Contribution to Your Learning and the Learning Community
They say it takes a village to raise a child, and this semester, I found that it definitely takes a village to earn a master's degree. Without my learning group, I don't think I would have made it through the semester very well. They have been the main reason for my ability to get anything done on time and keep me focused when I start to get overwhelmed by all the negativity at work. They have been my anchor in various aspects of school and beyond, offering tremendous encouragement throughout the semester.
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Each semester, it seems we have a new leader in the group. Last semester was our first semester together, and while I was the one who brought the group together and was able to lead them in the class I had already taken, it was mainly Rebecca who kept us all on track. This semester, it's been Katie who's been keeping everybody on their toes, ensuring that we're all on the same page and serving as the primary source of encouragement. This semester, we've been actively providing feedforward to each other for the courses we're working on, particularly for our learning manifesto assignments. Rebecca has been diligent about getting feedback from everyone before she submits her assignments, serving as a great motivator to complete tasks ahead of time, which is not my strong suit. This semester, I've focused on learning who I am as a leader and who I want to be as a leader. Consequently, I didn't make any changes to my innovation project itself. Instead, I identified how I wanted to lead the project, what tools I needed, and what I had to do to become an effective leader.
Like most of my peers, I greatly enjoyed most of the videos. However, there were a couple this semester that I had to watch several times because I would fall asleep while watching them. I thoroughly enjoyed the readings we were assigned, particularly the '4DX' book and the 'Influencer' book. Additionally, I borrowed the 'Crucial Conversations' book from my principal, which turned out to be more humorous than expected. Thanks to Katie, I was able to keep up with most of the discussion boards; however, they were my biggest struggle. I did the exact opposite of what I learned in the '4DX' book and only focused on the big picture and major assignments, completely forgetting about the smaller assignments and discussion boards. Fortunately, I managed to complete them!
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My colleagues that contributed to my learning;
James Rawls
Rebekah Ard
Katie Beauchene
Ashley Karr
Paul Schofield
Lance Moran
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Readings I enjoyed:
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Grenny, J., et al. (2013. Influencer: The new science of leading change. McGraw-Hill Education.
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Patterson, K., Grenny, J., Mcmillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2012). Crucial conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high. Mcgraw-Hill Education.
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McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2016). The 4 disciplines of execution: Achieving your wildly important goals. New York: Free Press.
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My Believed Score for 5304: 90 out of 100