Right now, I’m rethinking how to post class lectures since my lectures have changed a lot.  I used to screencast, that is write lesson notes on the screen from scratch every period using a TabletPC, record my screen and voice, and post it all as an embedded flash video on this blog.

PowerPoint changes things.  My biggest concern is copyright issues.  I cut and paste a lot of material from our Glencoe textbooks into the slides.  So if I share the slides, I might be illegally publishing copyrighted material.  Anyone know the law on that?  Fair use?

Screencasting also doesn’t work as well since there’s a lot of deadspace in the time it takes for students to copy notes.  Who wants to watch a lecture with 1 to 2 minutes of silence after each slide advance?  I certainly don’t want to put in any time with post-production trimming.  I guess I could print handouts that make note-taking a lot faster.  But I hate to consume more paper than is absolutely necessary.

The other option I’ve considered is a 5-minute lesson preview/recap.  I could post them a couple nights before a lesson so that students can get a jump on upcoming content or review it when getting down to the homework.  Again, my time is of the essence.

Something’s gotta give.  I’m leaning towards the 5-minute preview/recap.  Thoughts?

It’s three weeks in and I haven’t adhered to any of my so-called discipline manifesto, except for not giving detentions.  A colleague’s idea of giving extra work is so genius, that I don’t have to eject kids from my classroom.  So far, I may have asked one kid to leave.  But for the most part, I’ve been able to mortify students just by giving them something to write.

Before, I couldn’t think of any extra assignments that I’d care to grade.  When punishment equals punishing myself, shoot me.  But then, an epiphany.  I decided to have students atone for their offenses by simply copying about 4-5 pages out of their History or Science books for no academic credit.  To make it applicable and redemptive, I check with their History/Science teacher to see what they need to read or study in the near future.  If they don’t finish it by the same period the next day, I double it.  If it’s not done by the third day, then it’s a parent call or athletic consequence.  But the writing assignment never goes away.  It must be done.  The students hate it.  They’ll take detentions, athletic consequences, paddlings, suspensions, etc.  But they hate to read and write.

A student remarked how funny it is when I correct a student.  I just say that I’m giving them a means of actively studying for an upcoming History or Science test.  She says that I say it with such matter-of-factness and sympathy that it’s hard to tell that I’m actually applying discipline.

For once, I enjoy giving out discipline.  The thicker my write-up binder gets, the more satisfied I feel.  It’s made a difference in my classes and I’m making believers out of students who once didn’t care for the gift of education.  Spare the book, spoil the child.

I’m not much of a writer.  I’m not sure I have an intended audience.  But I like to talk and I welcome anyone who appreciates honest dialogue.