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Re: [Phys-L] writing your notes and/or text



Thanks for sharing your (always) insightful comments.

I am aware of copyright issues and that the school "owns" what teachers
do on school computers. I'm at a private school, and these issues rarely
come up.

I have no desire to write a "book" or self-publish one online. My notes
are really
a short summary (like Cliffs Notes) of the essential points in a given
topic, with
no diagrams or sketches. Just the basics, which is what the kids need. My
talking,
doing demos, and peer instruction completes the lesson. On math days, I do
the usual
problems -- in class and homework. Answers always provided. Assignments
reviewed
but never collected/graded. Learn for the sake of learning! Make the
students
ultimately responsible for their own learning. The tests will show what me
what
they know, so doing the homework is essential for most kids.

In class I only write a skeleton of what I plan to cover on the board.
This helps
me with organization and keeps the class pace flowing smoothly. This also
saves me and
my students precious time. I also put a demo list on the board, and a list
of any
appropriate handouts I will give out. Students essentially take few/no
notes in
class, so they concentrate more of what I'm saying/doing. This helps them
learn
physics and enjoy the class. Their anonymous evaluations of me and the
course
every trimester are generally positive, and I'm always making improvements.

Remember that physics is on FIRE -- Fun, Interesting, Relevant, and
Engaging! It should
be the highlight of any kid's day, and I make it happen by devoting much
time/energy
to this passion of mine...


Phys-L@Phys-L.org writes:
On 07/04/2013 07:13 AM, Anthony Lapinski wrote:
I have my own
notes that I've been giving my students for years. These are clear,
compact, and concise.

I would encourage people to do this.

A few miscellaneous suggestions:

1a) Beware of copyright issues. The law in the US (and probably lots
of other places) says that if you write something in the course of
your employment, copyright belongs to the employer. I kid you not.
This means you cannot even make copies of your own work without
permission.

1b) It is traditional (whatever that means) in the academic community
for the institution to cede the copyright back to the author. However,
you reeeally want to get a binding agreement on this point before you
start writing your book. There could be serious limitations, especially
if you work for one of the new for-profit outfits.

If there is any kind of union or association representing the teachers,
they need to insist on this during contract negotiations.


2) Don't try to write a book all at once. Write a few rough notes here
and there. Next year, when you revisit the topic, polish the notes a
bit and expand the coverage a bit. And so forth.


3) Rather than writing on a chalkboard, consider writing on a tablet
PC and projecting a copy onto a big screen so the class can see it.
Note that VNC + WiFi allows you to walk around with your tablet and
still project a copy onto the big screen. The equipment to do this
is rapidly dropping in price.

One big advantage of doing it this way is that you can keep a copy
of whatever you wrote during class. This is a super-quick way of
producing a rough set of notes.


4) For more polished stuff, I recommend writing in LaTeX. That allows
you to produce
a) nice-looking hardcopy (via pdfLaTeX), and
b) nice-looking html (via HeVeA)
... both from the same source.

On various occasions I have been suckered into trying some of
the alternatives ... which have all turned out to have horrible
disadvantages.


5) Please consider putting your work on the web where it can be seen
by everybody (not just your own students). The incremental cost of
doing this is practically zero, and it makes the world a better place.

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