I hope to do a first day of school post...one day, but let me tell you, it is probably one of my least favorite days of the year. I know, I know...most teachers LOVE the first day of school. I used to find that it was just a day of awkwardness, nerves, and a lot of me talking in front of the room. A few years ago I changed that, and one of the ways I did it, was revamping my syllabus.
My syllabus revamp start with using Google Drawings, and it worked ok....but it was never as clean as I would have liked. Here is my first original revamp.
It wasn't terrible.....it was better than the small print, long-winded of the syllabus of the past.
I revamped it the next year, still using Google Drawings, and it turned out much better but gosh it took a very long time to create.
Now we have amazing marketing tools like Canva, which have beautiful templates perfect for a syllabus.
First, go get you a Canva account at www.canva.com. Search for Resume. This will bring up a loooong list of templates. Find a free one! I used the White Geometric Secretary Resume template for the syllabus below.
It took only about 20 minutes to create. I took my original syllabus that is typed up on a google doc, and created the headings that matched my original. I chose only the most important topics. Then I paired down some of the wordiness and tried to keep it to just major bullet points. Add a cute picture at the top...just search the free elements offered on Canva. You can double click on the background or font and change the colors to what you like. Keep it simple!
This is a syllabus worth of reading! Students aren't going to comb through a 2 page syllabus, this is just short enough that it might actually be read.
Happy teaching!
Mrs. Townsend
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