Essential concepts, tools, and practices

Part Two

Within WebBoard, under "The Learning Village" heading, you'll also see the topic listed that says "Question Wall." TheQuestion Wall, you may remember, is the place where questions can be posted by Learning Village members without any responses. "Try to love the questions themselves ," says the poet, Rilke. This is the spirit in which the Question Wall is created.

Think about one question, now, that you have regarding practices and ideas in education. Go to the WebBoard and under The LearningVillage, click on the "Question Wall" topic and at the bottom click on "Reply to..." Write your question in the larger box that appears on your screen, andclick "Post," at the bottom of the screen.

Come back to this Question Wall from time to time to see what others have written and to post new questions as you journey through theCertificate of Teaching Mastery.

You can access WebBoard now by clicking here.

The courses

How do I start?

By now you have completed the first two assignments in the Introductory Seminar. You have one more assignment to complete and therest of the Introductory Seminar material to read. Once you complete the three assignments in the Introductory Seminar and you return theProfessional Agreement, you'll be given Course 1, and you can move at your own pace. We recommend, however, that you commit to 5 -7 hours per week to theCertificate of Teaching Mastery so that you can complete the courses in 10 months. Please note that the courses must be taken in order - starting withthis Introductory Seminar, then Courses 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Your Mentor will let you know if you are "Ready" or "Not Ready" before you can move on to the nextcourse.

Please be aware that new members may be added to your Learning Circle at any time. The Certificate of Teaching Mastery is open tonew students throughout the year. If you are working on Course 1, for example, and someone new joins your Learning Circle and that person isworking on the Introductory Seminar, you can serve as a gentle guide for them. In this way, we all continue to learn from each other!

How do I get the assignments?

You can look at all of the assignments for each course by clicking on the "Outline" button (on the bottom, right-hand side of thescreen once you're in the course). Click on the assignment you want to work on and you're there! All of the assignments are in the course already. We havemade it easy for you, too, by giving you a file for each assignment. Just click on the Word icon and it will take you to a document you can fill in and save. Ifyou don't have Word, just copy the assignment you see on your page and paste it into a file.

Once you work on an assignment, be sure to save the assignment on your own storage device (CD, disk, hard-drive) to work on itoff-line. When you enter the course again on-line, you can click on "Personal File Storage" and store it. Your Mentor will be able to access itonce you submit the completed assignment.