Musings on next semester

I've decided to use Blackboard's discussion feature this semester, and I hope it won't be a mistake. I'm asking students to post one question/topic for discussion and one response to a classmate's post each week, whether for Tuesday's or Thursday's reading. This means I'll have to read the things, but as I only have one section this semester (HOORAY for the class release that comes with my editorial assistantship), this seems a reasonable price to pay for better discussion. And discussion last semester was better when I made them each write out three questions and hand them in at the beginninng of class; I just didn't like having to put them in groups to "talk about their questions"--which, especially in my more chatty section, turned into "talk about the weekend's parties"--while I spent five or ten minutes sorting through what they'd written.

I guess if it gets to be too tedious for everyone involved, I can always get rid of the requirement later on in the semester. I'll probably end up having to institute some kind of "Last names A-M post for Tuesday, N-Z for Thursday" rule, at least, or we'll have nothing for Tuesday.

I just realized that I scheduled the first set of conferences for my birthday. This will never do. I think I've probably not given them enough time to write the first paper, either. Argh. Making syllabi is like a really wordy game of Tetris, I swear.