Class Wrap Up

The last day of class was a great experience. I was able to listen to some great presentations and turn in the ever so stressful final biz project. However, what I enjoyed most about the last day of class was Professor Middleton's wrap-up. Her story of the paraglider that landed in the parking lot instead of the other side of the river was inspiring to me. Often we don't realize that we are focused on the wrong things and this can decide our fate. It's never worth it to be focused on the bad. Focus on your dreams and you WILL get there!

This class was a great learning experience and I know it will benefit me in my career as a doctor.

Individual Presentations

On Thursday I was able to present individually about managing social media. It was actually a pretty interesting topic to research and I felt like it was pretty exciting to talk about. I ended up presenting 4 times and was graded the very last time with a very large and distracting (haha) audience. I was a little bit nervous but I felt like I effectively used the suggestions and comments from the previous presentation groups to my advantage to improve my presentation. There were a few things I could still improve but I felt like I did well overall and the grade I received proved so. However, I've learned in this class not to care about the grade your receive. It rarely represents your true performance in the real world. This class is highly subjective though, so I can understand how difficult it is to grade, especially when the grader is bound to a rubric. I'm glad I've had the opportunity to develop my skills in this class and hope to continue using and developing these skills.

React and Group Presentations

Last Thursday we presented as groups and were able to receive and give comments on the presentations. I thought this was pretty helpful. Our presentation went really well. Brittany had the idea of starting with a great hook (the video) and ending with the second half of the video. We practiced a few times before actually presenting which was very very helpful but even more practice couldn't have hurt. I was impressed with all the presentations, including our own, and thought we did a really good job. There were some little things that I could have changed (like not having my back to the right side of the room sometimes), but overall, I felt like I was effective at conveying our message. One of the comments by Mrs. Middleton confused me because in an earlier class she said our focus should be on the speaker in our group. I did this, and she asked if I was afraid of the audience? hahaha. Sometimes this class confuses me. Which is sad, it being a communication course, but maybe it's just me. :)

Remote Meeting

The remote meeting was very helpful since our team has been very busy recently and it was difficult to find a time to meet in person. We could also finish some of our assignments and set some meeting times. It was helpful to use Google Docs to share files because everyone could colaborate together simultaneously. I will certainly consider using Skype or a similar program to have online meetings in the future as it is very convenient.

Interview

Despite some technical issues, my interview with Michael was fantastic. I felt I was successful at tying my answers back to the job itself and explaining why I would be the right person for the job. I felt like I could improve eye contact- though this was a little bit weird for me, because it didn't feel natural looking at someone through the computer screen. Michael was a great interviewer and asked some questions that really made me think. I really think this prepared me for a potential online interview in the future, especially since the technical issues very well could occur during the real deal.

Michael Hutchings 5

Research- You either love it, or you hate it

I'll be the first to admit that I hate doing research. I just feel like it takes way too much time to find out about a topic that someone else studied. Also, it's hard to see the results as quickly as you would if you were working on something else that didn't require research.

Despite all this, I thought the presentation given to us in the library was very helpful and will certainly ease the pain of finding informational sources on the topic I am studying. Perhaps the reason I don't like research is because I'm just plain old not good at it!

On a random note, can anyone help me figure out why LinkedIn is useful? I'm one of the rebels in the class that still haven't created an account. Granted, networking wouldn't really benefit me in the career that I am pursuing, but even then, I have a friend that is a successful businessman that says "the value of LinkedIn is the same as the value of screen doors on submarines." This meme was the breaking point for avoiding the otherwise 'pointless' social media tool:

I'm all ears to other opinions though. I am very open-minded about the idea, but as of now I have no other reason to believe (besides Professor Middleton's word) that it is useful.

By the way, for those of you who were interested in my last post about our new baby, my wife has a blog that she keeps that talks about life as a new mom. Some of you might find that interesting. She does write the blog in spanish though, so you'll have to use google translate if you don't know Spanish.

http://palmers1229.blogspot.com/2014/02/la-maternidad-en-mi-vida.html?spref=fb

Thanks for reading!

Make up post

I've decided to write a "make up post" for the week I missed when my daughter was born. I will try to make this somewhat class-oriented, but I'm sure you guys are less interested in that than hearing about my beautiful little girl. She was born on January 30, 2014 at 5:14 at 6 lbs and 9 oz. She was (and is) EXTREMELY hairy, just like her... Mom, obviously. :) She is very alert and loves to: dance, grunt, and stare at very particular spot on the cealing (Seriously, she spends 90% of her awake time looking at this precise spot and will adjust her head to get the best view of the amazing scenery). Of course she loves to eat and sleep (and not let Mom and Dad sleep), but we've decided to keep her nonetheless.

 

 

As far as class goes, I think the day I missed was about public speaking. It's too bad I missed that day of class, because although I've been told I'm a great public speaker, I do not feel that way many times. Some ideas to improve public speaking:

• Avoid filler works
• Eye contact- 2-3 seconds with each person before changing to another person
• Do good gestures, not distracting ones
• Have fluxation in voice
• Utilize floor craft (walk with purpose)
• Avoid and eliminate opportunities for nervous crutches/habits/movements

Cheers!