The Transformative Action Institute
This is continually a work in progress. We appreciate your ideas and suggestions. Please contact Scott Sherman at ssherman@transformativeaction.org
Teachers’ Manual
© 2017 The Transformative Action Institiute
1
Introduction
The Transformative Action Institute is leading an initiative to teach a new generation of social entrepreneurs, visionaries, innovators, and problem-solvers for the 21st century. The following teacher’s manual has potential course materials for 20 classes, along with additional extracurricular materials. Teachers can pick and choose the materials that they like best, given their schedules and areas of expertise. This is simply a guide. We assume that each professor will adapt the materials to suit her/his own students’ needs.
There are 4 main areas of concentration: 1. An introduction to social innovation, social entrepreneurship, and transformative action 2. A look into the development of change makers – This includes the portfolios, where students explore their own dreams, passions, talents, and strengths. 3. A look into the skills of social entrepreneurs and change makers – This includes an experiment where students practice and develop one of these skills 4. A final section where students design their own blueprints for social entrepreneurship
Of course, this is a tremendous amount of material to cover in one semester. If you have more time, we have found that this course can be expanded to a full year. In the first semester, the students are introduced to the ideas and skills of change makers. Meanwhile the second semester is devoted completely to developing a business proposal for a social enterprise. In the appendix, we include two expanded syllabi for people who are interested in doing a two-semester sequence. However, if you only have time to offer this class in one academic term, you need not fret. More than 90 percent of universities that offer this curriculum fit it into one semester. Thus, in this Teacher’s Manual, we focus on that one-semester experience.
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Contents
Part 1.
Part 2.
Introduction
2
Activity Index
6
Philosophy of this course
7
How to use this manual
13
An introduction to social innovation and transformation
14
Class 1
Introduction to the course
16
Class 2
Deep Connections
21
Class 3
Principles of social change and transformative action
25
Class 4
Case studies of transformative action and social innovation
31
Extra
Film: Bringing Down a Dictator
43
Class 5 Transforming enemies into allies: A transformative approach to overcoming problems of racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice
45
Class 6 Transforming hatred into goodwill: Truth and reconciliation commissions, restorative justice, and forgiveness
52
Class 7
58
Overcoming obstacles to social change
The Development of Social Innovators and Agents of Transformation
71
Class 8
Motivation, hope, and inspiration
73
Class 9
Personal sustainability
80
Class 10
An Introduction to Positive Psychology
91
Class 11
Positive Psychology: Part 2
100
Class 12
Goals, vision, and mission
110
3
Contents
Part 3. The Strengths and Skills of Effective Social Change Agents
119
Class 13
An experiment in transformation
121
Class 14
Transformative leadership
128
Class 15
Resilience and optimism
135
Class 16
The power of negative thinking
147
Class 17
Risk-taking, and developing luck
152
Class 18
Daring Greatly
160
Class 19
Creativity and innovation
168
Class 20
Transformative communication and conflict resolution
183
Class 21
Relationship-building: networking and finding allies
200
Part 4. Creating a Blueprint for Social Transformation
206
Extra Optional dinner party with social innovators
208
Class 22
Strategic planning – Vision and statement of need
209
Class 23
Research and market analysis
216
Class 24
Evaluation and measuring outcomes
219
Class 25 The importance of great storytelling: public relations and communication skills 224 Class 26
Budgets, finances, and fundraising
232
Class 27
Challenges
239
Class 28
Conclusions and final presentations of social enterprises
245
4
Contents
Appendices Possible improvements to the course
253
Important facts about the course readings
257
Overview of the course reader
260
Class contract
277
Sample course syllabus
278
Class requirements
292
Grading policies/criteria
294
Mid-year evaluation/leadership exercise
296
Civic Engagement
298
The Portfolio Cover
302
The Portfolio Instructions
303
The Portfolio Questions
306
Portfolio Question 10 – special instructions
311
The Portfolio FAQs
313
Portfolio Grading Sheet
315
The Transformation Experiment
316
The Blueprint for Social Transformation
317
Blueprint Grading Sheet
319
The Transformation Teams
321
Gumball challenge
324
Using Google Docs
326
Important class logistics
327
Class retreats
328
Class dinners
329
The Sharing Game
330
Resources and bibliography
313
Changing the World – an article
344
5
Activity Index
Uncommon Commonalities
24
Walking Connections
25
Sharing Game
29
Social Change Starts Here
37
Lord of the rings
38
Cross the line
39
Arm wrestling
40
Aikido
41
Arm strength
45
Improv YES exercise
47
Nonviolence film
49
Diversity walk
54
Intercultural classroom
56
Enemies and allies
57
Forgiveness debate
60
Forgiveness training
63
Name games
78
The Mystery
79
Adversity stories
81
Personal board
82
Highest aspiration
92
Greatest Sense of Well-Being
93
Unschedule
93
Renaissance
98
Appreciative Inquiry
105
Strengths and talents
112
Stopping the war
117
Party in the future
133
City of hopelessness
Teamwork
19
Communication
Speed Meeting
Creativity
17
Reflective
Activity
Community Builder
Page
Energizer
Skill Builder
6i
Activity Index
149
Positive 5
153
Pre Mortem
154
That’s Ridiculous
161
Luck Circle
162
Dancing
164
Epic Failure
167
Daring Greatly
173
Creativity
175
3-Minute Story
176
Love Poem
177
Pyramid Dance
178
Laughing Game
179
Art Exercise
180
Red Ball, Blue Ball
181
Whoosh
182
Radio Radio
183
Exaggerated Routine
184
Improv Scenes
188
Zombies
189
Verbal Aikido
191
Conflict And Cooperation
192
Transformative Communication
199
Crucial Conversations
205
Recruitment And Relationship
225
Evaluating Impact
229
Embarrassing Story
230
Public Speaking Improv
232
Public Speaking Improv 2
234
Social Marketing
237
Rope Corral
240
Fundraising Role Play
243
Behind Closed Doors
254
Gratefulness
Teamwork
Communication
Creativity
Reflective
Activity
Community Builder
Page
Energizer
Skill Builder
Philosophy of Education
Our course is based on all of the following principles: Innovative education Most traditional education is deadening. Teachers rely on lectures far too much, even though studies continually show that this is the least effective method of learning. Admittedly, there are some gifted teachers who are dynamic, charismatic, and passionate – teachers who have the students sitting on the edge of their seats, excited to learn. These are the types of professors whom we are recruiting for Transform America: the very best teachers in the nation. Nonetheless, we still discourage teachers from dominating the classroom. The best education will involve and engage the students in learning. The root of the word “education” comes from the Latin “educare,” which means to draw out. We are attempting to draw out of the students the best that they have to offer.
“ Education is not about filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” – Yeats Often we write an amount of money on the board. These will vary from school to school, but the figure could be $25 at a state school, and up to $500 at a private university. (You have to figure out the math for yourself, depending on your university’s tuition. For state schools, there may be two figures: one for in-state students, and one for out-of-state students.) You then ask the students what this number represents. They will guess all kinds of things, but the correct answer is that this is how much the average class session at their university is costing them. In other words, if they ditch a single class, they may be squandering $500. We talk about how so few people actually value their education. They might spend that amount of money for good seats to a concert, and at the end, they would be standing up and cheering, calling the performers back for an encore! Yet we’ve rarely seen students who will do the same thing with their professors at a university class. When students finish the first class session, it’s doubtful that they will rise to a standing ovation and call the professor back for more! This just shows how little we value education, and how things like entertainment seem to mean so much more to people today.
You can even involve the students in a discussion of their education – asking them to raise their hands if they have fallen asleep in a class, if they have ditched a class, if they have wanted to ditch a class, if they have ever taken a class that they felt was a waste of time, and if they have even had a class in which they could not understand the professor. Almost every hand will go up each time. So we do things differently in this class. We use a lot of innovative exercises, in which students learn by doing. We have the students use improvisational techniques, which have proven to be one of the best ways to get students to think quickly, spontaneously, and creatively. It inspires greater creativity and innovation. As Einstein said, “We cannot solve the problems of the world with the same type of thinking that created them.” We need to develop leaders who can think in new, creative ways. Transformative education Traditional education is based on the premise that teachers have all the power and students have none. It is based on the idea that students should sit quietly, obey orders, and be passive recipients of “the truth.” The eminent Brazilian educator Paolo Freire decried this “banking method of education,” a model in which professors are the experts who possess all the knowledge, and where they need to make “deposits” of facts into the empty brains of the students. (Personally I call this the “bulimic form of education,” because students gorge themselves on tons of facts for the test, then regurgitate all the answers out onto the exam, and they’re gone; people don’t retain any of this information within hours of the test.)
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Philosophy of Education
As Freire puts it, “liberation education” is the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it. It strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality. There is no such thing as a neutral educational process; either it is used to bring about conformity, integrating the younger generation within the present system, or it becomes the practice of freedom: the means by which men and women deal creatively and critically with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. Intrinsic motivation – There will be no busywork A tremendous body of research points to a startling conclusion, at odds with most education in the United States: When people are primarily motivated by the desire to get an award (such as a good grade), they will perform much worse; they will have less creativity; they will do the bare minimum to meet the requirements; and they will quickly lose interest in the subject after they earn the reward. True learning needs to come from intrinsic motivation – in other words, the natural passion and excitement that students find in a subject all by themselves. After all, what is the message that parents send their children when they say something like “If you do your math homework, then I’ll buy you some ice cream”? The implicit message is that the children would not want to do math homework in the absence of a bribe; in other words, the parents are essentially saying that math homework has no intrinsic appeal, and it is a distasteful task.
This phenomenon has been studied and observed again and again. The same is true, of course, with punishments. When students are motivated by fear, then this is not a sustainable method of learning. Students should be doing work not because of fear of punishment or bad grades; they should not be doing it for external rewards like gold stars or good grades. They should be doing everything because they find it thrilling and meaningful and personal. If there is anything that they believe is useless to their education, we encourage them to participate in an act of civil disobedience. They should not just be doing work because an authority figure told them to do so! They should not be engaged in readings that bore them and seem overly academic and arcane, with no personal meaning. Everything that we give them is supposed to be done because they love it. Of course, if they do engage in civil disobedience, they have to explain why it is meaningless to them. They can’t just blow off their work or be slackers, and then use the excuse that it didn’t have meaning for them. This philosophy is not an excuse for laziness or sloth. Instead, it is based on the honest principle that education needs to be deeply meaningful.
For example, in a famous series of experiments at Stanford, researchers gave children many games to play. In the control group, the children could choose any game that they wished. In the experimental group, the children were given gold stars, “good player” awards, and other incentives to play with Magic Markers. After the experiment was finished, the researchers observed how the children behaved. Children from the experimental group no longer had much desire to play with Magic Markers, now that there was no reward or incentive attached. They found it to be worthless and uninteresting – something that they would only do if they got paid for it. On the other hand, children from the control group continued to play with Magic Markers, because they naturally found it to be fun and interesting. Surprisingly, rewards and incentives kill people’s interest in a subject! 8
Philosophy of Education
– Emerson
“ If the colleges were better, if they really had it, you would need to get the police at the gates to keep order in the inrushing multitude. See in college how we thwart the natural love of learning by leaving the natural method of teaching what each wishes to learn, and insisting that you shall learn what you have no taste or capacity for. The college, which should be a place of delightful labour, is made odious and unhealthy, and the young men are tempted to frivolous amusements to rally their jaded spirits…. Scholarship is to be created not by compulsion, but by awakening a pure interest.”
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Philosophy of Education
Personalized education that is relevant to each student’s life This is a course that asks students to explore their deepest dreams and hopes and visions for the state of the world. It is not like many academic courses, where students complain that they are reading things that are boring and meaningless to their lives: the symbolism inherent in the character of Queequeg from Moby Dick, or the names and dates of rulers in the 17th century Habsburg Empire. In some ways, this should be the most personal and important course that any student will ever have the opportunity to take. It’s all about what they want for their futures – their life goals and aspirations. Students take the leadership and initiative for their education The success of this course depends on the students, not the teacher. It requires them to take leadership over their education. For example, we always give midterm evaluations. (Most universities only offer official evaluations at the end of the semester, when it’s too late for the professors to change anything that was going wrong!) Yet, whenever we get feedback that something is wrong, it gives us a chance to challenge and agitate the students. If we hadn’t given out the evaluations, would the students have never voiced their complaints about the course to us? Were they simply going to sit back and accept mediocrity? Were they going to be passive, perhaps complaining to each other about things that they don’t like? Or were they going to take action to change it? This class is all about leadership and authority. We always tell the students that the success of this course depends on them. We can be as dynamic and passionate as possible, but if they are passive and inactive, this class will be a failure. There are many opportunities for them to take charge of their education – to make this the best class they will ever take.
Difficult and challenging This is also going to be one of the most rigorous and demanding courses that the students ever take. This is for many reasons: First of all, it involves a tremendous amount of work. They will be writing up a blueprint for transforming their community – one that should be so compelling and professional that it could win $50,000 from foundations and wealthy donors. They are also going to be volunteering in the community for at least 40 hours throughout the semester. And they are going to be working on a portfolio that will challenge them to push themselves beyond their previous limits of personal achievement. Second of all, this course asks them to reflect deeply on some of the most important, personal questions that few people ever ask them: what would it take for them to get arrested, or to risk death? What are the biggest personal challenges that they face, and what are some strategies they could use to overcome them? Ultimately, this is going to be valuable. When asked why the U.S. was going to undertake such a difficult challenge as putting a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, John F. Kennedy said, “We choose to [do] things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” There are other reasons why the course’s difficulty may be one of its most enticing and exciting aspects. As we will discuss later in the course, people can grow far more from facing adversity than from indulging in comfort and ease. People are going to benefit far more from confronting a challenge than from taking it easy and avoiding risks. Indeed, there is plenty of scientific evidence for this. During class 6, we will be discussing the notion of flow – the concept of people’s optimal state of happiness, joy, and productivity. Scientific research shows that people are most likely to enter the flow state when they are pushing themselves just beyond the limits of what they previously thought possible. This is when we test ourselves and experience the greatest growth and contentment.
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Philosophy of Education
Teamwork and “win-win”
Fun
Unlike most courses at the university, which are fiercely competitive, and where students are being individualistic, this is a course that changes the paradigm of education. The success of each student depends on the success of the others.
This class ought to be a joy. Our experience is that students love to come to class. They laugh more in this class than any other course.
The students will be placed in transformation teams, where they must help each other perform to their full potential. There can be no “free riders,” as in most group activities, because the group is only as good as its weakest member. This model is based on the organization that won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, the Grameen Bank. They showed that some of the most impoverished women in the world could help lift each other out of poverty. But they were dependent on each other for success. If even one member of the group defaulted on her loans, then they all were unable to borrow money any more.
Inspirational and empowering Finally, this course should be inspirational. This is a class about hope and optimism. Unlike most courses at the university, which analyze problems, this is a course about solutions. Most of all, it should empower the students to come up with their own solutions – to claim their own power to make a difference in the world.
Similarly, in this class, the transformation teams only succeed when every member succeeds. If one person is drowning or falling apart, the other students cannot ignore that person and just focus on their own goal attainment. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny… You can never be what you ought to be until I become what I ought to be.”
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Philosophy of Education
– Walt Whitman
When I heard the learn’d astronomer; When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them; When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
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How this manual works
This manual provides very detailed instructions for each day of the course. The format follows this template: −− A description of key ideas to discuss −− A description of interactive exercises −− A summary of the HW that will be due for the next session At the end of each section, there is suggested times for each exercise, as shown in the example below. Suggested times: Introductions – 5-10 minutes Speed meeting – 30-45 minutes The philosophy of education – 10-15 minutes Questions and answers – 30-45 minutes Take photos and get e-mails – 10 minutes Please note a few important points: 1. We have provided a smorgasbord of choices Please feel free to use the discussion topics and exercises that work best for you. It is like going through a buffet line. You can choose the items that fit your own tastes. Depending on how many class sessions you have, and the amount of time you have each day, you will probably only be able to use a fraction of the offerings in this manual. 2. You can be creative and add material that fits your expertise These are all just suggestions. We have used and tested all of the exercises, and can vouch for the fact that they all seem to resonate with students. But you will have your own favorite topics, exercises, and areas of expertise from which to draw on. We encourage you to make this class your own. 3. Please share feedback with us We would love to hear about your own best practices: the elements of your course that have proven to be most effective. Additionally, if you have questions, comments, or concerns about any of the ideas in this manual, please send us constructive feedback. This course is continually growing and evolving. We hope that you will help us make it better and better.
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Part 1. An introduction to social innovation and transformation
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Part 1. An introduction to social innovation and transformation
The first part of the course should give students a brief overview of some of the most important social change advocates and techniques of the past.
But transformative action goes beyond traditional nonviolence. It also incorporates lessons from the modern science of positive psychology.
Of course, the students should have learned about much of this in their history classes. Yet much of what they learn in history is all about how societies change because of battles and wars and violent revolutions.
Unlike much of traditional psychology, which focuses on what goes wrong with humans, positive psychology looks at humans at their best – when they act with the greatest courage, compassion, kindness, altruism, and goodness. These lessons from positive psychology have great relevance for people who are trying to change the world. It shows how people can transform hatred into goodwill, conflict into collaboration, and enemies into allies.
We are presenting an alternative history: one about the power of nonviolence; one about the power of individuals to change the world. Instead of focusing on pathology and violence and disasters, this course focuses on successful people who have figured how to solve some of the most apparently intractable problems of society. We focus specifically on the concept of “transformative action” – a method of social change that appears to be most effective in modern social movements. According to an extensive study of hundreds of grassroots communities that were working to change the world, the best strategies had all the following elements: First, they exposed injustice and spoke the truth to power. In other words, they would not stay silent when things were going wrong. They were not passive; they took the initiative to solve the problems. This is similar to traditional nonviolence, as promoted by Gandhi, King, Cesar Chavez, Dorothy Day, Aung San Suu Kyi, and many others.
Moreover, the third aspect of transformative action looks most like the phenomenon of social innovation and social entrepreneurship. Rather than just protesting in the streets, people are proposing better alternatives. They are creating better models and systems to improve the world – offering a cleaner glass of water, rather than condemning other people’s dirty glasses of water! In part 1 of the course, we will explore these concepts in greater depth.
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Class 1. Introduction
Today we learn the philosophy behind the course. Part 1. Introduction to the course The first day of class is an opportunity to get the students inspired and excited. They should realize from the very first minutes that this is going to be like no other educational experience that they have ever had. Introduction of the professor An effective approach that we have used for starting the class is to walk in and introduce yourself in the following way: “Hello, my name is Bill Gates, and I’m going to give you as much money as you need to pursue your life’s dreams.” After claiming to be the world’s richest man, you’ll have definitely gained their attention! You then can go on to tell them the main idea of this class: that they are going to learn how to solve problems in society and draw up the blueprints for a better world. You can talk about how most classes at the university are very good at analyzing problems; students learn about racism, violence, prejudice, war, poverty, inequality, sexism, homophobia, and all of the other troubles that confront their generation. But there are very few classes about hope; there are few classes about inspiration; there are few classes about solutions. This class is about studying everything that goes right with the world, instead of what goes wrong with it. We look at case studies of heroes and heroines, visionaries, innovators, and successful agents of social change. But we don’t study these people as if they were rare saints. Instead, part of the goal of this class is to teach students the practical skills of how they can make a difference in the world as well. As Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka (the world’s leading social entrepreneurship organization) is fond of saying, everyone can be a change maker.
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Class 1. Introduction
An exercise for building community quickly: “Speed Meeting” At this point, we want them to get to know each other, so we do an exercise for building community right away. This is a riff off of the notorious game for helping singles meet a lot of other eligible people, called “Speed Dating.” Of course, we’re not trying to launch any romantic relationships in this class, so we call this exercise “Speed Meeting.” Here’s how it works: You have all the students in the class form two lines facing each other. Arrange the chairs so that people are facing each other, and everyone is in a pair. For example, if there are 20 students in the class, you will have two lines of 10 people each. Then you tell the pairs to meet each other. You can give the pairs 3 minutes to talk. (If you want, you can expand the amount of time.) After those 3 minutes have finished, you call time. Then everyone in Line 1 will move over one seat to the left. (People in Line 2 will stay in their seats.) The student at the far left side of the room will now come over and sit in the far right seat. In this way, everyone will get to meet another student in the room. You keep repeating this pattern as often as you like. You can do it until everyone in one line has met everyone else in the other line. Or you can cut it off early, in the interests of time.
Speed Meeting
Some students may feel like they are having the same superficial conversation ten times – asking each other the tired old questions: “Where are you from? What’s your major? How did you hear about this class?” So a variation on this Speed Meeting game is to give the pairs a specific subject to discuss each round, to keep it fresh and interesting. (They are free to disregard these prompts; we encourage civil disobedience!) Such subjects could include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
Your greatest passion Your favorite place Your sense of home One of your most interesting experiences Your favorite hobbies Your heroes or heroines/greatest influences Your ideal dream for your life Your favorite movie Your favorite music Your favorite book What gives you hope What keeps you up at night What would people not about know you after 15 years? 14. According to other people, whom do you look like? You can invent other questions and discussion subjects that are more interesting or humorous than these.
This game will automatically fill the classroom with a lot of energy and noise and excitement. The students seem to love getting to know each other. They are probably used to classes where they are anonymous, lost in a sea of students among a giant lecture hall. This is also a great way for them to realize that this class is different from anything that they have ever done before. Often they form powerful friendships on the first day, when they learn that they have common interests with other students in the class. Note: We encourage the professor to take part in this exercise, too. This is helpful for you to learn the names and backgrounds of many students very quickly. This also makes you seem more down-to-earth and accessible, unlike many professors at the university who are, in the student’s eyes, removed and aloof.
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Class 1. Introduction
The philosophy of education Another powerful way of introducing the course is to tell the students the philosophy of education, discussed in pages 6-11 above. The students usually get jazzed to hear that this course is meant to be fun, inspirational, empowering, innovative, and transformative. You can go through each point in turn, and talk about the scientific rationale – i.e., why this has been proven to be a more effective method of learning. The students probably won’t need much convincing. It’s also important to give some caveats to the students. You can tell them that this is an extremely challenging class, and that students who want an easy A are probably in the wrong place. It’s also quite important to tell the students that this is a class about solutions. For students who want to analyze injustice and discuss everything that is wrong with the world, there are hundreds of other courses at the university where they can do this. Many students like to get engaged in the “Oppression Olympics,” where they try to argue that their pain and victimization is worse than other people’s pain and oppression. This course is probably not for them. This class is not about societal critiques and protests and complaints; it is about moving beyond protest to and going towards productive solutions.
Discuss the portfolios, and offer a slide show of good examples The most important thing to discuss is the student portfolio project, because they will begin working on this right away. You can show a Power Point presentation of some sample portfolios – a few examples from students at UCLA, Yale, Princeton, NYU, and Santa Cruz. All the students in this class will be creating their own portfolios over the first few weeks of this academic term. The class contract The final piece of business that you need to address with the students is the class contract. In order to enroll in this class, students need to agree to uphold the highest standards of academic excellence. We have created a contract that they can all sign by the second day of class. In the contract, the students pledge to adhere to principles of respect, responsibility, accountability, and leadership, among other important values. We have included this contract on your Transform America CD, and it is reproduced later in this manual.
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Class 1. Introduction
Answer questions about the course
Take photos of all of the students
At this point, you haven’t even told the students about the logistics of the course:
The last thing you can do today is take photos of all of the students. This is a way for you to learn their names by the second day of class. You will post all of their photos and names on a website or class blog, so they can also learn each other’s names. Of course, they can also form a group on a social networking site like Facebook or MySpace. Still it’s a good idea to take photos because it again sets this class apart, and shows that the professor cares about learning the student names. On recent models of Mac computers, there is a program called “Photo Booth,” which students love. They can take photos of themselves and add lots of special effects, which they find hilarious. It’s another good way for them to bond.
−− The civic engagement requirement (at least 4 hours per week working on a project to do good for the world – whether on campus or in the community) −− The portfolio −− The transformation experiment −− The blueprint for social innovation −− The transformation teams −− The readings −− The Google Docs system Ideally you will have sent the syllabus to the students before the first day of class. (Most universities now have systems where professors can send out mass emails to everyone who is enrolled.) The syllabus explains all of these assignments in depth, and lays out in detail what the students will be doing this semester. But inevitably there will be some students who did not receive or read the email. There may be a number of students who are not yet enrolled, but who are trying to crash the course. Therefore, students are probably going to have a lot of questions. This is a good opportunity to allow the students to ask anything that they wish. This works to your advantage for several reasons: First of all, you aren’t lecturing about the requirements of the course. Instead, it is more like a discussion. You get to hear the student voices. You learn their concerns and interests. Moreover, you start to get a sense of the class dynamics – which are the most outspoken students, which ones take the initiative and leadership, which ones melt into the background, etc. Before you leave today, there’s one other logistical matter to address:
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Class 1. Introduction
Suggested times: Part 1. Introductions Introductions – 5-10 minutes Speed meeting – 20-30 minutes The philosophy of education – 30 minutes The portfolios – 15-20 minutes The class contract – 10 minutes Questions and answers – 10-20 minutes Ending logistics: Take photos and get e-mails – 10 minutes
Homework to assign for next class: Portfolio Question (due online via Google docs) What is your experience with giving back to others in your community? Have you ever been involved in any campaigns to make a difference in the world? It’s fine if the answer is no. Just explain why you haven’t felt a need to get involved. If the answer is yes, talk about your own experiences. Go into depth; this is like your autobiography of civic engagement. Civic Engagement Question 1 – due to the professor What is your civic engagement project that you are pursuing this semester? Why did you choose it? What motivated you to get involved with this issue? What do you hope to achieve? The Class Contract They will read over the contract by Day 2, and sign it at the beginning of class
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