My prior teaching experience is in studio art. I've taught mostly at the college level, and last year I took a stab at public school teaching junior high students. I'm generally a popular instructor, and I'm always proud of my students and the results they get. This time around I'm getting handed my first lecture course. Literally. As an emergency hire, I was given all the previous slide presentations, quizzes, projects...everything. I thought that was going to be great, but it's turning out to be double the work as I adjust the course to my style. I've also been put off by of the worksheets and projects that seem to have abysmally low learning expectations. Weeding that stuff out has been tough, and is gutting the day-to-day class schedule. I'm also discovering that my lecture style needs a lot of work. I'm thinking maybe mini-projects based on the required reading might help me out a lot. Anybody else bring in-class projects into their classrooms? I'm lucky to have a really small class, so that my hope is that it aids in helping the success of the projects (and gives me some room to learn how to be a better lecturer!).