Orientation

=Orientation: Live the Questions (Getting to Know Us and the Course)=

Begin with a Poem . ..
We begin with a poem. . . Rainer Maria Rilke's "Live the Questions"

media type="custom" key="9459826" //Created by Cris Crissman using Animoto for Education. . .//

**Variations on a Theme . . .**
We all begin a course with many questions.

There are short-term questions and long-term questions. Big questions about important projects and small questions about procedures. Parameter questions about guidelines and choices and open-ended questions about personal goals and interests. Practical questions and philosophical questions.

What will I learn? How do things work? What will I need to do? How will I be assessed? What will I need to do? How will this help me grow as a teacher? What will I need to do?

There are some questions that can be answered right away and completely. And others you will need to live awhile.

As we begin this course, tweet your burning questions and I'll respond in the “Live the Questions” Forum. In this way you can share both your questions and the answers with everyone and we all learn. In this way you make your first contribution.

The best questions are those that spark more questions. Expect to complete the course with more questions than you began. Learning comes more from questions than answers. Afterall, "It is not the answer that enlightens, but the //question" (//Eugene //Ionesco).//

Remember: “Live the questions now.” And. . . "p erhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answers." As these ECI 521 2010 graduates did. ..

media type="custom" key="9459876" //Thanks to Michael, Cassie, Angela, and Leigh Ann (Note: This bookcast was a collaborative one for Shaun Tan's graphic novel, The Arrival.//

Now, let's getting stared asking those questions! Here are your tasks for this first week:

**Week 1. Orientation: Getting to Know Us and the Course**

 * (Monday, May 19 - Sunday, May 25 ) / LIVE Class Session, Thursday, May 22, 7 pm)**

1. Sign Waiver and Consent Form (Complete by Monday, May 19, 11:59 pm). This is the only task you will have in MOODLE. Access via @https://wolfware.ncsu.edu/
 * To Do List:**

2. Send an email to me at decrissm@ncsu.edu to confirm that you received the "Let's Get Started" email and have begun work. Also, please share contact info and anything about learning needs/interests that may be helpful as we work together this semester.

3. Tweet a question for our FAQs. Use #bookhenge Here's a video explaining the purpose and process for our use of Twitter in ECI 521 -- "Twitter Is the Street." Twitter tutorial: Twitter for Teachers Sign up for daily class newspaper digesting tweets if you'd like -- The Daily Bookhenge

4. Record Journey Book Reflection on Class "Journey Book" VoiceThread. (Complete by Tuesday, May 20, 11:59 pm). Tweet to #bookhenge when you add your Journey Book to the VoiceThread.

5. Join Class Diigo Group if you'd like. Diigo is a collaborative bookmarking and curation tool. See Diigo tutorial . . . Sign up for our class's group at [|The Bookhenge Group . . .]

6. Complete a Funds of Knowledge Inventory in which you reflect on the three course outcomes (Professional Self, Literate Self, and Virtual Self) and take inventory of what you already bring to the course in these areas and what personal goals you have for the course. Finish this reflective essay with a synthesis that shares what you may have learned through the writing – insights, special interests, and/or themes or patterns -- and ask any questions you'd like to explore this session. Post this to a blog you create in WordPress. We'll call this blog where you present your responses to books and reflections on your coursework your Portfolio Blog. Note that if you already have a blog then you could certainly use it for your Portfolio Blog. Complete by Wednesday, May 21 midnight. This preliminary work will help us tremendously during Thursday's class meeting as we select issues/topics/inquiries for our work together. Tweet to #bookhenge when you post your Funds of Knowledge Inventory.

7. Select your first Printz book and begin reading by our class meeting on Thursday. You will prepare your response to the book and post by Sunday, May 26, midnight. Plan ahead. Second Printz book response is due by Wednesday, May 28 midnight. Then you'll be in the groove of a book read and responded to by Wednesday midnight of each week.

8. Schedule a ten-minute Google Hangout with me before class time on Thursday so we can work out any technology challenges and begin to plan your work for the session. See Preparation for Assessment Conferences . ..

9. It's been an intense week. You need not reflect on the first week of work now but jot down a few notes to include in your critical reflection due Sunday, June 2, midnight.

You'll find Weeks 2 - 5 Course Schedules in the Schedule-at-a-Glance andin the Syllabus . ..