My Responsibilities in This Course (As I See Them)

• To create a course in which any student who has met the IUB qualifications for admission can do well, if he or she invests sufficient work
• To explicitly and implicitly model the particular kinds of thinking that are necessary for success in a history class and to break these down into steps that can be easily learned
• To make available ideas and ways of approaching problems that can be useful to you in future college courses and in life
• To work closely with every student who has made a commitment to the course, giving feedback, answering questions in class, through e-mail, and in one-on-one meetings, and generally being available to help
• To create an environment in class in which all students feel respected and safe to freely express their views on the issues that we are discussing

John Receives his Revelation from The Apocalypse of Saint-Sever – France, eleventh century

Your Responsibilities in This Course (As I See Them)

• To expend the necessary effort to do well in this course -- This includes:
  • Coming to class on time and well rested every Tuesday and Thursday -- as Woody Allen put it: "90% of success is showing up."
  • Carefully reading the assigned readings before the day they will be discussed
  • Reading the material on the course web site each week and thinking about some of the issues raised in preparation for discussion
  • Making a major contribution to the activities of your team
  • Participating in class discussion
  • Actively seeking to discover what you need to do differently when the feedback you receive on your work is not what you hope for
  • Developing a schedule that allows time for both the demands of this course and the other important things in your life
    
• To let me know as soon as there is something that you do not understand or there is a task whose instructions are not clear to you
• To support your classmates in their efforts to learn
• To respect the opinions of your classmates and to use the differences between their perspectives and your own as a tool for learning