Well hello!

This is my first real blog! I was using this web page for a class, but now it is my craft blog! Here is my first project to share with you. I made this photo collage for my seven year anniversary with my love. Enjoy!

Favorite concept

My favorite concept in the course is creativity in the small group process. Creativity is defined in the textbook on page 162 as..." Creativity is going beyond the current boundaries of technology, knowledge, social norms or beliefs...". creativity is thought of as a new way of seeing and generating ideas that make things happen. Creativity also has barriers involved that include perceptual barriers like difficulty isolating and narrowing the problem. Creativity also has cultural barriers like the need to conform or an expectation of practicality and efficiency. There are also emotional barriers to creativity like approval seeking etc. The textbook describes techniques for encouraging creativity and they are idea needlers as opportunities to use a different perspective, manipulative verbs to change the way we view a particular process, association and metaphors as devices to describe abstract concepts and express emotions, and lastly using analogies to help open perceptions.
I have chosen this concept because there have been many instances where I would have loved to have options to enhance creativity and after learning techniques of doing so I have developed the ability to help my small group processes achieve excellence.

Lessons learned throughout the class

I honestly could write a fifty page paper about the things I have learned in this class. I have learned about the functions and roles of small groups which includes norms and group development phases. I have learned much about diversity and perspectives. In conjunction with another course I am taking I have learned a great deal about verbal and non verbal communication, but I also learned how important listening and feedback is to communication as well. My favorite thing about the class is the time we spent learning about decision making and problem solving and creativity within small groups which has helped me tremendously in regards to helping the children I work with make intelligent decisions about their conflicts. My least favorite thing about the class is having to wait twelve hours in between posts, but I do understand why we must wait, and why it is important to the learning environment. I don't have any tips for improvement for the course. I have taken many online courses at another institution, but this class so far has been a great pleasure, and I plan on keeping my blogspot after the course ends and continuing to post on it because I have found it to be a great outlet for my ideas without unnecessary criticism.

Group Observation Project

The group observation project is a very useful exercise. I think that the group observation project helped me to understand the underlying dynamics of small groups and how they function. The group observation project taught me that there are many levels of communication taking place, and that evaluation is by far the more complex position to undertake. I learned about different means of observing and giving feedback, and the different way to provide feedback to groups. I feel that the project as a whole is important and if I had to choose one good thing about the project it would be the ability to pick our own group to observe, and how wonderful it was to be able to choose a group to observe that could easily fit into my daily schedule. I was initially concerned that I would have trouble fitting the project into my schedule because I have two jobs, but once I learned we could find our own group to observe with approval I was and still am very pleased. I am greatly pleased with the project and the procedure so I don't have any suggestions of change or areas that could benefit from suggestion. I may however suggest an additional idea that if individuals from the class wanted to post their papers for peer review I feel we may benefit from each others ideas and writing from the assignment. Overall I was very pleased with the project and I think the length of time we had to prep and complete the project made completion easier for myself and I in no way felt rushed during my research.