Tips for Online Course Design

The last couple of years I have designed online courses for Early Shakespeare, Shakespeare and Film Adaptation, and for this semester, Late Shakespeare. This semester, a new item is that they ask the instructor/creator to conduct an internal review document, which a committee then uses as they evaluate the course. The online course people made a big deal about it, how much work it was, how hard, apologizing for all the time it would take, etc. So I was a bit nervous opening the document to see what I had to do.

And it was nothing.

I mean, it's a sixteen page rubric, but it wasn't hard, or a lot of week. But the reason it's not (I spent maybe half an hour writing notes on it, and maybe an hour typing that up and double checking links) is because I've done this before.

I am a certified online teacher, and a large part of the course that was required to earn that covered the legal accessibility of courses and some design.
But I also worked for a for-profit online high school for a couple of years. And while there's a lot wrong with that model, and I don't have good things to say about it, I did design two from scratch courses for them which taught me a lot.

Not all people who teach online have been trained for it, and there are some misconceptions about what online courses look like. However, as I've taught TAs for years, creating a good online course is really easy if you know some things in advance.

So this is an easy how to for online course design.

• The design and set up of your syllabus is very important. You'll mimic this structure in your course, so it's important you have a solid, easy to read, intuitive structure to your syllabus.
• My late Shakespeare syllabus is here
• Each week is numbered, as students find this easier to follow than just dates. Each week then has a bulleted list of what they need to do. I've marked through both the words "Extra credit" and color differentiation, assignments that are optional (to be accessible you can't just distinguish by color). Likewise major deadlines are highlighted AND bold, for the same reason.
• In addition to the numbered weeks I have numbered the modules
• This is then the exact copied and pasted formula/set up that the course map has. 
• Years ago, I also separated my course policies form the syllabus, for pedagogical reasons.
• I have a Getting Started Module. In general, the demographics of your online students are different from your face to face. Most carry a full time load. Many work. Many are also juggling family obligations. They often take online classes to fulfill requirements for these reasons not necessarily because they're tech prodigies. 
• Because my courses follow a pattern, it's key to me that students LEARN this pattern. So the Getting Started module does this. It also assumes zero experience with online classes, and acclimates/teaches students how to do well in an online course.
• I spend two weeks on it. For me, this time is vital as it ensures students 1) know what they're getting into, expectations and 2) feel comfortable operating all the tools.

 

• Each module is numbered, the weeks are numbered, and I've just copied and pasted the bulleted items from the syllabus. The students can see what each module contains. I color and through images, differentiate the modules.
• Your course must follow a logical order.
• When you click on the module to open it, it also follows a pattern, consistently used across all modules
• The student learning objectives are at the top, so students know what they'll focus on. Each week within the module is labelled. The resources/pages/assignments under are in the order we cover them. So the intro lecture/material comes first, then everything builds on that.

• I also have a page under course resources that outlines what the symbols mean, so students learn to differentiate between resource page, assignment, discussion boards, etc.
• At the bottom of the module is the larger project, and its rubric
• Each module also has a variety of resources
• An introduction- usually a background webpage, sometimes a presentation. It's a general overview.
• Next, I usually ask the students to respond to some sort of "what do you already know" piece.
• Assignments that come after are varied and play to different strengths:

• Participate in a discussion board
• Their post earns a 77. Post plus a comment on another an 85. Post plus two comments a 100. This allows students to prioritize time, and learn how to read and respond to classmates.
•  Written responses, with clear guidelines to teach structure and how to address tips.
• Assignments that require them to find resources, images, webpages, share them, then respond to them.

• Each module follows this layout/design so students know what to expect. Once they learn the pattern in the first module, they learn the pattern.
• All of this material in the module, and all modules, are available from day one. Students can see all of the course. I allow them to work ahead within a module, but encourage them not to race ahead.
• Other Helpful Design Features:
• Students have a help forum where they can ask questions of each other and me in addition to emailing me. 
• The syllabus is a "live" Google Doc. I highly recommend this because it means that you post the link and are done. You don't have to worry about uploading a new, revised Word document every time you make a change.
• Each module has a "Let's Talk About..." discussion board that is optional. It lets students ask clarifying or comprehension questions, as well as post fun memes and videos. 
• Supplemental links. I have links to the library, the writing center, but also student health. And I try to post helpful resources about self-care, anxiety, and offer ways to not stress over grades.
• Accessibility of images and videos: 
• I record video lectures, usually less than 10 minutes, at the beginning of modules, and to clarify what I'm looking for in papers, and revisions. I usually post to YouTube but sometimes use the internal Kalthura media (because it uploads immediately versus waiting 8 hours for YouTube). If/when I have a student who requires adaptation, my TA writes scripts based on these videos and links them under the videos. If I post video links, for same reasons, I strive for ones with closed captioning available. 
• One of the biggest complaints students have about online courses is that they feel disconnected from their professors, as though it was a correspondence course. I go out of my way to personalize things, both in announcements and these videos.
• For images, the biggest thing it to provide alt-text when you load them. Going back and doing this later is a pain. Typing a quick note as you upload it is easy.
• Grading Assignments. Above I've said how I grade discussion boards. For class assignments, I moved to a mostly 100 or 0, complete or incomplete. On these, the feedback is where they grow. 
•  Each module has a major assignment and they build on each other. So they start with a presentation, move to a close reading, then a project that walks them through the steps of a large research paper, then a final paper or project.
• The smaller, weekly assignments are often the pieces of the larger assignment, so if students do them they perform better on the larger assignments.
• Students have a week to revise larger assignments for a higher grade as long as they also submit a cover letter reflecting on the revision. 
• Students choose their own topics.
• I look at drafts up to 48 hours of the due date.
• Feedback: each assignment has a clear rubric, as you saw, posted and available from the beginning. So students get that. I also make numerous in line comments then provide holistic feedback at the end.
• Students are encouraged to download the paper with feedback to revise for a higher grade. One downside of Blackboard is that students can download the PDF with comments, but not the Word document, which sometimes is a barrier to revision. You can download the document, comment in Word, then reupload. However, I teach large survey courses of 75, and this is time consuming, so I prefer to use the in line comments. It's a personal preference.
• Announcements. I post one every week. I used to post more and email them out but students found this overwhelming.
• My announcements do several things at once:
• Review what that week's assignments are.
• Offer instructional help through resources, PowerPoint, videos on how to do well on that week's work.
• Reiterate personal message that I'm here to help and to reach out.
• I also keep an eye out on the internet, and the students' "Let's Talk..." posts for fun things that are connected to that week's work, and post these things (videos, cartoons, etc.)

By having a clear idea of what I wanted to course to do, then having a clear organization to how each module works, the students can easily follow the materials. The variety of materials and assignments serves all kinds of students and their interests. A clear, internal logic, and consistency, are the marks of good course design.

I am also very transparent as to why I do things a certain way, so students know there's a reason behind it.

Below is a link to one of the presentations I've done for TAs on this:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ixwAsa2GN0PBkE5cb8TNQ318m4NzW0Ww9my6nSMvjbs/edit#slide=id.g26576f170_0137

Here is also a list of Web 2.0 tools that are fun to integrate in the course (not all aimed at higher ed):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kosoibQdZbqsuid_bryYb75TopMIVv8LwV51p49pHC0/edit#gid=0

I hope you found this helpful. I am always happy to talk on Twitter or email about any of this!

The Problem With Teaching Teacher Personas

I've written before about always wanting to be a teacher. Laura Ingalls was one. So was Anne Shirley. So was Jo March. I made my younger sister sit and "let" me teach her using our replica McGuffin readers. As I got older, and tv shows and movies expanded my view of teachers, I added Jaime Sommers and Indiana Jones to the list.

Whether you're in grad school in order to teach at the college level, or to gain certification for K-12 teaching, every program has a shared component- how to develop your teaching persona and philosophy. Invariably they ask you to think of teachers who inspired you, and why they did. For me, that was  my hard ass AP English teacher in high school. I had a world history professor in college who was tiny, an expert on Japan, and hysterical. I had a teacher in high school who made sure I had lunch every day, and had me as his TA.

All were male, all were strict, mean even. I did well in their classes because they were smart, straight shooters, who didn't lie. But here's the problem with this approach- we're encouraged to name these teachers and the traits we admired as though we should mimic them. And these ignore the complicated structures of gender, class, and race, that inform how students will see us as teachers, and that inform how we see ourselves as teachers.

I admired my teachers' sarcastic, smart-ass approach. But in a female teacher, this is seen as countering maternal norms, judged more harshly than when this is seen in men. It runs counter to what students expect and can cause cognitive dissonance. The other issue is, what I really admired about my teachers was their smartness, how much they knew, how they could break it down for everyone, and that they were honest. For years as a teacher though, because I'd been told this was what I should do, I mimicked the form, and didn't think about the meat behind it. Beginning teachers are told to "fake it until you make it" and we're told a large part of that is mimicking or imitating the styles of those teachers we admired.

This last year, several factors led to a radical change in my teaching style.
The first was that because of various reasons, I started having panic attacks when teaching.  They were anticipatory anxiety attacks- I imagined all the things that could go wrong, anticipated them happening, and then the attack would hit. This was traumatic for a lot of reasons. I struggled with fitting in in grad school, not feeling like my low class background wasn't a problem, but teaching, teaching was always easy for me. I loved it. I loved teaching other teachers. I loved designing curriculum, courses, interacting with and helping students. So the fact that my anxiety was only focused on teaching felt like a betrayal. My anxiety resulted in my taking medicine for a time. I also used to wear ties, button down shirts, and vests to teach in. My anxiety made this impossible.

So this was the environment I was functioning in when I returned to teaching high school last March. My school is 1500+ students. Mostly lower class. Mostly Chican@ and Native. And I just decided to drop all the nonsense. A student in one of my uni classes the semester before had complained about my sarcasm, so it was in the back of my mind to make some changes. The new job and new school was just the perfect opportunity. For the first time in 15 years, I dropped the teaching persona I've been educated and trained to have. And I was just me.

And it was great. I'm known with my students to be honest. Direct. But not uncaring. I teach them a variety of things- history and English, but also "life stuff." In part too, these changes occurred because classroom cultures and safe spaces have come to the forefront the last year, so I started thinking about what I could do in my high school and university classes to create these spaces. In my university classes, I've had several students, even ones that eventually dropped, tell me that my class was a safe space, that they felt comfortable in. For some, the first time they'd ever felt that way.

As I was reminded this week, part of this too has to do with letting go of ego. There was a conversation on social media a while ago about professors not wanting to police their classrooms, and how changing that perspective changes your class. Even with all the changes I've made in the last year about how I teach and interact with students, when a student emailed me over break to complain about a grade, and then tell me how I should be teaching and grading (even providing rubrics I should be using), I admit, my reflex was all ego. But because it is break, and I told students I'd be unavailable, I've let the email sit there, and I've thought about it.

Here are my conclusions. I did make an error. And when I respond, that is the first thing I'll say. The second thing is, while this student's tone, and correcting me rubs me the wrong way, I don't believe it's their intention. I believe that they are genuinely seeking help to improve, and so that is the vein I will take it in, and respond to. I'm not sure yet how to respond to the "these are the rubrics/grading you should be using." But again, this is ego. At first, I wasn't planning on responding to that part. Most professors I think would say that students don't get to dictate those things. But I am also toying with something along the lines of, I'm sorry that the rubrics, and grading, in this course are not easily accessible to you. I can only say that you will have a variety of courses, professors, and grading policies, that you will learn to navigate. If I can explain or help, please let me know.

Because here's the thing. Most students want help. Many students need it. Many don't get it. A student's classroom experience can vary wildly based on school, department, and professor's training. Changing my teaching, thinking about what helps students best, has made me think about, and prioritizing what I value in my own teaching.

With (hopefully) defense and graduation in the future, I've been thinking about this both through the lens of how to stay focused on what I think is important, and through the lens of recrafting my teaching philosophy. Here's what I came up with:

• As a first generation student, from a lower class background, in a single parent household, I am deeply committed to not only being transparent to my students about my background, but actively seeking to help them and provide them tools that will help them.
• While I think I'd be happy in a variety of positions, I think I would be happiest in a situation where I was serving these populations, and able to serve as a model and help for students like myself.
• While some of my uni students complain it's too simplistic, I believe in designing courses that provide low stakes practice activities aimed at filling in skill gaps and ultimately helping students succeed.
• I would rather believe the student who says they had an emergency and needs an extension than believe all students are liars.
• I would rather have students feel comfortable reaching out and talking to me than not.
• While it is more work for me, I believe in encouraging students to submit drafts and get more help.
• I believe in encouraging students to make choices in what they study, and the format they demonstrate mastery.
• I think that helping students, learn the content, learn to time manage, learn to prioritize work, is my primary goal. This means posting safe spaces banners in class, posting videos and flyers about mental health, and encouraging them to take care of themselves. While this may not be a tangible thing, I think these things better serve my students.

What I've learned in the last year is that I still value being honest, a straight shooter, smart. And I am all of those things for my students. But I've learned how to be those things as me, and not as a copy of a teacher I had twenty years ago.

So for those of you who teach teachers, advise grad students, here is my suggestion- rather than encouraging them to mimic teachers or styles, to fake it until they make it, instead encourage them to think about what helps them as students. What do they appreciate as students? What do they best respond to? What types of things bug them? Hurt their feelings?
Mentor them to use that list to build the type of teacher they want to be.
I guarantee they'll be happier. And better teachers.

High School and Higher Ed: Bridging the Divide (Postscript 8 January)

The first time around, I taught high school from 2001-2004 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and from 2004-2013 in Manteo, North Carolina. While in NC I also taught for an online high school and for the local community college.

In 2013 I moved out here to Albuquerque to begin my PhD program.

I returned to high school teaching this past March here in Albuquerque.

I've been thinking a lot the last few months about how teaching and pedagogy is and isn't stressed in higher ed. I've been told repeatedly in my PhD program that "teaching isn't why you're here." Added to this, being back in a high school classroom after three years of my PhD program has made me realize just how much my higher ed experience has influenced and changed how I teach high school students. Likewise, I've realized that contrary to popular opinion, my high school teaching is an asset to my higher ed teaching.

Last year, the Medieval Academy has a dust up over the World History taught in high school AP classes and the fact that it was incomplete and inaccurate. While this was only a single instance to me it highlighted just how little high school teachers and college professors know about each other and what they do. I've blogged some about my schedule as a teacher, but I think a lot of people don't know what the other does.

First, I want to talk some about the general differences between high school and higher ed in the hopes that both could learn some from the other.

• High school (and other K-12 teachers) are encouraged to get to know their students. Their home lives, their families, their cultures.
• My school has roughly 1500 students. 50% of which live in poverty. The majority of our students are Chican@ or Native. Most of our families are employed, but they struggle to make it so they are working poor. Parents often work more than one job. Many students don't have computers at home. Or internet access. Or a place to work. They care for multiple siblings or work to help out after school. 
• For students from the reservation or lower socio-economic class this is an access issue.
• Whether or not students have smartphones, or computers, dictates whether they can do that assignment.
• Being aware of this, and making sure students know about campus/school resources is key.
• Our students deal with trauma, of homelessness, family and friends lost to suicide, drugs, crime. 
• There's a rule in my classroom- no one goes hungry in my class. My students know this. I have a drawer in my desk that's always full of granola bars, oatmeal. Students know they can always ask and ALWAYS have food. ALWAYS.
• In part because of these issues, absences are a HUGE issue. I have several students I haven't seen in ten weeks or more. Others only turn up every nine days because they know after ten they'll be dropped. 
• We have a food and clothing bank on school property. It's key to erase the stigma to taking advantage of these resources. For college professors, think about making a list of resources, on campus, and in town, and posting in your course so students have access.
• Don't assume someone else is doing this.
• Families want to help, but Spanish only speaking parents and their work schedules can often make communication difficult.

 

• The importance of culture cannot be understated.
• For me this year that meant choosing different texts to teach skills. We read The Underdogs, The Jungle, The Milagro Beanfield War. Books that spoke to culture and socio-economic class.
• I have noticed with my students that they prefer to work in groups, communal efforts and work is a cultural thing both for my Chican@ and Native students. This works well in my classes because my default is group work at big tables. 
• This affects daily work. Most of my students don't work on their own, they always work in groups, they always complete assignments together. For smaller, formative assessments this can be helpful. But it can also complicate assessing what they know versus what the group knows. Separating them to get them to do their own work is sometimes tricky.
• In my classes I often see/have one or two stronger English Language Learners helping or translating for five or six weaker English students. They translate the instructions, they explain what we're supposed to do. 
• There are pluses and minuses to this. The plus is I don't speak Spanish, and these students are a resource I wouldn't be able to provide otherwise. 
• This group setting also helps build class community. 
• The minus is that usually this role falls to the girls in my class. Which means they put their learning aside to serve the (mostly) male students. 
• Many of my students have Spanish as a first language. I ask them what words and phrases are for things I say a lot. I ask them how to correctly say names. I make them experts in our classroom.
• The last year I  had students in my college classes who were assaulted, had friends die, had lives taken over by care-giving, and other traumatic events that impacted their class performance. I know we're not counselors, or psychiatrists, but we can be support. I have language on my syllabus about reaching out for help, contacting me. I tell them that I cannot provide the help they need but I can help them get it.
• I have a safe space sign on my syllabus and on my online course's header. 
• Out of these students the last year they've all reached out and I think my reaction has helped them. I made sure I was sympathetic, told them I was sorry they were going through this, and asked what I could do to help. Not all passed. Some dropped. One dropped then took me the next semester to graduate and told me my support was key to that happening. Each, whether they passed or not, reached out to thank me for being there. These connections matter.

 

• Proximity and contact are important tools in the teacher's toolbox. You walk around the room, you stand near groups that are off task. You high-five students, tap them on shoulders, give them pats on back.
• For the obvious reasons this can go wrong, and issues of consent, higher ed professors shy away from this. And I get it. But proximity can be done without issue. And if you walk around larger classes, use proximity you learn more about your students. Crouching down by desks/tables and listening, you learn more about your students. Asking how students are, building in some personal contact (even if it's not physical) will improve your classroom.
• This can be asking how they are in the ten minutes before and after class. It can be encouraging them to explore their own interests in assignments. It can be in your interactions and communications.
• My students don't have a whole lot of role models. Last year when I told them I was working on my doctorate they asked if once I graduated I was going to work in a hospital. They didn't know the difference between a medical doctor and a PhD.
• For this reason, as with my college students, I am very transparent about my background and my experiences. Growing up poor, moving a lot, having a single mom, being a first generation college student, how I worked all through high school, college  for my masters' degree, and now my doctorate. 
• High school teachers are encouraged to connect their content to the students' experiences. Activating schema is huge- text to self experiences.
• In my higher ed classes I do this through pop culture references and just asking. What do you know about X? I also encourage them to find cultural connections to the material we're covering. It doesn't take a lot of time, and can drastically change how you approach something.
• I am a big fan of teaching students where they are not where you want them to be. This means assessing where they are and then planning activities to improve and supplement the skills they don't have. 
• In my classes there are a lot of class assignments in f2f and practice assignments in my online class. They're not graded usually, or if they are they count as extra credit. They are designed to improve student skills and to give them a chance to practice the skills needed for larger, graded assignments.
• I know college professors can't make up for years of not knowing X. But there are small moves that can be made to improve skills and class performance.
• Because of my higher ed experience there are also things that have changed in my high school classroom:
• I jump on kids immediately for offensive or dismissive language. High school students, particularly high school boys are fond of using "fag," "retard." "pussy" on a casual basis. Not only do I chastise them for it, but I interrogate them about why they think this is okay. If they use gendered language I ask them if they're seriously going to say to ME that women are weaker, or less than. Because of how I frame it though, I've never had to have the conversation twice.
• High school students are super touchy-feely, but I stress with them that in my classroom we don't touch people without consent. 
• As in my college classes, I explain why we do what we do, and what my rationale is for doing certain things or assigning certain things.
• Because I teach at the college level I also make a lot of statements that tell them how college is different, and what they can expect. Not all my students will go to college, so I make similar statements about the work force.

Now for some things that perhaps higher ed professors don't know. I'm basing this on my 16+ years of experience in a variety of places, but I have a lot of friends who are also high school teachers throughout the country and I can tell you these are all pretty typical situations.

• Work, work, work, grades, grades, grades are the motivators in high school. At my school parents were concerned that all of a sudden at the end of the marking period their child was failing because many teachers weren't entering grades until the end, so we were asked to give a minimum of 2 grades a week.
• I teach 5 periods. Roughly 30 students per class. That's 150 for those of you not good with math. So I was just asked to grade 300 assignments. Every week.  
• I tend to do a lot of small practice assignments that are formative not summative assessments and my big grades are long term writing and projects. So this edict is in direct conflict with my pedagogy.
• The union intervened, but this work expectation is fairly normal. As are parent calls and emails about why their child is failing, has a B, doesn't like you.
• We are required to call all parents of failing students, or students in danger of failing. This is usually 30% of them during a six week marking period. So 50 students every six weeks. 
• While this varies from school to school and state to state in general, there is little incentive for students to stay on top of research, current trends, up to date information.
• A high school English teacher is a general teacher. 9-12 English is the designation. This means that people with no background or experience teach specialized classes. Teachers teach based on interest (theirs) and school needs. Rarely does a teacher get assigned a class because they are an expert. For example, my specialty/focus is medieval and early modern literature. But last year I taught 9th grade an intro to literature, a reading remediation class, and this year I have the remediation class and American literature. Teachers may teach things because they "love" it not because they actually know anything about the content or field. This means that you have teachers who are not necessarily qualified teaching courses such as: Film, British literature, American literature, Shakespeare, Bible as literature
• This might not seem like a big deal. Until you realize these are foundation classes, not just for the content they teach but for the way they teach students to think.
• In this same vein, you need to realize that most high school teachers only have bachelor's degrees. Many do not continue their education as they teach outside of required professional development. Some may pursue their master's degree if they can during nights or summers. It's often a pay raise. But these programs are often nights, weekends, summers and probably do not look like the grad school model you're familiar with. But most don't pursue this. Money if often an obstacle as is daily schedule. High school teachers may share ideas with other teachers, but there is a strong division between high school and higher ed teachers sharing approaches, pedagogy, and research.
• Even if teachers are interested in these things, it becomes an issue of time. The workload that the numbers above equal means that there's not a lot of time to do anything other than keep your head above water.
• Budget cuts mean that out of city, let alone out of state, conferences are no longer an option. If you live in a small, rural area you may not have access to conferences or professional development.
• Being a high school teacher is expensive. Depending on your school you buy your own supplies. You buy supplies for students who don't have them. You buy class sets of books. The list is pretty extensive. Conservatively teachers spend several hundreds of dollars each year of their own money.
• High school teachers are required to design multi-page lessons for each class. Each must show how they achieve state standards, and daily student learning objectives. In addition, content can be questioned by administration or parents. 
• Tests and certain assignments are often dictated by department, school, or district. This doesn't even include the state tests.
• All this is to say that enthusiasm for content, experience on content, are not always the driving force in a classroom.

I understand comments of professors that they can't teach their content and catch students up. But I also think that some reflective teaching, asking questions about why they don't get certain things, what you can do to improve it, can help.
A lot of these I think focuses on skill development. Students having a hard time writing thesis statements? Do a brief mini-lesson on how to write a good one. Students having a hard time with citation? There are hundreds of web resources, just point them there.
I know that college classes can't make up for or address all the instances of trauma our students experience, but we can make our classes safe spaces. We can be that one person students feel like they can talk to.
I'd love to see the divide between college professors and high school teachers fade if not disappear entirely. Professors, other than rhet/comp people could reach out to local high schools, guest speak. We could hold local and regional conferences where professors could be paired with high school teachers to share state of field ideas. Technology means we could build list-servs and webpages that shared this information.

These things could only help our students.

Even if college professors can't act on these things or implement them (which they totally can if they want) then at least they're aware.
Even if high school teachers can't make large scale changes to better scaffold for college, they can make small moves that better prepare students.

Postscript: 8 January
There were some great conversations and shares yesterday after I posted this with both Kevin Gannon ( @TheTattooedProf ) and Dave Mazella (@DaveMazella ).

• The first thought that came to me after posting was that at the high school level EVERYTHING is personalized. You tailor assignments, and to a certain extent content (see culture above) to the students. Likewise, while some of us use assignment guidelines and  rubrics, many of us still use standard complete/incomplete for small assignments and A-F scale for larger ones. And Johnny's C may not be the same as Amy's C. Amy may be a previously straight A student who is phoning it in while Johnny may be a kid with low reading and writing skills but busted his ASS to get really unique ideas on paper.
• Yes, we should have parity in classes. But for me this is more about parity of the quality and time of instruction. All students are not created equal, and we shouldn't treat them that way. This is part of the reason I like projects as much as papers in my college classes. And it's why I'm not a fan of rubrics. Students can check all the boxes on a rubric, score well, and still write a crap, unoriginal piece. Students can score low on a rubric but rock a project or paper- unique ideas I never would have thought of, great arguments. 
• So give all your students YOUR same energy. But remember that THEY are not the same.
• Protection. I have worked in union states and non-union states. I have worked on an at-will contract, and last minute contracts. In NC I was called into the principal's office for teaching The Scarlet Letter and accused of being a devil worshipper. Like, this was a real thing. I've also had parents complain about my Twitter handle. I once lost a contract job because I wouldn't grant an extension to a failing student who hadn't worked in weeks. Depending what your situation is, tenured or not, high school teachers can occupy a very precarious position. I've had parents call and scream at me because their student hasn't attended school in eight weeks. We have little to no recourse with these things. We get used to being treated like this. Many times our day to day becomes a "pick your battle" thing.
• Unfortunately, all the good topics, the ones that challenge students to think and learn critical thinking skills, and become good citizens all fall into dangerous categories. Some of us still push because it's important. Some, understandably, aren't comfortable doing this because they have things to prioritize.
• All this is a reminder that a lot influences the content in a high school classroom.
• Resources. I wrote above about the money teachers spend of their own. But there's a lot we just can't afford. Often we can't afford class sets of books. So your content is limited by what books are in your school's bookroom. 
• I wanted to add Fences to my American Dream unit this spring. We don't own it. We have some Chican@ texts, some African-American literature, but most of it is old, white, canon. That's a disservice to our population.
• You also have to share books with 15 other English teachers. So if they get to it first, you're choosing something else.
• You also have to teach what your school or department has agreed on. You look at what you're allowed to teach and then you plan your class.
• Time. I had this conversation at my Tuesday professional development with other high school teachers and it came up again yesterday on Twitter. We don't have any. When I was in high school (1991-94) my English classes were often show up having done the reading, and then we'd spend the entire period just talking about it. What happened? What did you think? The teachers believed in wait time, and if you struggled they gave you a hint. But you figured it out. But we don't have this now. Because you have to post standards for the lesson, and use those as a checklist. And you can't just "talk" about the book or play or poem because while this and discussion is how students learn to figure stuff out, it's hard on a day to day to PROVE this. 
•  Technology is great. Projects are great. Organizers, sentence starters, supplements, are all great. BUT nothing replaces sitting with students and talking through the ideas. I'm aiming more this semester to try and do just this. But it's hard. Somewhere along the way sharing best practices became a checklist of things you HAD to do in your classroom in order to replicate results, and that just doesn't do it.
• I wish I could have more time IN class, time to explore readings, ideas, get students to think. The problem is there's such a check list of what you SHOULD be doing every day that by the time that's done, there's not much left.
• Time and Physical Consequences:
• In union states you can't be assigned duties during your lunch, or before or after school so your hours can actually be "just" 725-225 of pretty much straight teaching. But that's 7 hours on your feet. If you have knee or back problems, remember, those hours are on a concrete floor, standing. Because you can't sit at your desk.
• I leave my house at 630a. School starts at 725. I teach until lunch (30 minutes, duty free). We have seven periods, one PLC, one prep period. School ends at 225p. Mondays I have all classes in a 50 minute class. T/TH I have 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th. 2nd is my prep, so 90 minutes on those days. But W/F I have 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th with lunch my only break. Technically teachers aren't allowed to leave students alone in a room. Because of this, the number one complaint I hear from older teachers is the permanent bladder/urinary problems they have for overriding instinct and not going to the bathroom for 4-5 hours.

If you mentor grad students and TAs, encourage them to base pedagogy on their population, their culture, their interests. Think about incorporating some of this. If they're looking for a place to start, please feel free to share this- a TA and Teaching Resource Manual. I add to it when I have time, but created it to help TAs out.
If you're a faculty member, consider these things as you teach graduate classes that include high school and future high school teachers. Or reach out to local high school teachers and ask them what they could use, or what they wish college professors knew. 
The more dialogues we can have back and forth, the more this becomes the norm and not the exception the better it is for all of our students.

Thanks to everyone who shared and discussed yesterday. I look forward to the continuing conversation. 

Grad School and Academic Taxes Tips

Yesterday I had a day off and it was the new year, so I sat down to pull my tax stuff together. I tweeted about some of it, but thought too I'd pull some of the tips together here for grad students and others.

I first learned to be saavy about taxes as a theatre tech where you could deduct just about everything. While I apply many of these ideas to my taxes now, I also don't know enough about taxes, so always take my stuff to H & R Block and have them do it, and I just ask questions. This saved me last year when it turned out person who filed for me first year out here had made some errors. H & R Block not only fixed it, but they paid for it. To me this peace of mind is worth it.

Okay, so this is what I do.

• Before I leave for a conference, I add a largish envelope to my binder. As I gather receipts during the conference I just put them straight into the envelope.
• As soon as I get home I add them all up
• My tax lady last year made sure I knew that travel and food had to be separate and that you only got credit for 50% of food costs.
• Once I've tallied the receipts on the envelope, I put the envelope in my deductions folder in my big box.

I keep this box right next to my inbox to sort (left of this) and next to my desk (right of this).  This makes it really easy to stay on top of things.

• As bills, papers that need filing come in during the week I throw them in the inbox.
• On Saturday, the first thing I do when I sit down at my desk with coffee is balance my checkbook for the week. The next thing I do is file anything in the inbox into the big box.
• For taxes I have folders like deductions, medical, misc. tax stuff
• But I also have one for bank stuff, house stuff, will, credit scores, etc.
• This ensures everything for a year is in one place
• Yesterday, as I sat down to organize and add up tax stuff I just pulled the relevant folders.
• I pull the folders, and rubber band them together to represent the year, 2016. Once I file the taxes this banded folder and the H & R Block folder will get rubber banded together and put in a separate big box that holds tax stuff. Every year I shred the latest 7th year, so this year I'll shred 2008's stuff.

I made a version of this worksheet a few years ago to keep track of things, and every year it gets revised a little more based on tips or things my tax lady tells me (I say lady, but it's never the same lady each year which is kind of nice as each as a slightly different approach and therefore tips!)

• As grad students and academics, conferences are probably the main thing we expense/track, so that's first. 
• Travel, food, and dues/registration all get itemized differently, so they're separated here.
• As a student, and a high school teacher, it's important for me to track all the things I buy.
• I think the deduction is like a paltry $200 per year. I spend hundreds more than this.
• Depending on where you are and what your actual career is, what you can deduct is different. 
• In general the vague description is anything necessary for job and/or school. Which in many cases means books but can mean media as well.
•  Medical comes next. Mine has been pretty hefty the last couple of years because of gum surgeries.
• Donations are next. With all the paring down and trips to Goodwill I had a lot of these. 
• Be sure to keep receipts of these all year long.
• You deduct your car registration/taxes. I still don't understand this but every year I forget so I added it here.
• The last block is a list of the forms I need before I can file. I tend to file the first week in February but one year filed, forgot I was missing a W2 and had to refile. So I list the forms I'm waiting on, check them off as they come in, they make the H & R Block appointment online once they're all in.
• This worksheet gets printed, and I staple it to the front if my tax folder for this year.
• This folder only has the deductible receipts and such in it, this is not the bigger rubber-banded folder that represents all of 2016 stuff.

It took me less than an hour yesterday to pull out the 2016 folders, add up the math, put it on my worksheet, and be done.
Printing out my 2016 Amazon order history to track and add up dissertation and high school materials was the lengthiest part. Hey Amazon- how about you make this easier? Add a way to look at orders for year, divide into categories (books, media, household goods, etc.) and tabulate the costs. LOTS of people would thank you.
Now, this folder just sits and as tax forms come in mail, or come available online for me to print out, I just add to the folder and check off.

I think this all works so well because it it's small, manageable moves all year so it doesn't seem overwhelming.

So those are my tips. Anyone else have any great ones? Any deduction tips experienced academics want to share?