Saturday, May 5, 2007

Reflection on overall class

I truly enjoyed this class! It wsas rich with information that I can apply not only in my work environment, and also my personal life. Learning the various modalities of communication was helpful. This course provided much insight into my stlye of resolving conflict as well as introsspection into myself. I enjoyed working with my classmates and learning from them as well. Overall, I belive this course was rich with knowledge that can be applied in the real world and has inspired me to look deeper into myself. I feel that I have learned a great deal about how people manage conflict, as well as how I manage conflict.

Thanks for the wonderful experience!

Friday, May 4, 2007

Reflection on Presentation

Wow! What an exhilarating experience! My group just finished our presentation with Dr. Davenport, and I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on how it went. Being that this was my first time conducting a conference call in this manner, I am proud to say that it went very smoothly. I am impressed with the flow of the conversation, and it was a great tool to use for delivering our presentation.

As I have previously indicated, our group has had its obstacles and challenges (as I am sure many groups did), but I am extremely pleased that we were able to overcome them and move forward to a successful delivery of our project. Our group spent countless nights in the chat room, on the phone, and e-mailing each other to ensure that our final product was outstanding. In the end, it proved to be OUTSTANDING (if I don't say so myself).

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Davenport, and applaud her for her dedication to the students in this class. Through her consistent use of the discussion board, it was clear that she is genuinely concerned about each and every one of our successes. Thank you Dr. Davenport! You are an amazing educator!

Reflection on Presentation

Wow! What an exhilarating experience! My group just finished our presentation with Dr. Davenport, and I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on how it went. Being that this was my first time conducting a conference call in this manner, I am proud to say that it went very smoothly. I am impressed with the flow of the conversation, and it was a great tool to use for delivering our presentation.

As I have previously indicated, our group has had its obstacles and challenges (as I am sure many groups did), but I am extremely pleased that we were able to overcome them and move forward to a successful delivery of our project. Our group spent countless nights in the chat room, on the phone, and e-mailing each other to ensure that our final product was outstanding. In the end, it proved to be OUTSTANDING (if I don't say so myself).

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Davenport, and applaud her for her dedication to the students in this class. Through her consistent use of the discussion board, it was clear that she is genuinely concerned about each and every one of our successes. Thank you Dr. Davenport! You are an amazing educator!

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Only two more days.......

Well, the last twenty-four hours have been quite an experience with my group. My group was very upset with me because I hadn't yet done my written part for our presentation due to some other things going on in my personal life. Unfortunately, the problem escalated and became very stressful for everyone. E-mails were being blasted and threats were being made which made things more difficult. However, as a group we were able to overcome this obstacle. Fortunately, one of my group members was able to quickly extinguish the fire raging amongst us. We were able to move past the conflict and work diligently together to bring our final presentation together. While we have not presented yet, I am confident that despite our brief period of disconnect, we will be successful in delivering our presentation tomorrow.

While at first I was bothered by some of the things that went on, I think that our group handled the whole situation very well. We were able to work through the conflict at hand and resolve the issues. I feel that because this class is a conflict resolution class everyone was more willing to move past our conflict, whereas had this been any other class perhaps we would have had a much more difficult time working through this. I think we all utilized some of the skills that we have learned in this class and applied them to resolve our issue.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Wednesday, May 2nd

Tonight my group met in the classroom chat room and discussed the upcoming presentation once again. We were supposed to do a rehearsal of our presentation over the phone during a conference call, but we were unable to do so since I have not been able to submit my portion. As mentioned in my previous post, I have been travelling for work this past week making it extremely difficult to get my portion done. However, I am home now and will finish it tonight.

My team has been great. They have all been very patient and understanding of my limited time this week. Because we have kept a good line of communication amongst us all by utilizing the chat room, telephone, and e-mail, I think it has helped ease the frustration and better understand what teamwork is all about. Everyone has brought their parts together with the exception of me and has offered to help each other along the way. It has been great working with my group members Rebecca, Brenda, Myrna, and Lidia.

So, you can guess what I will be doing the rest of the evening! Although exhausted, I am committed to finishing my part in order for us to complete our presentation. We will meet again tomorrow evening and hopefully it will be final and we will be ready to present to Dr. Davenport!

Hope everyone else's projects are coming along. It's really too bad that we can't view everyone's projects. Good Luck!

Monday, April 30th

As we had been talking about fear and differences among people, I though I would reflect on an interesting point that I heard during my seminar that I attended today. I was thinking about the fear people have when faced with individuals who are different than them, whether race, gender, handicap, or what have you. It occurred to me that while we may not want to admit that we make preconceived notions about others (aka prejudice), even I myself make judgments based on appearance.

We were in a small classroom like setting with about thirteen people comprised mostly if white women, a few men, and one black women. I draw special attention to the fact that there was one black woman because this is what provoked my thoughts about our class. Without knowing anything about this woman, I immediately made quick judgment about her based on how she looked, but after a while I later learned that most of my judgments were ungrounded. I assumed that she was not highly educated and probably from a low SES background; however, I was proven wrong because it turned out that she is highly educated with a license in nursing (RN) and a law degree. I felt absolutely guilty for even demeaning her character and education, but it proved to me that one cannot "judge a book by it's cover."

I know this sounds as though I am prejudice, and I only hope that I did not offend anyone who is reading this. My point here is to illustrate the importance of being open-minded, even to those who are different than us because you never know who might be in the presence of, and you may do yourself a disservice by not allowing yourself to get past the differences and really get to know somebody.

Sunday, April 29th

Being that I have been out of town for the last several days with minimal Internet access, it has been a bit challenging to communicate. I did not realize how dependent I am on technology such as the Internet. It made things a bit challenging for me to be able to communicate with my group and collaborate on our presentation. I am sure they have been frustrated with me, but unfortunately, it has been out of my control. Throughout this class, we have learned to use several modalities for communicating with one another, and while at first I was frustrated with all the different places we had to go in order to fulfill the requirements of the course, I am much more understanding, and have learned many lessons.

While "blogging" was a new experience for me at the beginning of this course, as for many of my classmates, it has become a new mode of communication for me, and I have actually enjoyed it. People become comfortable with what they are used to, and having to use a new form of communication is awkward. The lesson I have learned from using various modes of communication in this course is the fact that with so many ways to communicate it is important to recognize the all of the amazing ways we can communicate with one another!

P.S. I wrote my blogs earlier in the week, but am just now able to post them. Hope this is acceptable.