Typing Tournament! #busedu

This week in my Computer Applications class, we've had some fun. Last week, I had students take about half the hour to do some typing practice (Typing Academy 2 minute timings). I walked around while students were typing just checking out their typing speeds (which, by the way, my students were pretty impressive! I had 12 out of my 25 who were typing around 50 wpm or more!). If they got a speed they wanted me to see (improved), they could call me over and I recorded it old school on a clipboard.

I had decided to probably take the top 10 or so and create a bracket, but due to time, I just went with top 8. I found an online "bracket" through Challonge and plugged in the names based on their ranks on my walkarounds and put it on my class website and Twitter, so they could all see who was ranked where. They were quite eager for me to update it each day!



The competition rounds were fierce! They had to type at my teacher computer at the front of the room on the big screen (yep, where everyone could watch). PRESSURE. And it really affected speeds. They were feeling it! I always had the  lower seed go first and they got TWO attempts, just to take a little pressure off. Round 1 we did over two class periods and then the other rounds on two different days. Students were also working on their independent review (Mindtap SAM reviews for our final exam, which got boring sometimes, so this was a distraction at times for those who wanted a break!).

I used this website and created a "custom text" timing (sign up with a Google account for free and you can create and save your own) that they typed (this example is round 3, which I actually gave my top two the night before so they could practice on their own), but I started with different text for the other rounds and they didn't get to practice it in advance)-->
         Final Round  https://www.keyhero.com/custom-typing-test/tournament-3/

To determine their actual "score" I took the words per minute times the accuracy rate. If you look at my bracket, it was pretty close a few times and accuracy mattered!

If I were to do it again, I might do two brackets (silver and gold, tiered so slower ones have a chance to win) or a double elimination. I probably should have done a third place match, too. But, this was my first attempt. In my Computer Apps class, students do Typing Club as a side thing and in class several days during the semester, so we are always encouraging them to improve typing speed and accuracy; this was just a fun way to end the course, and it was a bit fun listening to the students root for the underdogs!