Week 4

This week I got to meet face-to-face with one of my teachers, Dr. Hallward. The purpose of the meeting was to dicuss leading the class in discussion during week 5. I am leading the material with David, one of the people in my program whom made a strong impression on me during orientation. I enjoyed most getting to chat with Dr. H about her background and her application of her studies. I also learned that she did a bit of field work leading up to earning her doctorate. One of her experiences was as an assistant with the United Nations. I cannot wait until I can say that I have had similar involvements. David had formulaeted a question already about the "ground zero mosque". For the purposes of the meeting, I was more concerned about the big picture, as in how to lead my cohorts through critical analasis of their interpretation of the material. By the way, I am leading discussion over Human Needs Theory and voilence: cultural, direct, and structural.

One anxiety that I am feeling at the moment is a bit of mixed feedback that I received in one of my courses. On my first attempt at an exercise I was told to provide more reflection. I responded in kind. Next attempt I was told to provide more direct reference to the material. Okay, I need to find a better middle point. Then, I am told that I need to provide more reflection. Back to square one? I don't exactly think so. I am here to master material. So, I better get to doing it. I can feel my technical writing style come back slowly from college 1.0 and reflecting on subject matter feels very positive for retention. My grades haven't been bad in any sense, they just need to get better. I am off to sharpen my sword.

Outside of this, I am plugging away at my courses, consuming information. And I am still enjoying it. I believe that I have found a good pace that gets the assignments turned in, builds knowledge, and keeps me from suffering burn out.

I have established two goals for Week 5:
1) Try to arrange a face-to-face with my other two professors
2) Master my discussion lead material to effectively guide my classmates through the excercise.

And with that, my friends, this blog is up to date! The idea came late (second day of orientation) so I have had to find time to get current. It has been well worth the time spent because I feel that this e-journal is a great release of stress that might help out a person or two.