It's IDEA time, I will providing the first ten or so minutes of class to allow you time to fill out the IDEA for the course.
6pm students link here.
8pm students link here.
Goals for tonight's class:
1. Answer questions about Skube paper from those of you who already received my feedback.
2. Discuss questions/issues with literary analysis paper, now that you have had some extra time to submit.
3. Discuss directions and expectations for your "teamwork and collaboration" submission on your e-portfolio.
Portfolio Reflections:
Your reflection in the area of teamwork and collaboration should speak specifically to your ability to contribute and execute as part of a greater whole. In preparing for this reflection, I have thought long and hard about why collaboration has been so important to me for all these years. So important that I ruthlessly impose it on you.
First, education, like all experiences, is better when shared. I like learning and being assessed more when I do it with others. At the same time, it becomes more challenging in a very specific way.
I have always been the kind of person who relies on talent and social abilities. I work hard, but I also work at making it seem as if things come easy to me. They rarely do. So, teammates come to resent me. Because I am irreverent and arrogant, and that pisses some people off. I don't tolerate slow-witted people, and though most people are smarter than they think they are, some meet their own uncertainty with defensiveness.
I guepss the answer lies in my own shortcomings. Collaboration is often a struggle for me. Writing comes easy, but teamwork does not. and so, through class, I have an opportunity to force you to learn lessons that have evaded me.
The weird thing is that I have always considered myself a leader. I have always been commended for my enthusiasm and tireless outlook on accomplishing tasks. And, well, YOU KNOW I'M FUNNY AS HELLLL! People gravitate toward me, and I have always found myself at the top of most hierarchical structures. In other words, I am "that guy," and no one is ever surprised by this news.
Student body president in high school and college. I was president of my fraternity. I now lead the department I taught in for a decade. I am popular and thoughtful and empathetic, and so, to paraphrase Jack Nicholson in a Few Good Men, most people want me on that wall.
I'm not complaining, I am not a man of many talents, so I capitalize on what I've got.
But that's less the point than this...an unfortunate by-product of what can be called a "type A" personality is my tendency to want to do things in isolation. I have high expectations of myself. It is easier to live up to these expectations outside the context of a larger group. It's why I thrived in the teaching profession...solidarity. This idea that when I close the door, it's just me and those I serve, and all decisions flow through me. But even this is more fallacy than truth. My actions reflect a broader context of a writing department, even the university as a whole.
John Donne said, "no man is an island," and as hard as I try, I can't seem to prove him wrong.
In the context of my current job, I struggle with my place on our leadership team. Sometimes I feel dynamic. Able to generate unity and articulate vision easily. Other times, I feel like an out-of-touch, self-aggrandizing jerkface. I can come on too strong, and I tend to alienate people by expecting too much too soon.
When that happens, I get my feelings hurt. I am incredibly sensitive, but I try not to let people see that side of me. So I hide behind aloofness...and, it's back to Joe Island.
Sometimes, those feelings lead me to go off and conceptualize and execute a project of my own design. It rarely works out the way I hope. Usually my plan is too big, too soon, and I need someone else to drag me back to Earth. Even when my grandiose plans DO work, it's only my ability to motivate people to share my vision that drives my success. And so...ugh....I'm back where I started.
My thought is that if you find success, you will need to work as part of a team. This team will almost never be by your own design. Even if you're a big boss, and most likely you won't be, but even if you are....so few big bosses don't inherit players that they have to make life work with or around.
It's a dilemma that will live on as long as we share this Earth with other breathing humans (which incidentally, may not be long anyway according to the global warming summit happening now in Paris ; )
So...in short...you should root for climate change, or invest in training yourself to be the best version of you, while in the context of a team.
All that to say...reflect on the following in your portfolio:
Remember back to when your family began...how did you feel when you got your family? How did that perception change as the year went on? How did your role in the family evolve? What drove your family's success? What were your prevailing obstacles? Were these things normally people, process or projects?
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