10 things this class has taught me

Management II was definitely a new experience for a lot of us. I have never experienced a class like this, but thats not necessarily a bad thing. I feel like I have taken more skills from this class than most of my other courses in college. Skills that I can actually use in my life, not just facts from a text book.

1. Exit your comfort zone.
 Hop right in on the human pretzel game, play telephone to practice communication, state your opinion. This class taught me to be comfortable with myself and work as a team. In traditional classes, I feel like I get stuck sitting in the background and absorbing what goes on around me, but Management II forced me out of my comfort zone.

2. Don't be afraid to speak in front of people. 
I am a far better speaker and presenter because of this course. Teaching the classes made me more comfortable with the experience of public speaking.

3. Think Deeply
A lot of these topics we learned about were not easy issues. Things like ethics and crisis management really made me stop and think. Management is not going to be easy, and critical thinking is going to be an important skill.

4. Write more often 
Blogging has been a great way for me to reflect on things that I learned and let me relate them to things that I enjoy. I was able to tie together our topics with The Office, Greys Anatomy, Legally Blonde, and other favorite shows and movies. I realized that I love to write, especially about topics that relate to management.

5. Talk to people  
Contacting a mentor was kind of scary at first, I did not think that I was good at talking to strangers, but it was another learning experience where I could exit my comfort zone. My mentor is wonderful and I am so glad I got to meet her!

6. Assignments shouldn't be "disposable" 
Reading David Wiley's blog post on open pedagogy, I really enjoyed his discussion on assignments not being disposable. Leaving this class, I feel like my blog and the primer is something that we can be proud of. I hope to leave my future classes with something just as tangible.

7. Change is good 
Aside from learning a lot from Erin and Kyle's presentation about change, this whole course has been a change. It was something new we all learned from.

8. You can learn a lot from others 
From Jess's stories about Red Robin and Jason's Pirates Cove experiences, I think I learned a lot from everyone's past management/employee experiences.

9. Participation is key
Not only did I learn more from participating in others presentations, but I know as a presenter when others engage it makes my job so much easier.

10. Personality is important 
From our very first assignment, I saw everyones personality type very clearly. Having this in mind made working with others easier, because I could understand where they were coming from.