Course instructor TO-DO
- Writing syllabi
- Using Elementary Classroom Management across the program
- Filing syllabi with DAET
- Reporting course meeting location changes
- Required course meetings in Final Exam week
- Student Instructional Rating System (SIRS) surveys
Writing syllabi
Arguably, the refined syllabus for a powerful course will be the collective work of an instructor group over a period of years. (If you cannot tell that you are a member of an instructor group, please contact the Team Leader.) Further, syllabi are the final and most detailed step in providing students "prior notice" of the expectations to which they will be held. Without that prior notice, those expectations cannot be effectively enforced. The following points are offered in both of the preceding contexts.
The MSU Code of Teaching Responsibility sets out a list of information that should be included in syllabi. Normally, an effective instructor group's syllabus will meet the requirements, but the matter is worth checking against the Code, to put the syllabus on the solidest ground.
Section B of the TE Department's policy for handling disputes between instructors and students calls for the syllabus for each section of each course to provide "(a) the name and contact information for the person to whom students can address complaints that they cannot resolve with the instructor, and (b) the URL for these procedures." For TE 301, 401, and 402 instructors, the person is DAET's Lansing-based Team Coordinator. For the internship, the person is the Detroit-based Cluster Leader.
Experience has shown that providing several kinds of written information in syllabi can help avoid confusion or problems down the line. The Team offers prose that you can paste directly into your syllabi. There is a rich text version for direct use in a word processor.
Using Elementary Classroom Management across the program
Weinstein and Mignano's Elementary Classroom Management, Third Edition (ECM), is a boundary object for DAET's program, an object that can be carried from course to course, as part of an effort to build course upon course in a coherent program. A table indicates how ECM is used in each course, to achieve that effect.
Filing syllabi
As as faculty, the TE Department is obliged to know the design for all of the sections of all of its courses. Upon completion of your course syllabus, please attach a copy to an email to daet@msu.edu. The DAET Secretary will forward one hard copy to the Department and an additional copy will be kept on file in the Team office for reference by other team members. Syllabi for all DAET courses from the previous year are also available.
Reporting course meeting location changes
DAET is obliged--particularly in case of an emergency involving a student--to know where course activities are occurring. If you will not be meeting in the location published in the university schedule, notify daet@msu.edu with a copy to phampton@msu.edu. State the date or dates on which you will be meeting away from the location in the schedule, and the locations where those meetings will occur. If your plan changes, send updates. If you have special needs or concerns about classroom availability, please contact a team coordinator.
Course meetings during "Final exam" week
MSU's final examination policy requires that all sections of all courses should meet during finals week--whether or not a final exam will be given--for activities described in the policy. The Final Exam schedule provides the meeting times for those sessions. In practical terms, this policy provides a way to make the last regular meeting of the class a working session, and then use up to two more hours, in the following week, to collect final assignments, summarize the course, and evaluate it. Get the policy via the Final Exam Schedule link in the Calendars section of the Registrar’s web page at http://www.reg.msu.edu.
Student Instructional Rating System Survey