Taking an idea from a veteran teacher, I developed a PowerPoint presentation for my syllabus this coming year. The syllabus in written form is about 8 pages. Instead of printing a copy for every student, I have it on the class website for reference.

On the first day of school, I’m going to show the syllabus PowerPoint and then give the kids a quiz. I think it might be more effective than just reviewing the syllabus in paper form. I added silly clip art to keep the slides visually interesting.

Below are four sample pages from the PowerPoint presentation. Here is the slide presentation in PDF format (1.9MB). If you want the original PowerPoint file ready for you to adapt for your own needs, email me see below.

UPDATE 8/4/08
Due to popular demand, I am making the PowerPoint version available online.
syllabus_08-09.ppt [6MB]

I just purchased a copy of Design Language by Tim McCreight. Check out the content sample.

I got a bolt of inspiration stemming from the content of this book and the nature of discussion question posed by my online graduate art teachers. This idea is in its rough infancy stage:

• Each student has a response notebook. He or she may leave notebooks in the class so they are not lost.
• Each week introduces a new vocabulary term from the book, and I write it on the white board along with a definition. It stays up all week. It may include an illustration if appropriate. This can be repeated on the class website.
• Along with the vocabulary term comes a question that requires critical thinking and the student’s own background and point of view.
• Each Monday, students have ten or so minutes to write the vocabulary term, definition, and their response in the notebook. They can take additional time during the week to complete their answer. Perhaps I can have a follow-up question later in the week.
• I check the notebooks each Friday, or once a month.

Example

Term: Aesthetics
Definition: 1. the criticism of taste; 2. the sense of the beautiful; 3. having a love of beauty; 4. (plural) a branch of philosophy that provides a theory of beauty in the fine arts
Question: What makes something “beautiful”? Give an example from your own experience.

I know this is not groundbreaking, but for some reason I have not done it before.

PRESENTING THE SYLLABUS ON DAY ONE
I saw somewhere during my credential program where a teacher broke his syllabus down into a PowerPoint presentation. I want to do that next year and assign a quiz/worksheet right after so that students are held accountable for the material that is vital to making the classroom livable. Having them sign the syllabus is good, but this is harder for them to ignore and fake.

NOTE-TAKING
I need to add yet another section to my syllabus – this time on the topic of notes. Some students seem to think it’s okay to copy notes from another student. This, to me, completely misses the point of taking notes to help comprehension and retention.

I’m checking notebooks because I want students to re-read the material for meaning, choose the key concepts, and understand them well enough to write them in their own words. I need to state right at the beginning of the year what I require for note-taking.

I hope to come up with a couple of graphic organizers to help them arrange their notes. I’ve luckily scanned in a couple of examples from students who took beautiful notes. I’ll post these to the class website

COMPUTER POLICY

• Computers in this lab are for work for this class only.
• You may not touch any part of another student’s computer.
• You may not log onto another student’s computer.
• Do not eat or drink over any part of the computer; do not touch any part of the computer with sticky or messy fingers.
• Exceptions to this policy may be made only with my permission on the day in question.

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT

Good behavior in my class is called “professional conduct” and is worth 10% of your grade. Each week, you will start off with 20 points for professional conduct. You will keep them if your behavior is non-disruptive, respect, and rule-abiding.

You will lose these points rapidly if you break rules, disrupt class, or are disrespectful. I will record in PowerSchool why the points were deducted.

Additional consequences for poor behavior may include: time-out outside class door, student conference, revoking of privileges, seat change, parent contact, detention, referral to Vice Principal, class suspension or school suspension.

I have caught a surprising number of students cheating in both my graphic design and Web design classes. Students have found a variety of methods of accomplishing this. Some are really obvious and some not so, but they all rely on an assumption that I am not paying close attention. So this is a warning going into next year’s syllabus:

CHEATING

If you cheat in my class there is an extremely good chance that you will be caught.

Cheating means that a student is not completing an assignment, quiz or test honestly and completely on his/her own. It is cheating if you do the work for someone else, or if you give your files to him/her in some way after you have completed them. It is also cheating if you simply give someone the answers to a quiz, or if you read the answers off of someone else’s paper.

It is not cheating if you help someone, but he/she must do all the actual work themselves. For example, completing tasks with the keyboard or mouse on someone else’s computer is cheating, not helping. Talking that student through it so that he/she does every step him/herself is helping. In other words, hands off!

Because they are usually both involved in the attempt to cheat, typically both the student doing the actual work and the student who did not do the work will be punished for cheating.

The consequences for cheating will include one or more of the following:

• A zero on that assignment for all parties involved. There will be no opportunity to change this assignment grade at a later time.
• A call or email home to the students’ guardians.
• A referral to a counselor or Vice Principal.

I’ve decided to completely overhaul my previous set of five rules.

Henry Wong insists that we should only have three to five rules. It limits rules to a number that you and the students can readily remember. If you need more than five rules, do not post more than five at a time. They do not need to cover all aspects of behavior in the classroom. You have a right to replace one rule with another. Any rule you replace can be retained as an “unwritten rule.”

Here are the rules I currently have posted:

• Show respect for yourself, your fellow student artists, your artwork, our classroom and our art supplies.
• Arrive promptly and ready to get on task.
• Pay attention during lectures and demonstrations.
• Participate in classroom discussions and art activities.
• Do your best work during each and every class.

I was trying to go for positive rules instead of “no this” or “no that”. I was trying to cover all the bases by being general. I was thinking high-level.

I did not know it, but I was not being very practical. I had no idea what kind of behavior would become constant problems in large classrooms, especially grades 6 through 8.

Here is a more practical and specific set of rules to begin the year with, based on things I repeat constantly in my classrooms.

• Eyes front when the teacher is talking. Do not interrupt. Raise your hand.
• Sit in chairs properly with all four legs on the floor. Do not sit on tables.
• Do not throw, toss, flick, or roll anything across the table, floor, or classroom.
• No chewing of food, gum, or anything else.
• Clean up after yourself before you leave.

Side note. Here’s what my current syllabus says are my consequences for poor behavior:

If you seem to have forgotten one of the rules, I will give a verbal reminder. If the behavior continues, I will write your name on the board or on a clipboard as a warning. If you get two checks after your name, there will be further consequences which may include: a seat change, a call home, an office referral, detention, and/or clean-up duty.

I don’t actually go through the write-name-on-board-two-checks process. I wrote my syllabus before I knew what I was in for, based on another syllabus I found online. I usually give one warning then the consequence for the second infraction. An additional consequence I use is having a student stand outside the classroom door for five minutes. Most students don’t like that. But what they really don’t like is clean-up duty. And it helps me clean and organize the classroom.