Classroom Priorities

This week I was asked to come up with a list of projects and priorities to share with my directors, a wonderful exercise which should be happening already every Sunday between the hours of 3 and 5 PM, according to my partially-heeded GTD schedule.  I wasn't singled out to do this; many were, and the process of surveying my workload was helpful.  More than helpful though, it got me thinking about what other people's project lists look like, specifically other teachers, and I wondered about their classroom priorities and how they break down projects heading into a semester.

image © ben capozzi 2010

Every year, summer is the long weekend I can't wait to begin because it offers the greatest stretch of time with the greatest autonomy over my schedule, and really the only time of the year when I can literally dig into something for 3-5 hours at a time uninterruptedly.  Teaching is only part of my job, so I'm not off during the summer –far from it– but there are no daily classes to teach, fewer meetings, less travel, fewer students, and lots of sunlight to keep me feeling bright.

I replicated my task list (using EasyTask these days, and it's "okay," though I seem doomed to forever pine for The Hit List mobile app).  I mind mapped one of the four "number one priorities" of my job description, and that was actually really fun.  Below is a snapshot of my mind map for Increase Enrollment in the Business of Art & Design Program.  I started mind maps for the other three "number one priorities" (I'm using the free version of Mind Node, btw) and cleared my head, inboxes, and post-its of various lists to aggregate for presentation.

My responsibilities at the SVHEC extend far beyond what happens in the classroom –meetings with deans, faculty supervision, overseeing freelance design projects, forging and carrying forward partnerships, recruitment, counseling– and I am reminded again of the unique nature of my job and the flexibility of the SVHEC as an institution.  But that atomic level of what happens day-in and day-out in the classroom (and the why) is what I both sweat the most and take the greatest pleasure in.  It is cliche, but seeing the light bulb brighten behind a student's eyes is a deeply satisfying moment for me (and the whole raison d'etre, right?), and so I want my course plans to be optimized for those moments.  From my list of dozens of projects and initiatives underway, it is structuring and planning daily life of students in our classes that remains my number one priority.

A lot has changed in my course prep routine since I began.  At FDI at Virginia Tech, the workshops were well-established over many years and really designed to be set to autopilot with a reasonably competent instructor –usually a GTA.  I didn't yet know that the program was flexible enough for an instructor to take the content and really run with it in amazing directions.  I was too green and too nervous, though I did innovate a little, bringing in my love for toys, design, and background as an artist.  When I began teaching in Halifax fall 2008, I arrived in SoBo August 8 and was informed I'd be teaching 16 high schoolers beginning August 12, and by the way I needed to submit a syllabus, etc, asap.  You're telling me!

That first year was honestly hellish, day-to-day and sometimes minute-to-minute, and ever since I have had an abiding fear of not being prepared enough for my students to get the most bang for the bucks of their time, attention, and taxpayers' money.  Indeed, just this morning, and I am not making this up, I had a dream in which I came to the first day of a class I'd never taught before (Product Design and Development i) and hadn't set up the course weblog.  I had no syllabi to hand out.  No completed projects list.  I remember stalling for dream-time while I went to Burger King to access their WiFi in an effort to build the course while students remained in class waiting for me to "be right back."  What a nightmare!  But project list?  Course weblog?  Like I said, a lot has changed since that first semester.

Right now, for all four classes I'm teaching next fall (ART 130 and ART 180 at the secondary level; ART 130 and HUM 246 at post secondary) I'm building up the projects list for breadth before I whittle it down for depth, I'm setting up the course weblog (thanks, Google Blogger) prepping as many quizzes as I can (thank you, Google Docs forms), and breaking each down from week to week.  I'm lining up guest speakers and possible competitions to enter.  As part of a broader agenda, I'm also scanning the horizon for technologies to deploy in the classroom like Google Wave, chat rooms, mind maps, and wikis.  And honestly, that's what I want to be doing.  Sometimes, that's all I want to be doing.  As I bring each to its final state for the fall semester (since, they're never truly done) I'll share them here, posting links for review, comment, and amelioration.

So, other Edufolk, what are your priorities?  What does your summer classroom prep look like?

~mrc

BTW - Listening to Samantha Bee's I Know I Am, But What Are You? via Audible.