Final Countdown

It weird how the last few weeks are the most important and busiest weeks of the semester.  Everything is due at the same time in every class.  If it werent for specific leaders in our group projects life would be a lot more difficult than it currently is, which is hard to imagine.

There are many pros and cons about group work.  The best pro I can think of is being able to count on people to get different parts of the work done and not have the whole entire workload all to yourself.

The cons that have come up this semester are:
4 girls with totally different sleep, work and school schedules
We are all full-ime students
It is very hard to get together with everyone at the same time

This group project has really taught me a lot about my group members willingness but has also taught me that I definitely work more efficiently and have more motivation alone.

Letting them know you care..

This week in class and outside of class I learned that a big part of being a good leader is letting your followers know you care about them and whats going on in their lives.  In class we talked about how Dr. Snavely was not only  great boss but showed leadership through also geting to know the professors personally.  I remember I had a manager who also did that and I think hat is why I alway remember im as being a great superior and a good leader.
When you let a subordinate know you really care about them as a person you seem like more than a boss and connects you which will make the workplace more enjoyable for both.  I think it is a great value for a superior in the workplace to have.

October 4, 2010

After class on Thursday with the possible new professor, my next teacher discussed his hiring process for the school s a professor.  I never knew just how much the new professors had to go through in order to teach at SDSU, or any university.  I started to think what my hiring process would be like when i apply to work somewhere after college.  I think the hiring process here at SDSU might be more extensive than the hiring process i will have to go through in order to become a brokerage coordinator.  '
I really dont think I would be able to teach in front of students who are judging me, much less the professors I would be working with in the future, especially Spitzberg, he would really intimidate me if I knew about him going into the process.  I thought this teacher was very nice and I'd definitely take a class from him in the future if he does get the job.

My Vision

This week we had our second part of our paper due this week.   I really enjoyed writing this part of our paper a lot more than the first part.  I never really thought about what I would like people to think of me after my career or life until now.  If I think about what I would like to have people look and and say about me NOW, I can focus on making my behavior and attitude mirror that.  It helps you mold yourself into the person you would like to be in the future.
Im not sure how well my three parts will come together but after meeting with my group we all kind of decided on three things we want to focus on and write about in our final part of the paper.

Midterm week

The scavenger hunt was really interesting, I found out a lot more about our schools symbols and cultures as well as learning about my group at the same time.  We all had different ideas of our schools' culture.  I thought it was a fun activity.
After studying for the midterm I thought I had a pretty good grasp of the content that would be on the exam.  The study guide was really helpful although the music during the test coming from outside wasn't very helpful at all.  I was very distracted.  Hopefully I will be better prepared for the next exam and there will not be as many distractions during it.

Leadership and Committees

Having Dr. Hellweg speak in our class today was great.  I have had her for another class and really enjoy how she teaches.  Today's lecture was all about committees and was interesting because when I think of a committee I think of a team, but she explained how there are leaders and followers in a committee as well.

She explained that maybe in the beginning of a committee getting together, there may not be a 'leader', but as time passes leaders will emerge and people will follow them.  The list of specific functions was really helpful.  It basically listed the good qualities a leader should have in a group or committee.  It had a lot to do about encouraging others, making suggestions instead of giving directions, and facilitating group interaction.

I've always been interested in Organizational Communication, so I really enjoyed having Dr. Hellweg as our guest speaker today although much of the information was review.  Her lectures are very organized and I think I learn best this way.

Take The Lead

This week in class during take the movie Take the Lead I saw the movie differently than I had the first time I watched it.  This is a great movie, its very moving.  The teacher was a great leader, he really believed in his students, even though sometime they may not have believed in themselves the whole time.  He volunteered to do this.  He really was focused on teaching these kids respect and also really focused on respect as well.  I really like how he forced the two kids to meet up seperately from the group to work on their trusting and respect for each other.

This week my group is meeting tomorrow to talk about our second part of our paper.  Hopefully we can come together and figure out a way to merge our vision statements together.  I think we all have very good ideas in our first part.

Remember the titans

This week when we watched remember the titans I realized why I liked this movie the first time I saw it.

After we discussed the leadership displays in this movie we realized that every person on the team must have been a leader, willing to work with a mixed race team at the time.  The person I thought showed th biggest display of leadership was the new coach.  He stated many times that he wanted the players to work as a team and wanted them to stick together.  At first he forced them to get to know eachother.  He was there to win and knew it took the players to work as a team to do so.  In the beginning he didnt even want to take the original coaches job because he thought he should have had to earn the position.
He really let the team know what he expected of them and I really admire him for forces cooperation among the team.  My favorite scene is when he reaches out to louiy privately about his grades and makes him feel important enough to succeed in life and do well in school.
   As for Louiy, he was the first one to see no color differentiation on the team.  He came right in and joined as the only white kid on the first day and was there to have fun.  He states "I dont have any people," claiming to be white trash.  He sat with the black guys the first day of school and showed the others it was perfectly okay to do so.  He is honest, 'self aware', and shows no shame in being who he is.  He was the first, in my opinion, to bring the team together.

Spetember 15, 2010

This week meeting with my group member and getting to know them a little better was very helpful because we learned a lot about eachother we otherwise wouldnt have known.  I think our group will do a great job because we are all very willing to communicate with one another.  I cant quite say who the 'leader' of our group will be but I think that might be a positive thing because w e really need to be able to work together.
Im glad we went over our project expectations on tuesday because it really helped me out with understanding the goal of our project.