Generally ramblings

Things have been pretty quiet this week. Monday was a bit insane while I tried to desperately gather all the marketing materials I was in the middle of developing before she left for Puerto Rico. It was a bit crazy because in the middle of it, I got a phone call that Sydney wasn't feeling well and needed me to pick her up. It really wasn't anything and soon she was feeling better and wanted my attention.

But, since I was working so hard on the stuff for work, DH and I both getting sick, and the things for birthday parties, the house (which has been so nicely cleaned up before Syd's party) was a bit trashed. So, I've spent this week getting the house picked up AND playing on my Wii Fit.

I'm watching one of my favorite West Wing episodes. It's something that bothered me during this past election and is something I might have the class watch and discuss this next semester. It deals with a democratic convention where there are three viable candidates --

(although I hate the camera angles where they spend the entire time with cameras doing a 360 spin around the room - it' makes me dizzy)

-- this past summer, there was a lot of pressure for Hillary Clinton to step aside for the 'good of the party' so that when we arrive at the convention, we have 'party unity.' I always wondered why we needed to have party unity prior to the convention. What was the point of having a convention where we stand up in the first minute of the convention and say "oh, by the way we only have one candidate left, so we don't need to vote. But, since you are all here, let's spend millions of dollars and 5 nights listening to speeches from the people who might be contenders in the future.

Why do we need to pressure our candidates to drop out of the race mid-primary so the 'heir apparent' doesn't have competition. I guess this way the politicians get to decided who are candidates are, not the public.

This episode covers the issue so nicely.

But, I need to get back to cleaning and I'm going to re-caulk the shower stall this weekend, so I need to remove the old caulk.

And, this weekend I need to create two lists of school in wisconsin and minnesota that I would potentially visit, the cost to visit these school, and then chat with my boss and department chair next week to decide which loop I should take first.

Last night

Tonight is the last night of class. My first semester teaching, I stumbled on a great last week of class activity. The students don't really want to read anything new and I'm a bit burned out too.

So, I realized that I could have the students lead the discussion. They chose topics that relate to the class subject and they introduce the issue and lead the conversation.

It's a great activity on many levels. For them it seems like it's just a fun thing to do. For me, I get to help them realize what it feels like to be in front of the class - trying to convince students to talk - to talk to a class full of students who aren't prepared.

My hope is that my class not only better prepares students to be better employees, but better students over the next few years.

It's about 16 degrees outside - I'm tired - and just a little sad that it's not politically correct to show up to my class tonight drinking a cup of hot chocolate and Baily's.

Classroom experiments

I don't post as much about my class on this blog as I would like to. Because it's open to the general public, I'm always afraid a student will find something I wrote and take offense - so I'm generally careful about what I write.

But, this I'm very excited about.

This year, I changed most of my paper assignments. The first assignment stayed the same (but will have to change for next year because the assignment was to write about why our country was so hesitant to elect a woman or minority as President).

So, I changed the second paper assignment. The students had to pair up and write a paper describing the election process and then re-engineer/re-design an aspect of the election process (i.e., campaign finance, the electoral process).

Then, because the paper topic lent itself to a presentation, I used that as their presentation project. I gave them some ideas of ways they could do their presentation that didn't involve a traditional powerpoint presentation. They could do a speech, present a bill to congress, do a play, etc.

They surpassed my expectations!

One group chose to present a bill to Congress. They even looked up the proper format of the bill (preamble, number the lines, etc), another group did a play inviting some of their friends to help.

I've now thrown out their third paper topic. I've always hated it. DH and I talked at lunch and created a topic that is more relevant to them, the student - but still fits the class.

For the third paper, they are going to write about some aspect of the culture of our university - for example, Homecoming, winter festival, etc and then they will compare the current activities to a period in time in the past (say 40-50 years). Then they will talk about how it defines the culture of our university. So, instead of doing a traditional documentation support, they will work in the archives and interview upperclassmen.

I think they will enjoy this more than writing about why our culture allows corporate crime.

Mad Men

Tonight, in class, I gave a short lecture/introduction on Corporate Culture. I related this back to organizational culture.

I've never found a great way to have the students apply the terminology to the topic - until this summer. I was at my mom's house hanging out with her after I put the girls to bed. She was watching something on "On Demand." It turns out it was the first episode of "Mad Men," a show on AMC. It was perfect. A 1960's Madison Avenue Advertising agency. Talk about a great corporate culture. Everything was shown - some of it in ways that don't exist in today's corporate environment.

Originally, I was going to turn the show off early and let us talk about it tonight, but I knew there were really good things to come that would make the discussion better.

Unfortunately, I'm a class period behind and we are watching this on Thurs and we don't meet again until Tuesday.

The best part is that one of the students asked me about when the show is on regularly.

It looks like my lesson plan for next week will have to shift some as I need to find a good way to use the assignment they turned in to me and they need HELP.

Tomorrow, we have to go back in to have Sydney's arm reset. The bones shifted and we can't leave them the way they are. I feel so bad for the kid. I also need to finish sewing Sarah's Halloween costume and get ready for the scrap-booking overnight. I may finish part of the skirt tonight, and the rest tomorrow afternoon. I'm just so very tired. I may just go home, go to bed, and get up early tomorrow.

Last night, while I was struggling grading papers for students who didn't follow directions, I had two 10 week old kitties sleeping on my lap. It did make grading more pleasant.

On a more fun note, I stopped by the career fair at school yesterday. I knew that Harley Davidson had a booth at the fair. My first semester, I managed to connect with a person who agreed to do a phone interview with my students. We read the book More than a Motorcycle, about the leadership change at Harley. So, I walked over to the Harley booth and chatted for a minute with the first person I saw. She didn't know anything about the book but suggested I wait and talk to Kevin. When Kevin was done, I walked over to introduce myself. I told him my name and that I taught a freshman class where we discuss the book about Harley. Before I could continue he said "I know." I was shocked. I turns out his daughter started here this fall and his wife noticed that I discussed the book. It turns out he had recently read the book as part of an executive program.

While my first choice was to have someone who was at Harley during the change, I think this guy will do wonders. He has worked at Cummings, GM, and Harley. At Harley he worked at both the Kansas City plant and the Milwaukee plant. They have very different corporate cultures. I think we can have a great conversation comparing the cultures of different organizations. I'm so thrilled.

I need to get back to working on the budget for our proposal.

Daily Show

When I came home from class, I was telling DH about all our talk of Sarah Palin and how she is treated by the press. He told me about the daily show clip he saw that talked about the change in what various people have said. It was pretty funny and sadly true.

Then I found it online.



It is sadly true.

I'm a geek, and now they know it.

In class tonight, we were talking about race, sex, and politics. In the course of the conversation, I mentioned that one Saturday, someone posted a comment on a bulletin board I read. My first though was "that didn't sound right."

So, I looked up the race and sex makeup of the house of representatives, the senate, and the sitting governors. Then I compared it to the race and sex makeup of the population of the United States.

My students just looked at me, and one was even shaking his head at me. Yep, I'm a geek, and now they know it.

The bonus was I gave them some insight about what I'm looking for in their paper assignments, and that if I can do this type of analysis on a Saturday because of an offhand comment, they can do it for a grade.

Need help relating to middle school aged kids

At our school, we have a summer youth program where high school students from around the state come to learn about various topics. This year, one of the graduate students asked if I would give a talk on sustainability. I'm not really qualified to talk about sustainability in construction, so we ended up talking about how society affects changes.

This weeks group is y0unger - 7th - 9th grade.

SO - I need some examples of cultural changes they have experiences. Good and bad things they understand. How can I present this information in terms they know?

Previously, I've used two ways to convey this during my 45 minutes. One by having the students try to build a structure working together - except they have been assigned what I call a barrier personality. These are people who can make working together as a team hard (such as the person who won't listen to anyone else's ideas but insists that their ideas are the only right way).

The other way is to talk about how things that are good have negative issues and so we, as a society, must decide if the good outweighs the bad. For example, Amazon will make suggestions to us about books we might enjoy based on previous purchases. That can be useful. But, if they sell that information to say, the republican party, the republican party can filter it with all of the other information they compile to predict the individuals voting tendencies (Applebees America).

So, now that I've given you examples of what I've done in the past, I'd love some ideas for what I can do in the future.

I had the best class tonight. . .

This is the 4th semester I have taught this class. This was the first time I've ever taught anything more than a 1/2 day seminar, each semester I learn new ways to present thing, new ideas of how to communicate.

I teach introverts. They are college freshman. They have little experience and interest in things like politics, religion, and business. The topic of the course I teach is Organizational Cultures and how organizations change. Most of the concepts I teach are things they have little experience or understanding of. The basis of my class was the things I wish I had understood when I first started working. I've told them on several occasions that what we are discussing are things that will make more sense to them in 10 years.

Tuesday, I had a brainstorm and realized that the best way to discuss the book they were reading was to have the students break down the concepts I had introduced to them and have them tell me how they applied to the company we were discussing. It really seemed to make a difference. Next week we do an exercises that I created my first semester when I was really pissed at my class. The last week of class, when all the papers are written, when all the books are read, when all the assignments are done - the students pick topics and they lead the discussion. I created it when I got tired of trying to force the students to talk to me and I wanted them to understand what it's like to be on the other side.

A funny thing happened on the way to the lesson - they really enjoyed it. So, I did it again with the next class and they loved it too. It's kind of nice because they have a purpose the last week that is a bit low key - and we get to be done with the intense stuff.

In today's class we were wrapping up the semester. I've never found a way to get everything wrapped up so it all connected. In a moment of brilliance (and that is only because it worked), I decided to try having them tell me what they learned. They really did start to get the connection - how it related - and really seemed proud of themselves for getting it. It was wonderful.

Now, if only their papers are as good as the conversation tonight.

Just what is the right answer?? and other musings

Today, I need to finish my syllabus. I'm trying to incorporate a new book. We can either read it in its entirety or in three parts. The book discusses aspects of political, religious, and corporate organizations - the three my course covers.

Both have some merit. I think later today I may take my white board markers and go to the library to figure out how to best use the book.

I think I've modified my first assignment so it's clear enough. I've changed the due dates for the papers. The first paper was written more slowly so they had time to learn how to approach it better, but the students didn't really use the time and then the end of the semester ended up cramped. We also ended up with them revising a paper over Thanksgiving break. Worse, the presentations were just after Thanksgiving and with the paper due the class or so before, they just felt rushed to complete the presentations.

I've made a few other changes in the class this year. It used to be that they were able to re-write all three papers. This year they can only re-write the first two. I think it will make life easier on me. I still don't like my third paper assignment - I need to find a new assignment for this year. The students just don't get it. I've decided that they need a bit more of an explanation about the papers when the first one is returned. I've decided that in order to get their paper back, they need to make an appointment with me so we can review it. The first assignment grades tend to be very low and the students seem to get very discouraged. Most of the reason they are low is that they didn't address components of the paper. For some reason, they can't seem to understand that if they are scored a 2 out of 5 for answering a item on the rubric (for example "compare and contrast points A and B") that means their grade was lower not because they are bad writers, but because they didn't answer the question. When they revise the paper, they end up changing three words on the section they answered, but they never do the compare contrast. Maybe if I meet with them first, they will do better.

I also am trying to find a way to discuss the paper assignment and what kind of information I'm looking for without giving away the assignment or having them just create papers that are all identical and only include ideas discussed in class. I need to think about this a bit.

Sarah still loves her haircut. Yesterday, she climbed on the roof of our house. During one of the storms, part of a tree blew onto the house and hasn't come down in any of the rain storms, etc. I asked DH if we could get it off the roof. He decided the best way was to put Sarah on the roof and have her take it down. This meant she went on the roof from the back, walked to the front of the house and took down the tree, and walked back to the back of the house. I covered by eyes. Sarah thought it was great. (ok, I've been on the roof to clear snow and I knew it was easy to walk on since it wasn't too steep of a slope.

I did find a walking foot to fit my machine! I just need to finish my prep work for class and clean the house and I can go back to sewing! I can't wait to see how it works on my shade.

On to other things.

The week is over

Orientation/Professional Development week is DONE!! The only thing left is to create an assessment vehicle and send it out for the students to fill out.The visitor is gone - faculty members (not all mind you) can be so - frustrating.

When I stopped by the meeting in the afternoon to see if he wanted to go to the picnic that night, he asked me how he was getting to the airport the next morning (he didn't rent a car and I had been shuttling him all week). The hotel shuttle drove him from the airport. I mentioned that I thought the hotel shuttle was the best option. He asked me if I was going to arrange it! (you are at the hotel, stop by the desk yourself.) Ok, what I really said was "How about we check at the front desk when I drop you off and make sure they can take you.

I'm exhausted and now sometime in the next few days we have two soccer games, I have to get everything ready for my class on Tuesday (note, buy marshmallows today so they have time to harden) and clean the house so it's ready to start the semester. (wonders if I should just get a cleaning person for the fall).

I'll be back more later.

And now its time to panic

It's only a few weeks until the semester starts. I thought I had a series of Tuesdays and Fridays to finish up my prep for class.

Then, it turns out that I have to take four of those days to watch my kid and a friends kid. The summer program is closed for the last two weeks of summer and so . . . someone needs to be home. One of my friends and I are dividing up the weeks.

The other week, I was in the big city. When you are in the big city, one of the things you do (stick with me, this is fits the above theme) is wander the HUGE bookstore. It used to be that I would wander fiction and wedding planning. My DH must have rubbed off on me over the past 10-12 years because I started in Business, looking for interesting books. Then, I went to History. After I finished with those sections, I headed to biography. I did wander to kids, but I never made it to fiction. Actually, I guess truth be told I started in Bargains, then went to business.

One of the books I found was Sidney Poitier's autobiography. This was something I've wanted to read for a while. But, I found a great resource for my class. One of the components of my class that I struggle with is how to get the students to understand "culture." This is a major concept in the class and if they don't understand it, they will have a tough time.

In his book, he talks about his life on a Caribbean Island, in the Bahamas, and in Florida. He talks about how the culture of each of these areas was different. It's great!!!

I was also talking with another faculty member at a party Sat. Some of the things he said triggered a few ideas with me. One of the things he said was that the students needed to define what culture was. A few quick types of the keyboard and I realized that they could do this.

So, how would you define the culture you live in, the culture of the organizations you interact within?

Random Stuff

Since I'm tired of banging my head against a wall trying to determine why I can't get this budget to work (we have a fiscal year, a grant year, and academic year timing that require me to shift information all over the bloody place), I've thought I'd take a break to post.

I was going to take a break to attend my daughters field trip to see the snow statues on campus, but it's waaaaayyyyy too windy, so they cancelled.

But, I truly have nothing to say.

I could speculate why people rarely comment on my blog thereby feeding me with interesting things to comment about - but that would just come off as whining.

The other week, I ended up watching the 9/11 West Wing episode. I really wish I'd been watching the series all those years ago. I was so impressed with how the worked this. I know that I will be showing this in my class next semester.

If you haven't seen it, it has two basic story lines. One is the questioning of a White House employee who is suspected of being a terrorist based on his name alone and that it matched an alias for someone suspected of being a terrorist. The second story line is a group of students who get locked in the White House when the building is locked down while they question the employee. They start asking questions about terrorism.

My student tend to look at things very black and white. They tend to trust what they are told without question. They feel strongly that photo identifications make a our airlines safer. They don't understand that part of the reason it was so easy for the terrorist to take the planes on 9/11 was because the Standard Operating Procedure for the pilots was to hand over the plane because prior to then, any hijacking of a plane was to fly it to a country and not into a building.

It's a fun age to teach - I enjoy helping them expand their opinions. But, as many are very conservative and truly believe that Bush is going to stop terrorism by invading Iraq, I'm a bit more jaded and liberal and worry that we have entered a civil war that we really entered without understanding the history of the people.

So, for me to present information, I work hard at making sure I present a balanced opinion - that I have read the opposing viewpoints and help them to also.

Next semester promises to be fun with all the new ideas I have. Just a lot more work! I guess I did have something to say. Thanks for sticking with me. Opinions are always welcome. Especially ones I don't always agree with as I need to understand more.

Ramblings

I’ve been reading a book called Applebee’s America. According to the subtitle, it’s about “How Successful Political, Business, and Religious Leaders Connect with the New America.” The book was recommended to me by E. J. Dionne, a columnist with the Washington Post (and syndicated to others) when he gave a lecture at our school this past fall.

I’ve only read about the first 50 pages of the book, but I can already see how it will fit into my class. I will probably demote one of my books to a few select chapters as the students have really hated the book. Applebee’s America will most likely replace The Agenda. I really like The Agenda and much of what it showed about how the federal government works, but the students spent more time thinking about how they don’t know Clinton than realizing that we could have written about anyone’s presidency and the lessons are the same.

One advantage to the Applebee’s book is that it’s co-written by both democrats and republicans so it has a perceived balance rather than appearing to be a liberal view of the world. Our campus tends to attract a fair number of republicans.

In the first 50 pages, the book talks a lot about how the Bush campaign – both elections – utilized personal data to develop a lifestyle profile of potential voters. Clinton did this to a point, but Bush’s group spent 3 million dollars to develop the idea.

It’s not surprising that many people can’t run an effective campaign with that type of money being spent. Especially since this was only used to decide how to best reach out to these voters. The book speculated that most targeted voters received between 50 and 60 pieces of mail during the campaign.

For the past 3 semesters, I’ve had my students write a paper on whether the American Culture is ready for a Female President or Vice President – and why we haven’t elected one in the past. I’m not sure if I want to use the paper topic this close to an election (then again, if all women and minorities have dropped out of the race by next Sept, then I will keep the paper)

This book has led me wonder about having the students write about the use of personal data in politics – is it ethical? Why do the democrats seem hesitant to use the profiling? Are the stupid? Concerned about the ethics? We had another speaker this fall that talked about internet security and addressed the privacy issues.

I know that I can put together an interesting set of lectures. My students last fall didn’t seem as concerned about the use of their data. The fun is trying to decide when something good can become something intrusive. And, why we, as a culture, seem willing to give up some of these rights.