Mentee Info
Planning Your Semester
This newsletter contains information that will help you plan your semester.
Why Plan?
I've found that the more I can plan in advance, the more time I have throughout the week to grade, answer student emails, etc.
Jigsaw
- I like to plan a schedule for my weekly Jigsaw sessions before the semester starts.
- As I create my presentations for each week, I bold that week in my schedule so I know that I've completed that presentation.
- Once I have the schedule, I can put it in the weekly newsletters.
- HINT: I like to upload my presentation as a PDF. I've found annotating the "slides" works better that way. Having the presentation as a PDF means I can upload the PDF to the course for students that might want a copy of the presentation.
This is an example of my schedule for this semester. I like knowing what I will be doing in advance.
Weekly Newsletters
- I also like to make as many weekly newsletters as possible in advance. That way, all I have to do each week is send them out.
- Next semester, I can copy the weekly newsletters and simply edit them for the course I'll be teaching.
- In the newsletter, I like to let them know what we will be doing that week, give them some encouragement/tips/hints, include a picture of their two-week schedule, information about their weekly synchronous session.
News Announcements
- I also like to post as many news announcements as possible in advance.
- I save the HTML code for each news announcement because many can be reused from semester to semester with little to no editing.
- I also like to create a schedule of my news announcements. When I create that news announcement in the course, I bold that announcement in my schedule and add the date. This isn't necessary, but it helps me keep track of the announcements.