Please Read The Syllabus
On interactive syllabi and student support.
I started my new job as a faculty this week! When I sit in my new office, I simultaneously feel the weightlessness of potential as I think about all the students that will pass through this room to receive mentorship, as well as the gravity of the fact that I never could have gotten here without generations of queer and trans people before me. I am incredibly grateful that I’ve been given this chance to teach, and hereby promise to use this position of privilege to lift up the next generation of trans engineers.
Anyway, I was too busy to write a Hot Take™ this week, so here’s my new course syllabus.
I wrote about my Fall 2021 zine syllabus in a previous issue, and this semester I tried to expand on that concept. I especially wanted to increase the level of interactivity that students had with my syllabus, so I added multiple prompts for students to write in their own answers.
While I love the idea of total grade abolition, I didn’t go “all the way” this semester; since this was my first time teaching this course, I wanted to keep things somewhat on-rails. (There’s always next year!) I did, however, add a mechanism for students to enhance their final grade beyond a simple calculation of their homework average and project grades. Essentially, students have a chance to meet with me to negotiate their grade at the end of the semester, similar to how an employee can renegotiate their salary. My hope is that this can help to level the playing field when it comes to students who may struggle with homework assignments but engage with the class in other impressive ways. It also may incentivize students to go “above and beyond”!
I’m also proud of this table of on-campus resources. I curated this myself, with sites for student mental health resources, direct aid like food or housing, academic advising, and more. I also prompt students to write down people in their life they can talk to, so that later in the semester when they’re stressed about their Senior year, they can look to this list and remember that they’re cared for.
One final addition I made was including a bunch of equations that my students will use throughout the course. Hopefully, this will cement the zine as something that they keep on them at all times, or at least when they’re working on assignments for this class!
What do y’all think about my zine? If you are (or were) a student, would you like to see in a course syllabus to make you feel seen and supported? If you’re an instructor, how would you reimagine your course syllabus? Let me know in the comments, and I will definitely let you know if/how students engage with my syllabus this semester! Class is in session!!
Currently Reading
An answer to all the TikTok trans discourse of the summer: Kadji Amin’s game-changing new essay, “We are All Nonbinary: A Brief History of Accidents”.
Speaking of teaching, I’ve long held privacy concerns over the ways that exam proctors can demand to see students’ rooms. Luckily, a federal judge just sided with a student at Cleveland State University in Ohio on a decision that may prevent this invasion of privacy in the future!
TW Lim compares the ubiquity of music to the ubiquity of food.
Watch History
This video by Alexander Avila, the creator behind the “Are They Gay” series, which is an excellent piece about how large corporations are allowed to construct what “gay culture” looks like.
Jack Saint recently returned to YouTube, and his latest video on Andrew Tate and the nature of truth really impressed me. He aptly points out that Tate is a solipsist, believing that “truth” is whatever benefits himself in the moment, which further encourages his raging misogyny. But he also places that worldview in context; many young men feel like they don’t have control over their lives (thanks to capitalism and other global forces for evil) and the nature of truth itself is breaking down in our digital age, so they turn to a philosophy that makes them feel some sense of power/control.
Sony once made a video specifically for Michael Jackson to explain to him how his albums get made. It’s equally fascinating to see the CD production process and to think about a popular musician requesting something like this.
Bops, Vibes, & Jams
I’ve been revisiting the Gorillaz’ back catalog in advance of their upcoming album, “Cracker Island”. Demon Days is still my favorite record of theirs, but I like a lot of their recent work too, and I’m excited to see what they do next!
Julia Jacklin’s new record “PRE PLEASURE” is a vibe, my favorite track is definitely “I Was Neon”.
If you REALLY want your heart to explode this week, try on The Beths’ “Expert In A Dying Field”.
And now, your weekly Koko.
That’s all for now! See you next week with more sweet, sweet content.
In solidarity,
-Anna