Teacher’s free-speech rights stop at the classroom door

Every American has the right to free-speech, but this court finding says that the School Board’s instruction on what to teach overrides the teacher’s right to free speech, at least in the classroom.  What does that mean for faculty?  With whom does ultimate responsibility for the college classroom lay?  Can my Dean say to teach in a certain way, and I’ll be liable if I don’t?

Teachers have no First Amendment free-speech protection for curricular decisions they make in the classroom, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday.

“Only the school board has ultimate responsibility for what goes on in the classroom, legitimately giving it a say over what teachers may (or may not) teach in the classroom,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, in Cincinnati, said in its opinion.

via Court: No Teacher Speech Rights on Curriculum – The School Law Blog – Education Week.

Student patterns: When are the quizzes due?

I mentioned that I’m doing Video Quizzes in my class this semester.  I’m recording ~5 minute bits of interaction with Java (e.g., a tour of a method and a demonstration of its use), then asking students questions about the interaction (e.g., how did I fix this error in that video?).  I’ve got all the video pages hooked up with Google Analytics.  Given the average time usage per day report below, can you tell when the first two quizzes were due?  Deadlines are forcing functions for activity.  I’m fairly pleased by theseearly  results– students are actually viewing the videos to answer the questions I’m posing them.