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Warnings, Disclaimers, and Caveats. How to Build a CYA Syllabus (and Why You Need One) Presented by David Clemens, Monterey Peninsula College, Flex Day, Fall, 2008. WARNING!.
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Warnings, Disclaimers, and Caveats How to Build a CYA Syllabus (and Why You Need One) Presented by David Clemens, Monterey Peninsula College, Flex Day, Fall, 2008
WARNING! This presentation contains profanity, nudity, adult situations, and violent images. None of these elements are gratuitous or intentionally offensive; they are used to illustrate the matter under discussion: what some students or community members may find objectionable and how to protect yourself with your syllabus. This presentation is Rated R and may be unsuitable for those disturbed by adult content.
Essentials • Course Title and Official Catalog Description • Class Location, Your Name, Office, Office Hours • Contact Information (phone and email) • Important Dates (last day to drop, date of final) • Textbooks • Grading Policy • Attendance Policy • SLOs
That’s because advances in technology, changes in pedagogy, and the “accountability movement”put teachers under a microscope like never before
“The course is now viewed as part of a department, the department is part of a program, the program is part of a division, the division is part of an institution, and so on. So when a syllabus details criteria for grading, or methods of instruction today, it is not merely about the course anymore. The syllabus is burdened with a definition of a course so expanded that the very existence of an individual instructor threatens to become effaced.” Terry Caesar www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/01/27/caesar2
Do you feel you are being watched? Convergent cell phones can record everything you say, take your picture, and have it up on YouTube before class is over
Here’s mine from www.ratemyprofessors.com • I loved Clemens, although he is difficult and confusing at times, he stimulates every student if they allow him to do so. • Mr. Clemens is by far the craziest teacher I've ever had.Each day is a new weird experience and you will never know what to expect. Intellectually equiped students will find him interesting and fascinating, while the other hollowed-brained yuppies might find him annoying. TAKE HIM FOR ENGLISH! • This is probably the most difficult yet interesting class I've ever taken. • took his english classes several years ago. he is one of the best instructors I ever had (I now have a master's). I still use skills and logic taught by this professor. his classes had a tremendous positive impact on my writing skills and academic life. • He is bad. • This is a trip that will take you from present to future and back to the past in more ways than one. You will find your head spiningwith ideas and all you will have to do is put your hand up and ask a question to make it stop. An excelent mind expanding class. Conseptual Blockbusting at its finest
How would you like to be this guy? Mark Says: April 29th, 2008 at 4:34 pm My professor, Dr. Lange, (music dept.) University of Houston, is monotonous, whiney, pathetic, and seemingly self pitying.
So it’s good to keep in mind what Sir Thomas More says in A Man For All Seasons:
Sir Thomas More: God made the angels to show Him splendor, as He made animals for innocence and plants for their simplicity. But Man He made to serve Him wittily, in the tangle of his mind. If He suffers us to come to such a case that there is no escaping, then we may stand to our tackle as best we can, and, yes, Meg, then we can clamor like champions, if we have the spittle for it. But it's God's part, not our own, to bring ourselves to such a pass. Our natural business lies in escaping.
But don’t forget Some kinds of electronic information that you create may exist in multiple locations permanently, and while other kinds of electronic information may seem evanescent, liability may ensue from either kind: tracking cookies, keystroke loggers, filters can all bring you to grief.
ceased to exist around 1991. Deal with it.
As David Brin says, “Today, most people know most things about most other people most of the time.”
In 2008, creating a positive learning environment means overcoming a multitude of challenges: • A generally coarse culture • Trash talking and “authenticity” • “Mook and Midriff” culture • Electronic distractions • “Student-centered” pedagogy • Mainstreamed students with emotional/psychological/drug problems
SOLUTION: Establish a Decorum Policy like this one on your syllabus: • Be on time and respect your fellow students; if you are habitually late, I will deduct points, or if your lateness proves disruptive, I will drop you; • don’t interrupt, please raise your hand, and please listen to others. If you are not attentive and seriously engaged in this class, you will not succeed; • because I am answering someone else’s question doesn’t mean that the class has stopped or been sidetracked—I always try to cast my answers in material beneficial to the entire class; • disruptive or distracting behavior creates grounds for dismissal from the class; coherent scholarly discourse is predicated on discussing all manner of ideas objectively while maintaining civility, restraint, courtesy, deference, intellectual humility, and mutual respect. Bullying, badgering, or denigrating are forms of silencing which will not be tolerated; • do not bring children to class; often we must deal with adult concerns in adult language.
is this what you see, students on MySpace, Facebook, email, porn, Twitter, or liveblogging your lecture?
SOLUTION: Add an Electronics Policy to your syllabus: • No video recorders, cameras, audio recorders,, or other recording devices allowed; • no texting during class; • turn off your cell phone during class except in emergencies; vibration only; • laptops are not welcome because they interfere with the concentration of the instructor and the other students (and are used for gaming, watching videos, messaging, etc.) Laptops also interfere with the cognitive benefits of physical note taking; • because you SENT me an email or text file doesn’t mean that I RECEIVED your email or text file; obtain and save confirmation; • laptops may NOT be used during exams—even if you MUST use a laptop to take notes you will need to print them out for the tests; • no iPods, other MP-3 players, Bluetooth, or other listening devices; I would rather you listen to Spoon on your earbuds in the Student Center than distract those around you in class. I support the student's right to fail and respect your choice to miss material.
Like Bart Simpson, many students (and journalists and historians and politicians) don’t seem to understand plagiarism. Some students think that cut-and-paste is “research.” Others call it “collaboration!”
SOLUTION: Our English Department adopted this POLICY which goes on all our syllabi According to the 1977 edition of the MLA Handbook, plagiarism is “[d]erived from the Latin word plagiarius (`kidnapper’ and also `plagiarist’ in the modern sense), plagiarism is defined by Alexander Lindey as `the false assumption of authorship; the wrongful act of taking the product of another person’s mind, and presenting it as one’s own’ (Plagiarism and Originality [New York: Harper, 1952], p. 2). Plagiarism may take the form of repeating another’s sentences as your own, paraphrasing someone else’s argument as your own, or even presenting someone else’s line of thinking in the development of a thesis as though it were your own. In short, to plagiarize is to give the impression that you have written or thought something that you have in fact borrowed from another. Although a writer may use other person’s words and thoughts, they must be acknowledged as such.” Plagiarism is grounds for expulsion. In the event of instructor leniency, a student may be dropped from the class and receive a “W” before the final drop date or an “F” after that date. The instructor may issue a “0,” “NC,” or “F” for the work in which the plagiarism appears, or the instructor may issue a written warning, or the instructor may refer the student to the Vice President for Student Services for disciplinary action.
Maybe you use cinematic masterpieces, as I do, that employ this kind of dialogue, from Apocalypse Now Chef: This Colonel guy? He's wacko, man! He's worse than crazy. He's evil. It's fuckin' pagan idolatry. Look around you. Shit! He's loco... I ain't afraid of all them fuckin' skulls and altars and shit. I used to think if I died in an evil place, then my soul wouldn't be able to make it to Heaven. But now? Fuck! I mean, I don't care where it goes, as long as it ain't here. So whaddyawanna do? I'll kill the fuck.
