February Monthly Summary

      The month of February has been a busy one for myself, as I have just recently relocated to Chicago for my new job as the Community Outreach Director for The First Tee of Greater Chicago.  I'm currently enrolled in three courses, and try to manage my time so that I have my readings completed by Tuesday night.  Ideally I like to have posted on the discussion board by Tuesday night instead of waiting until Wednesday, though I think this has only happened three times thus far.  My personal life and professional life have been a pretty large hinderance to me so far this semester, however I feel as though things are finally beginning to calm down a bit.  Communication between myself and Katelyn has always been positive, though it has waned some in the past couple of weeks.  My goal is to incorporate more frequent discussion between us both in order for increased organization.

     As for the lessons learned in class, I can relate them directly to my time spent in California working with youth development.  Our group has focused on experiential learning, which I find to be the key method utilized in my work.  We are an activity-based program that emphasizes doing as opposed to listening.  In terms of adult education, this translates substantially in that I have to, more or less, win parents and donors over.  Statistics and words give some value, but when they actually visit, and tour the facility, they are able to have that "a-ha" moment, when they realize that what we do really does have significant value.  This can only be accomplished through that experiential learning environment afforded to them.  Reading the other groups blogs, and their work, has also helped me to understand the difficulties and successes shared by my classmates when trying to apply these principles in their workplace.  To some extent, I feel guilty because of how much I enjoy my work, and how rarely I feel backlash from the adult learners that I work with.  Perhaps being in youth development makes people more receptive to my message, but this course has afforded me the opportunity to branch out into a more administrative role that will see me attempting to incorporate new school principals to our curriculum.  I intend to utilize having them personally witness our programming, and challenging them to take ownership of the program at their own school.  I look forward to continuing my development in the coming month.