Every class deserves its own syllabus, but a lot of the content in a syllabus remains static from one class to the next. I spent much of this afternoon reflecting on the common content and pulling it together into a single document. I call it the "Standard Syllabus" and you can find it by following this link.
There are three components to the syllabus.
The first is a set of pithy comments that address the basic philosophical approach to teaching and assessment.
The second piece is a short essay to help students think about how they actually learn math. Just as problems are broken into two types on the first page (computation and concepts), their main structure for learning is also broken into these two components. Homework builds up the computational skill and classroom time will be spent trying to build up the conceptual framework. I think what I have now is an acceptable form, but it may be changed later.
The third piece is a layout of the expectations that the students should have of me and what they should expect from themselves (it's also what I expect of them). I think it's vital to the students' education that they actually own their own education. They must be responsible for it and I've made that explicit in having the space for them to sign their name. I admit it feels a little contrived, but I will gladly exchange that for being able to make this point absolutely clear to them.
