Back to School week for teachers at our school means coming back the week before the students do to set up classrooms and attend staff meetings. One of our theme's for reflection this year is how are we telling our academy's story? I've already written a post that connects with this on using a classroom Twitter account as a window into our teaching worlds, but there are other ways to do this as well of course. At our recent staff meeting our Coordinator asked us, "How does your syllabus help to tell your class' story?"
The question threw me for a loop. My first thought was, "Uh, it doesn't. My syllabus is just a boring paper with my course outline. That's what syllabuses (syllabi? whatever.) are, right?" But then as I often do later, I let it sink in. Often our syllabus is one of the first things that parents see of our classroom. It's the introduction to what our class is all about and by association what we are about as teachers. Uh, oh. . . So, what was my syllabus saying?
With new student/parent orientation around the corner, I decided to remedy this right away. Amanda showed us a fantastic example from Jillian Molina, our seventh/eighth grade teacher. I looked online for what ideas are out there and found more great examples of what innovative teachers are doing to capture their classes. After much some consideration of what fits best for my style, I transformed both my Core (Language Arts and Social Studies combo course) and Science/Tech syllabi (syllabuses?) to better tell my classes' stories using Piktograph. Here's a link to my full-sized Science/Tech syllabus infographic and Core syllabus infographic. It was a bit of a learning curve at first as it's been quite a while since I've dabbled with this program. However, I think the pay off is worth it.
What about you? How are you sharing your teaching and school's stories with the community or the world?
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