September 10, 2005

First Week of Class (as a student again)

It was a busy and eventful week. I learned about my personality color, group dynamics and teambuilding. Very warm, fuzzy stuff, but sort of fun. I look at this like a support group, and that’s partly what it is. I will also learn more computer skills with Office, which should prove useful. It is kind of strange for me to be a student in this class, since I was recently teaching adults myself. The other students are interesting and I’m making some new friends. My homework is to take a couple of career interest assessments. I took one today and was having a little trouble over-analyzing my answers. They ask basically the same few questions 20 different ways with just slightly different wording. “Well, I thought I meant it when I chose the answer last time.” The biggest tensions were between practical or aesthetic and leadership/setting my own course or following others. I like to have it both ways. I want to include both aesthetic and practical values in my work, hopefully an equal amount of each. I don’t want to have to order people about and be the only leader, but I want room to control my own work and be involved in decisions. It is very clear that I want to work with people and like enjoy working in a collaborative, somewhat relaxed environment. I have known that all along. Those have been my best work experiences. We’ll see if the results come back weird. It has been a good, busy weekend. I went to the Western Washington State Fair, which opened yesterday. Highlights were the draft horse exhibition and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I resisted the urge to buy things from the commercial vendors. There was some pretty silver jewelry, but I was strong. I learned about a rare breed of sheep, the only spotted one, as I walked through the barns. They are called Jacob Sheep, after the Biblical patriarch who watched Laban's flocks and bred his own herd of spotted sheep. See the website at Bide a Wee Farm.

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