The End

Like a good story, an end to this class is bittersweet. Never have I ever been so relaxed about large projects, papers, presentations, and working with other people. Class wasn't a chore, but just something I did every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the same time. And, maybe, I actually learned something.
Maybe I didn't really learn much about troubleshooting with a difficult group, because, let's face it, our group meshed really well together. But I did learn a lot about what makes a group work. we all contributed something--whether it be making a powerpoint or bringing snacks--everyone was actively participating in every meeting and every activity. Oddly enough, we didn't really have one particular person step up as a defined leader within the group; everyone took turns leading discussion or getting group meetings rolling. I think this was actually a very positive thing and something that helped our group work efficiently and kept us problem-free. If there is one leader, everyone follows that person and their decisions. But, if everyone has an equal share of the leadership pool, different ideas are approached and each angle and possible problem can be addressed.
Needless to say, I will be sad to see this group go! It's been a pleasure, a learning experience, and a fun time. Go Boiler Volunteers!!

Over and out-
Ellen Rohlfing

Brought up that way

So this week while I was back home for thanksgiving, my dad and I were out working together on the farm. We still have quite a bit of corn out in the fields so we were working on getting that in, but with our operation it takes a couple people and we have to work together in order to make everything work well.

As I look back at my past and growing up my entire life has been team work. Almost anytime we are outside working on the farm its usually teamwork that is needed. We help each other out we work together to make everything run efficient and smoothly as possible. Through my experience with team work growing up has helped me develop my leadership and group skills today. I am so glad that I grew up where and with my family who taught me so many things and especially teamwork ethics.

As this class is coming to an end I see how some of the ways that my family functions on team work and how I have in this group and other groups I see how they relate and how I use these skills. I will continue to use my teamwork skills and leadership skills throughout my life. I am very grateful for this class and everything that Jasmine has taught us. Thank you!

-Amanda Wise

Boiler Volunteers!

Thanks to all of our group members who have made this class really fun. I feel like we did a lot in this class and it was fun because our group worked really well together. Our meetings were very efficient and we were able to rely on each other to complete the work that each of us said we would do. Every one in our group had different skills and talents and we were able to put them to good use.
This class has been enjoyable in general and I feel like I learned more than I do in most of my other classes. At least it is more useful and practical than my other classes. This has been a great class and thank you to my group for making it a great semester in COM320.
~Josh

The Last One

I can't believe that this class is coming to an end, and this will be my last blog post!  Initially, I was a little skeptical about having to post every week, but now I'm glad it was a requirement.  This blog serves as a kind of electronic "scrapbook" for everything that has happened in our group, and its kind of fun to look back and reminisce on all that we have done.  

On a different note, going over our final project today in class made me realize how lucky I am to be with such a great group!  While we have had a couple minor issues along the way, for the most part working with the Boiler Volunteers has been one of the best experiences I have had with group projects.  Like Jasmine said today, we all have something different to contribute to the group, and I think that is what made us so effective.  If one person could not take care of something, another group member would be ready and willing to step in and help.  I don't know if it was the COM 320 textbook that made us all such efficient group members, but I know I will be hard-pressed to find another group as cohesive as this one!!

-Kristen Gilson

Follow the Leader

Leadership is a funny thing. There is no universal description of a good leader; it is completely dependent on the situation, people, and problem at hand. However, apparently, there are several definable leadership traits that can be assesed. They are articulate, perceptive, self-confident, trustworthy, and the list goes on. It sounds like an accurate assesment of a leader to me, but at the same time, it makes me wonder how the ideal leader changes when you move from region to region across the United States as well as into other countries.
Maybe in the midwest we favor a more personable and approachable leader, whereas the northeast could lean towards a more strict and upright leader. Maybe my next door neighbor believes that there should be one leader who makes all the decisions himself or herself and just tells everyone else what to do. I guess my ponit is that maybe the definition of leadership is entirely based upon personal opinion. As with anything, there will be a general trend amongst personal preference (gathered from numerous studies) and a general archetype of a "good leader" will be published. But, then again, today I might need to be one type of leader, and, tomorrow, follow a completely different path.

Just something to think about...
-Ellen Rohlfing

Traits

When we did the traits in class about our group, we wrote down which traits each one of our group members have. I really liked this activity because there were things that did surprise me but then there we also things that did not surprise me at all!

Almost everyone in my group said that I have enthusiasm and I was very encouraging, this fact did not surprise me at all because I have been told this many times throughout my life. I do tend to get very excited about almost everything and I am always wanting to encourage people and I want to make sure that everyone feels wanted and needed in a group or just in general.

The one thing that did surprise me is that a few of my group members wrote that I was a process leader, I would not see myself as this but 3 of my group members said that I was. and the other trait that someone said I had was democratic, I have never thought of myself as being democratic but the more that I think about it I can see it more. It goes along with encouraging and making sure that everyone in the group is happy. I am always wanting to make sure that the entire group has a say in what we are going to do and I don't just do something without asking the group first.

I have learned so much more about myself through this activity.

-Amanda Wise

I am writing this post as a brainstorm for what problems we encountered with our service learning project and what we could do better next time. Please comment on this post if you have any input or think about it and come with ideas for class on Monday.
Even though our project went really well, there is always room for improvement. I think that we should have contacted the center earlier and thought of back-up organizations. We changed the location after the proposal because when Kristen finally was able to reach the coordinator, we found out that there are only 3 students in their program. One problem that some of us experienced was kids acting up. This was not a big problem, but we could have thought of disciplinary actions to take in those cases.
I don't have much more to say at the moment, so any input would be appreciated.

~Josh

Female Leaders?

It's kind of upsetting to know that there are so many pre-existing limitations on women for acquiring leadership roles and high-powered positions in the workplace.  We have actually been studying this in my stereotyping and prejudice class, and I wanted to share some of the theories for why this gender bias exists.  One such theory is called the "role congruity theory," which states that two types of prejudice prevent women from pursuing high-level positions or succeeding when they do obtain such positions.  One form of prejudice stems from the belief that women are less likely than men to be successful in a leadership role.  This belief can prevent women from seeking high-powered roles, and from being selected for them when they do seek them.  This originates from the idea that men are stereotypically seen as more of the "breadwinners" while women are seen as more communal.  The second form of prejudice is that a women face a higher probability of negative evaluations than do men in a similar role.  This is because women leaders occupy roles that violates expectations about what leaders should be like (high-status males) and it violates the expectation of what women should be like (communal).  So ladies, it seems as though we have a lot working against us, but maybe one day we will be seen at an equal level as men and be accepted into these typically male-dominated positions.

-Kristen Gilson

Why Creativity Workshops Work

I was sitting in class the other day during one of our “Creativity Workshops,” thinking to myself, “what makes these workshops so effective?”  And then I realized—they work because they are fun!  I think I said in one of my earlier blogs that I don’t usually have this much fun in class, and I think fun is the key to success.  People who are having fun are happy, and happy people are more motivated to think of creative solutions for the betterment of their group.  I also think it is effective to have a change from the everyday routine of in-class work.  Jasmine said this in class the other day, but I really do think it is true—when the pace of the class is switched up from day to day, it keeps students on their toes and more willing to come to class.  My least favorite class also happens to be my most monotonous class.  Everyday the teacher stands up in front of the class and lectures off of a PowerPoint WITHOUT FAIL.  It is awful. 

So props to all the groups for the great creativity workshops and motivating me to come to every class last week and be more creative!

-Kristen Gilson

I really enjoyed both building activities, canstruction and straw structures. This week we built structures out of drinking straws and tape. We were given the task of building the tallest possible structure with value spent for building materials and value gained for reaching height cut-offs, creativity, and stability.
I found it really difficult when we were given time where only I could talk. Kristen and Brett were good at coming up with ideas and writing or drawing them. We used Kristen's idea to build a hemisphere dome at the base and have one long piece of single connected straws coming through the center. This worked well and won the creativity award, but it was not a very stable structure because the single strand extended way above the dome. All of the creativity workshops were enjoyable and great teambuilding exercises. In the future, I think these workshops should be held closer to the beginning of the semester to strengthen groups when everyone is new.

~Josh

This is an update from last week when I was writing about one of my other groups and how things were not going so well. I feel that maybe our group needed more bonding time because our group is getting along alot better now. Granted it was still rough right before our presentation but during and after the presentation our group has been getting along much better. Last time I spoke about a group member not participating very much and not doing his work. But during the presentation he did a wonderful job and lets just say that he saved our butts! The prof was a little but disappointed with the information we were presenting he wanted alot more and more in depth, while we were presenting it was very to see this on his face. Then he interrupted our group member while he was presenting about how that information related to our topic. He made up something that none of us are even sure what he said now but the prof was satisfied and I am sure he gave us an even better grade than he would have before. It still wasn't the best grade but it was ok.

I do wish that my group would have come up with a more creative idea for our activity for that class because we were knocked many points because our activity was too easy. I do believe that if my group would have brainstormed a little more we could have come up with a better activity even though our time was very limited.

Speaking of creativity though I was very impressed with our group (Boiler Volunteers) on Wednesday because we thought of a creative activity very quickly when we were brainstorming. It always just surprises me how awesome our group is and how well we all work together. I am very excited for our creative workshop on Wednesday! :)

-Amanda Wise

Canstruction!

Boiler Volunteers worked with Team Shenanigans to build a "Freedom Plane"

The creativity workshop was really fun today. I was impressed by the structures that we were able to build out of cans. We learned how to be creative in a new way. Everyone helped out to build the structure and we enjoyed being creative and helping others at the same time.

Creativity and engineers...
One of my professors mentioned that engineers are less creative when they leave college then when they enter based on a study. I feel like this is true in my case. The math, physics, and engineering classes that I have taken have taught me about theory and structure, but very few assignments require creativity. I became an engineer because I like to design and build things and figure out how they work. Many of the classes that I have had suppress creativity because they do not encourage it or require it to succeed. The activity today and the activity in class on monday were really fun for me to use my creative side. I'm looking forward to more creativity workshops next week!

~Josh Heber

post-its!!!

Yesterday in class we used the affinity technique as a means of solving a problem.  I must say... I'm a big fan!!  I really enjoyed the different approach to brainstorming, and I found it very helpful to see all of our ideas spread out on the wall.  This technique also made it a lot easier to narrow down our top 5 "useless items" because they could simply be pulled down from the wall and grouped together.  Another benefit to using this method was the repeats of ideas could be grouped together to make it visually obvious if a majority of people approved of the same solution.  It made the elimination of ideas more efficient as well, because they could just be taken off the wall.  The only negative aspects of this method in my opinion were the post-its' lack of ability to stick to the concrete wall, and the color of the post-its.  Not that it's a big deal, but I am a big fan of the neon post-its, so if our group were to do this again, I would definitely make sure to bring some hot pink ones : ) 

I also thought our group was able to come up with some pretty ingenious ideas for the use of a "corroded, exploded, dead battery."  Brett was the one who came up with most of the ideas, including its use in hypnosis, and to balance a table.  Ellen came up with the slingshot idea and using the acid to cure a wart.  All in all, I had a lot of fun yesterday, and I don't think I have laughed as much in any other class as I did yesterday in COM 320.  

I LOVE OUR GROUP!!!

-Kristen Gilson

Hannah Center II

Our Pumpkin party at the Hannah Center went very well! I think all of the kids enjoyed the new activities that we had for them. When we got there, we started off with snack time. They really liked the Halloween trail mix and white chocolate covered pretzels that Kristen made. Then, we had them make their own pumpkin by coloring a paper plate and cutting out shapes for the eyes, mouth, and stem. By the end of the craft time, we could see that the kids were getting antsy and they had a lot of energy from the snacks. We had originally planned to do the "gross food guess" after crafts, but someone wisely decided to change the order of activities and do the outside games so the children could release some energy. The broom stick race and other games outside went really well and the weather was great. I think the kids enjoyed the gross food guess and some of them had done it before so they had a general idea of what it was like and what body parts to guess. I was concerned that some of the children would be afraid to reach into the bag when they couldn't see what was inside, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. There were some shrieks of excitement when they felt the soggy pretzels and mashed bananas! The next activity was a mummy wrapping game with toilet paper. The kids really seemed to enjoy this and they made great mummies! After this activity, parents were beginning to come to pick up their children so we finished with coloring pages. The activities all went really well and everyone seemed to enjoy the pumpkin party!
~Josh Heber

I appreciate this group!!!

I am taking about 6 classes and all of my classes have at least one group project. I have never had this many group projects, so I am almost burnt out by all of the group projects. But I am managing it anyways because its what I have to do. Jasmine asked us in class this last week if the new groups we were put into for the problem-solving make us appreciate our old groups more or not. When she asked I really didn't think that it made me feel either way about the old group, mostly because my particular group really didn't change that much at all. But I have realized this weekend I really do appreciate the Boiler Volunteer group.


This weekend one of my groups for another class met because we have a huge presentation that we have to present on Tuesday of this week! There is really not a whole lot of time in general to get this presentation together. But sadly the other people in the group were not being very helpful at all and did not want to take the initiative and get things done. So I tried to start on the presentation and work on a part of it, then all of a sudden I look over and one of the other kids in the group was trying to do the same thing that I had just started! And nothing was getting done. The leader of the group, did not want to take charge of the group anymore for some reason, which I really just don't understand why. So I tried to take charge but for some reason the group really did not want to listen to me and nothing was getting done. We finally were able to figure out what each person could do and then we decided to meet another day.

Whenever my group has a meeting everyone is always prepared and no matter who is talking or leading the group everyone is always respectful. Also my group always is prepared for the meeting no matter what the subject is. So this is mostly just a Thank You to my group for being AWESOME! Boiler Volunteers is the best group ever!!!!! Yay!

Your fellow group member,
Amanda Wise

Blinded by Sheer Awesomeness

As said at the beginning of Kung Fu Panda, I think I have been "blinded by sheer awesomeness." We just recently completed the actual service part of our Service Learning Project, and I am fully confident in saying that the success of our event was dependent on the smooth working style of our group. When we arrived at the Hanna Community Center to work with the children, we were excited to see the room filled with only about eight children, instead of the possible 25. Though five more children were on their way, the prospect for the next few hours was looking good. Until it became apparent that all thirteen kids were inexplicably energetic and all wanted to talk to each of us right that second, but weren't necessarily interested in doing the same thing at the same time. At this point, we all found ourselves looking at each other with raised eyebrows, as if to say "we have to do this for how long?"
But, then everything started to fall into place. Once we all sat down at the table and started to learn each other's names, all of us were able to be assertive enough to maintain control, but fun and energetic enough to hold the kids' attention and make the activities enjoyable. All of our group members were able to read each other and work together to organize the activities to make them the most enjoyable for everyone. We ended up switching the order of some of our activities as well as adding some games on the fly. Though this could have been stressful or hectic, our group pulled it off smoothly and it progressed without a hitch. I am not surprised that we were able to make the event as enjoyable as it was, but I am truly thankful for all the hard work everyone put in! Go group!

-Ellen Rohlfing

Our Trip to the Hanna Center : )

Yesterday we completed our service learning project at the Hanna Center.  I was a little nervous before it all started because I was worried that the kids wouldn't like the games, or we would run out of things to do, or some catastrophe would occur.  Luckily, none of the above happened.  We got to the Hanna Center, had a couple minutes to set up, and then we gathered everyone around a large table for introduction (their name and favorite thing about Halloween)--I was shocked to find out that many of the children there did not have a preference for their favorite type of Halloween candy!! We then moved to snack time, which everyone seemed to enjoy--especially our team members haha.  After clean-up, Amanda had a pumpkin craft for the kids to do, we played a broomstick relay race along with other outdoor games that Ellen came up with, we had a "gross food guess," and a mummy wrapping competition.  All around good times.   Brett and Josh's costumes also seemed to be a big hit with the kids.  

Although everything ran smoothly, I will say I realized the importance of flexibility!  We came prepared with an agenda of activities, but we quickly learned that we were just going to have to "go with the flow."  Kids can only stay focused on one activity for so long, so we had to switch things around in order to keep them entertained and content.  

I'd have to say my favorite part of the day was coloring with the kids at the end of our time at the Hanna Center.  I forgot how therapeutic coloring can be!! Maybe one of these days Jasmine will let us color as an in-class activity : )

Problem Solving Task Forces are intense!

This last few classes when we worked on the problem solving task-force it made me realize how problem solving works. I wish that we would have done this about a week ago, because I had an interview and one of the questions that the interviewer asked me was, "Tell me about a time when you used your problem solving skills?" At the time this was a very hard question and I was caught off guard because I really hadn't ever thought about how I actually use problem solving skills. But we use problem solving skills everyday! Whether its just to decide what to eat for lunch, or how to deal with your roommate. I never really thought about how important problem solving skills are and how much we actually use them.

The scenario that my group was given was about Texas A&M, the school was building a bond fire with huge logs for their homecoming game and there was an accident where the logs fell and many students were crushed and many died. Then our group was to come up with a plan on how to handle the situation. At first I was so overwhelmed with the problem and I felt bad(even though it wasn't real!) I don't think that I would be a good person to put on an actual problem solving task force for a real situation like this because I feel that my emotions would probably get the best of me. Haha! Anyways, so as the group and I really started to dig into the scenario we first identified what needed to happen as soon as possible then moved on to who needed to be addressed in the situation (parents, media, students, ect). Then lastly we thought of ways to keep something like this from happening again in the future. We went though it step by step basically, the problem solving skills came so natural to everyone in the group because we do these things on a daily basis, thank goodness the problems that we encounter everyday are not like this scenario and are not as intense.

So next time I have an interview question about problem solving I will have a much better answer for the interview than the last one.

-Amanda Wise

Task Force

Yes, I will also say a few words about the Problem-Solving Task Force assignment. I don't mean to jump on the bandwagon, I just think it's a unique assignment and will provide us with useful skills for the future. It was interesting to be assigned to a different group, mostly because we have grown used to each other (as members of Boiler Volunteers) and know each other's communication styles and other nuances of the group and there is an established level of comfort with each other. However, our task force group had some new members, and we were missing some from the Boiler Volunteers, so some adjustments were needed. Under normal circumstances, this would probably happen over a period of time, say a week or two, but in this f aux crisis situation, everything came together so much more quickly. I just think it's interesting how quickly people become acquainted with each other in high-stakes situations.
A great example of this would be my experience this past summer as a high ropes challenge course facilitator. Normally it takes a group of new acquaintances awhile to adjust to one another and become comfortable with one another. With no past experiences to refer to, it's hard for them to have free-flowing conversations and there is usually a strong sense of personal space and very limited personal contact. However, when said group is sent thirty feet into the air with sling lines and harnesses holding them there as they walk across a steel cable, this touch barrier is broken almost immediately and participants are a lot more willing to get close with one another and help each other across. This is why these activities are usually used as teambuilding activities; they push people outside of that comfort level and speed along the "getting to know you" process.

-Ellen Rohlfing

On Wednesday, we were assigned new groups for problem solving task force. My new group was assigned the task of deciding how to respond to our company, "Jack in the Box", having an E-coli outbreak. Our new group functioned well and we came up with a good solution to the problem. I enjoyed seeing how the roles formed in our new group. One person took the leadership role and we relied on him to lay down the structure for our response to the problem. He got email addresses and phone numbers from every one and sent them out. Other people in the group were always there with useful ideas. I noticed when group members were supportive, clarifying, and questioning of ideas. While I have not figured out what every person's role was in the new group, I am starting to realize the different roles that people naturally fit into.

~Josh Heber