You’ve made your syllabus…….the countdown to the first class seems to be accelerating and you feel nowhere close to ready!
How do you get motivated for the long weeks ahead?
For me, the best way to be ready to get back into the swing of things is to prepare two weeks’ worth of class sessions. Why?

Gets me thinking about the course
Helps me calm down and keeps those nasty classroom nightmares at bay a bit better
Gives me a buffer of semi- to mostly- prepared classes because the beginning of the semester also marks lots of time spent advising students about their class schedules, scheduling and attending committee meetings, and getting independent research student projects organization and started.

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Sometimes in my excitement about a course plan I’ve developed I totally forget to put a late policy in my syllabus. Even after 21 years of college teaching, I forgot to add a late policy to my course syllabus this past fall semester! [What was I thinking? Answer: I wasn’t!]
Why do you need a late policy in your syllabus?

1. Your students need to know up front how you will handle assignments they want to turn in late.

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Your course syllabus is a bit like a contract you give your class. In it you tell them what the course is about, what you expect them to learn, how you expect them to demonstrate what they’ve learned.
I also use the syllabus as a way to advertise the course, to share my excitement for the course.

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All aboard! We had a week or so to think about things other than our teaching. One of the great things about being a teacher is there are occasional times when we can truly feel we’ve completed our job. On the other hand, hear we go again!

Like being drawn back to the rollercoaster in an amusement park, we get back in the rickety car and slowly lurch our way back to the top of the ride.

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