Setting up classes for a new semester: My process

As I’m teaching four classes this semester, something I haven’t done for a while, I figured it was time to up my organizational game just a little… and give website readers a sense of how I organize my classes along with the tools I use.

Tools:

• OmniOutliner
• Adobe Fonts
• Adobe InDesign
• Adobe Acrobat
• PAC 2024.3 (for checking accessibility)
• A master calendar of the semester (mine is ledger size, 11” x 17”, because I write big!)
• A weekly calendar based the semester
• And of course, good old-fashioned paper and pencil

What Goes With Me Into the Classroom

As my teaching career has developed, I’ve moved from “memorized extemporaneous” teaching to “semi-extemporaneous” teaching. In other words, all of my notes for the class are prepared in outline format (thus, OmniOutliner), but I try to stay away from them as much as possible. In other words, I want to interact with my students, not with my iPad. The benefit of the iPad Pro is the larger space for split screen. I use the split screen in three different ways:

• If I want to have my syllabus in view, I’ll have OmniOutliner in split screen with the Files app, where I can easily have my syllabus available. If I need to make changes to the syllabus, because I’ve either gotten behind, or something changed the syllabus, such as Hurricane Helene, I can then edit the syllabus using iOS tools, and then work on updating it later.
• For rhetorical theory/criticism classes, it’s normally OmniOutliner in split screen with Liquid Text. Liquid Text will typically have either the theory article I’m using, or a copy of the text we’re analyzing with my marked up notes.
• If I need to look up something quickly (which has been known to happen!), it’ll be OmniOutliner with Safari in split screen.

Using an outline format with a few key quotations or phrases forces me to not read from my notes! ^[1]Isn’t that what many public speaking teachers teach?

The Daily Outline

Each semester, my outline template varies just a little bit. This semester, my outline looks as follows:

• Name of Class
• Day of the Semester
• Date
• Topic
• Reading Assignment
• Different Ways of Interacting With Students
• Introduction
• Main Points (usually 3, because that’s what we learn in forensics. :))
• Review
• Next day topic/notes

And for this Fall, I decided I needed to up my game in Theory and Research — more math jokes! So there’s a line for that in my Theory and Research outlines. 🙂

All of the parts of the outline are in a file for each day that lives in OmniOutliner. The part that may seem a little strange is the “different ways of interacting with students” line. Like many other professors, I can be guilty of falling into patterns (my default is discussion-based in more of a seminar-type format). The “different ways of interacting with students” line is to remind me to vary my teaching a bit so that I’m doing different things in the classroom.

Each of the outlines is based on an OmniOutliner template. The templates all use H1/H2/H3 headings, and the fonts match the base font for the syllabus. ^[2]No, I didn’t always do that, but this semester, I figured I should. They each have a different background color as well. As a result, I can just look at the outline and know what class I’m dealing with — which is more important this coming semester, since I teach back-to-back-to-back on Monday/Wednesday/Friday.

I also try to match the syllabus fonts to the OmniOutliner fonts whenever possible. That makes it much easier to see which class I’m in.

The Syllabus

Each of the syllabi are done in InDesign. I have a library page set up for the generic official policies, which I’ve finally cut down to 1 page. The font is different than the rest of the document, but I don’t really care, since that also becomes a signifier that these are the policies that are common across every class. All syllabi are done with proper paragraph styles linked to H1, H2, H3 and paragraph tags. There’s a base font for the syllabus, a secondary font for what I call the “I’m speaking to you directly” sections, and a third font for the calendar at the end of the syllabus. There are probably 6-8 different paragraph styles in each syllabus, but that’s also to help me remember where I am in the syllabus (main heading, secondary heading, etc.). The syllabus is exported to PDF, and then checked against PDF 2024 (or the most current version) when it’s complete for accessibility errors.

The “I’m speaking to you directly” sections are something that many colleagues have in their syllabi, but I choose to put them in a separate font so that they stand out more. ^[3]I recognize that it’s not perfect for accessibility, but someday we’ll get screen readers or other alternative technologies to voice those differently without having to use hacks such as other … Continue reading For example, I’ve been known to have a section called “The secrets to doing well in this class…everything you want to know can be found here!” These sections typically more informal fonts such as Lint McCree International from Blambot or CC Meanwhile from Comicraft.

I should also point out that each syllabus has a different base font as well, which also helps when I look at the syllabi on my iPad.

The Calendar

I have decided to create two different types of calendars to help me in my planning for the semester: one that shows me the entire semester at a glance, and the other a week-by-week calendar. The semester at a glance is designed to help me not schedule all of my grading at the same time ^[4]Although as we know, that sometimes happens anyway! It also has details related to Joshua’s schedule (half days and days off) and his traveling soccer schedule (I’d like not to drag a bunch of grading with me to North Carolina and South Carolina!).

The week-by-week has more details about what will be covered in each class.

There’s often a huge difference between K-12 and college teaching; K-12 teachers often have to leave detailed lesson plans so that a substitute could come in and pick up a class. College professors tend to have a more basic structure but don’t have all of the details for each day laid out for others to see. Perhaps it’s because I was a chair for 10 years, or because I’ve had to pick up others’ classes, or because I’ve had to cancel classes when I’ve been out, but I feel more comfortable with a structure so that somebody could pick up my classes if necessary. This year, I’m attempting to go more in the K-12 direction.

The Updates

Because past class outlines live in OmniOutliner, I can copy/paste to start the base for the following semester. I’m loathe to simply re-present the same outline from semester to semester. But it’s nice to have that option if necessary. I’ll add insights from different articles I’ve read, or update with more contemporary examples (yup, I’ll admit it – I did bring up Moo Deng in a class this semester). That example will obviously go away…

The downside to copying/pasting is that I end up copying/pasting a previous semester’s look and feel, and if I’m not careful, the OmniOutliner files look like a garbled mess. 🙁

I also have a master sheet where I plan on looking at each day, re-evaluating the outline, and deciding what I think of the notes from that day. I try to be good and write myself notes if I think I’m covering too much/little on a particular day, and then update the notes as a result.

I really should put up some of these sample calendars, but I haven’t exactly checked them for accessibility…