Inclement Weather

If you didn't do a Campus Safari this week because of the crazy snowstorm (or any other reason), that's okay. I will make two Campus Safaris due for next Saturday instead since I know that a bunch of events got snowed out today.

"Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success" -- Author Unknown

Group Project Assignment:

Each group will be responsible for:

1) Assigning a few interesting and college-appropriate readings for the class

2) Introducing the material (no more than 5 minutes)

3) Coming up with 3-5 thought-provoking discussion questions (on a handout or written on the board)

4) Starting the discussion of the topic/readings

5) Facilitating a short introductory activity like a quiz or game (optional)

The entire presentation/discussion of each group's topic and readings will be approximately 30 minutes only, so think about how to use those 30 minutes to achieve the three main objectives: provide information, get the class interested/engaged, and have a productive discussion of the material.

Also, since this is a group effort, think about how your group is going to split up the work evenly. This will count as 2 homework/in-class work grades. Each individual member of the group should also submit a short (maybe 1 page) write-up explaining what each member contributed to the whole project, from brainstorming to speaking in class. This piece of writing will count as an additional homework grade.

"Choices are the hinges of destiny" --Pythagoras

Next week's blogs are perhaps the easiest or the hardest type of blogging assignment, depending on your perspective. Essentially, you have the freedom to create a blog of your choice, on just about nay topic, but you have to decide on a topic and make it work, instead of simply writing what I tell you to write or fulfilling the assignment. I have limited the parameters of the posts a little bit; see below:

1. Write about anything that interests you and might interest your readers/classmates.

2. Write about anything that interests you but is somehow connected to SCSU.

You can choose to complete them in any order. Remember that even though the choice of topic is open, but it still needs to be a 300 word post with a beginning, middle, and end and all the other standard conventions of strong blog posts. We will be looking more at writing blogs with Mike next Thursday so these posts will be good practice in thinking about what makes a blog post interesting, strong, coherent, etc.

Looking Past Midterms to the Rest of the Semester

College is a time to reinvent yourself, even from semester to semester if you want or need to. In this vein, here are next week's blogging assignments:


1) Do something that is outside your comfort zone (not dangerous obviously, just new and different) and blog about it. Tell us what you did and why and how it turned out.

2) Reflect on your midterm grades (as a whole, not just for INQ). Are you where you want to be/expected to be? If so, why and what has been working? If not, why not and what can you do to change it? Finally, set some specific goals for yourself for the remainder of the semester.

Reminder!!

Advising meetings this week are in my office: EN D244. If you're not sure when your meeting with me is scheduled, email me and find out. Remember to fill out the papers in your advising folder and print out your degree evaluation and bring all of that with you when you meet with me. Come a few minutes early to make sure you're on time. A few people have already missed their appointments today. Remember that it counts for attendance for this week.

A great resource on Creative Thinking and Creative Problem Solving

http://www.virtualsalt.com/crebook1.htm

Next Week's Blogging Assignments

I know that you all will be hard at work on your video projects next week, so I've decided to make your blog posts somewhat related to your project. Here are your assignments:

1. A post about troubleshooting. Discuss a problem you encountered in making your video (adding sound, adjusting the volume, finding your interviewee's office, uploading your draft to youtube, posting it to your blog, etc.) and talk about the way you fixed it, the steps you tried, what finally worked, and what you learned from this experience in general.

2. A post about time management for a big project like this. Chart how many hours you spent a) brainstorming, b) interviewing, c) gathering other materials like articles, quotes, facts, photos, music, etc., d) transferring all of your materials to your computer, e) learning to use the video software, f) making the video, troubleshooting, g) editing, h) other time. Chart the time used so far and how much more you expect to put in before the due date the following week. Also reflect on your time management skills. Have you used your time wisely? What could you have done differently for a better result?