October Monthly Summary

Group 5 - October Monthly Summary

Sean posted on Group 1 and Group 2's October Summary.

Joe Haynes' October Summary

This paper ended up like the last one. I believe this paper turned out well, good team work but again we waited till the last minute to get it done. I understand we all have personal lives and I'm to blame as much as everyone else for procrastinating, but I have a feeling this will be the last time that we wait till the last minute.

I was lucky enough to be able to interview the educator for my last paper and I enjoyed it very much. Our team set up guidelines on who was going to do what and to finish everything up. We carried that over to this paper. Once we got started everybody knew what to do. I was lucky again being able to interview the person in charge of the educational program and again I enjoyed the paper.

I know I'm going to get an early start on our next paper. I think we will have discussions on what everyone's rolls will be on the paper. In the end, I know our team will work strong to get a quality post to our blog.

Troy Rector's October Summary

The discussions in week's 8,9, & 11 continued to be insightful and informative and the personal side of each student remained this month.  These discussions, paired with the academic text continue to expose the introductory level knowledge of the field of adult and community education.  

Week 10 was Fall Break and there weren't any discussions.  I actually took my "break" earlier in the month and spent the first week of October in Florida, primarily Disney World.  What I learned has to do with commitment.  I made a commitment to family that I would take them to Florida during the fall break from school.  I also had a commitment to my own studies as well as my group members for the projects.  I've learned that despite my own personal commitments, I need to communicate when there is something that might limit my ability to fulfill commitments I've made to my group members.  Although I still contributed greatly, there were times I wasn't "in the loop" because I was either in a theme park or had my toes in the sand.  

Both projects came together for our group and turned out really well.  The Leading Adult Educator project allowed me to learn more about those who "blazed the trail" before me.  Those educators who have contributed greatly and left their legacy within the adult and community education field. The unique adult and community education programs project did the same thing.  This was quite informative to understanding that adult and community education exists on different levels and different ways.  Although our two programs had a ton of differences, the base idea of community organized and grass roots based program was an attribute that both shared.  Definitely a great learning tool for me.  

Sean Rodgers' October Summary

Reflecting back on this last month (October 2014), and how this class is progressing, I feel that it is go well. It has been a very busy month for me, both within the class, and personally. So much so that I was very glad to have a fall break. Although, it wasn't a true break as my other class was still going on. The advantage of that being that I had only one class going on at a time.

This month had two projects associated with it. The first was the Leading/Community Educators and the second was the Unique Adult/Community Education Programs project. I enjoyed both projects for different reasons. The Leading/Community Educators project I enjoyed since I was able to learn more about Jane Addams. She is a source of pride around this area since she is from here and there aren't a lot of Nobel Peace Prize winners. It was interesting to get her know her better. The second project I enjoyed because I am starting to understand the team dynamic more, and feel that we are improving in the way we work together.

The challenges that I faced were more related to a sense of being rather burnt out. September is the busiest time for accountants at a television station. It makes sense, since September means new programs and new programming contracts. So I was working 60-80 hour work weeks. In addition to that, the first project was due the same week that one of my classes was ending and I had a final project due that week. My widow 87 year old father is also in the process of moving out of his house to live in an apartment. My parents were together for 56 years so there is a ton of stuff to go through. Luckily I have eight siblings, but I still feel So I was super busy in September, but one of the things I learned in my MBA program is that complaining about been busy in such a program is a little too self centered. Because guess what? All your fellow students are busy. Also, my two boys don't care how busy I am. They need their dad time.

Upcoming we have another group project in Important Adult Education Organizations due on November 9^th. Luckily, I have already done some work on this, as I initially chose an organization to write for the Unique Adult Organization project, but the more I wrote about, the more I realize that it fit more into this project. Also coming up is the E-Archive project due on November 23^rd. I admit that I am somewhat nervous about this project, as getting the blog going was a bit more challenging than it really should have been. I think the biggest problem with initiating the blog was the feeling of intimidation associated with it, and I feel the same about the E-archive.

But It will get done. It is part of the never ending and never too old learning – to face the challenge of new ideas head on, even if it means getting out of my comfort zone. Essentially that is what adult education is also about. So there is the advantage of going (growing?) through this process, as in the end it will make me a better educator.