Final Reflection Paper
The last eight weeks of the first semester as taught me a lot of things that I feel will be helpful in my day to day life in school and even out in the community. I have learned a lot about respecting other people’s views, the need for teamwork, listening to other people’s stories as well as speaking out on anything that doesn’t seem right without the fear of being viewed differently. Also, I have managed to get a little closer to God than before being a Christian leader. It has been an exciting and beneficial semester, not only for my school work but also for my whole life as a whole. This paper takes a look at how my entire first semester has been.
As a learner, my belief since I stepped in class has always been a positive one and one thatI am fully self-aware. I attend college at Concordia University Texas. I have had a lot of practice withthe different learning techniques and discovered what well works for me. I believe I am more of a visual learner as compared to the audios. This is so because it is easy to see a slide on PowerPoint and recall the knowledge than listening to a lecture and maintain the same memory. Getting to class I through that I would embrace working alone more than doing projects as a team, but that has changed since then. This had been one of my struggles, but after a while, I now believe that working together as a team exposes me to a lot of things that I did not know (Goodman,2017).
What I have discovered about myself over time as a learned is broad, I found that I could work together with people from many walks of life as long as it is beneficial to all of us. As people, we tend to from both negative and positive opinions based on our life exposures as well as personal experiences. The vulnerabilities assist in shaping our beliefs and how we perceive others. The different perceptions we have leads us to come up with biases and prejudices towards people we don’t always want to associate with. However, quite often, we are not aware that we negatively regard others. The concept realization might be so hard to grasp, but I understand that the first step in being competent anywhere is to be fully self-aware (Bellman et al.,2017).
Over the past eight weeks, I have learned a lot not only what I should do in practice in class but also out in the society. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and even the way they view things. One of the things that I have learned in why is it important to look at situations from different perspectives is that for a conflict to be resolved, and all the parties involved to be fully satisfied with the results, a person must be able to accept all the opposing ideas, perspectives and positions in mind and at the same moment still function in an effective manner (Andersen,2016). In class, everyone has a different way of perceiving lectures, and it is advisable to respect that.Should there be a misunderstanding, then for a successful conflict resolution, one should have the ability to take the opponent’s perspectives and comprehend how the other person views the conflict and how they are reacting emotionally to it. If the person cannot take the opponent’s perspective, thenthey have a limited understanding of the issue. Withal, I do believe that conflict or disagreement is vital for life for they maintain a conversation, and also during the argument, you tend to learn a whole lot more than you might have no idea of, to begin with.
Notably, I have grown when it comes to paying attention to otherpeople’s stories and opinions. I now believe that when we listen with both our hearts and minds is like offering a generous gift. It affirms the other person that their story matters. Just like sharing one’s own story can be beneficial to others, listening, and engaging other people can widen one’s knowledge and understanding scope. I now try as much as possible to listen to other people and what they are going through. Their trials and struggles for this play an essential role in assessing their needs and what I can do to help. Everyone has a unique story if we learn to listen (Bledow et al.,2017).
As we are currently living in a society still dealing with police brutality and racism, some of the educators are finding it a bit uncomfortable speaking about race. Nevertheless, in all honesty, they should no longer afford to be silent. Teaching, just like parenting, requires one to let their comfort zone come second after the children. I am glad that my teachers are okay with speaking about race and have chosen not to remain silent about moments of violence or racism. This violence may well affect the student’s own families or communities. Also, regardless of color or culture, I have learned that I am in control of my actions, just like anybody else. This has made me think very differently about everything I thought knew about the human race that we are all equal we are all one with the same blood (Hutto et al.,2016)
“Where there is no vision, people cast off restraint,” that is one of my favorite verses from the bible. As a Christian leader during the first semester, I have changed as much as I have grown spiritually. This is so because of the vision I have had for motivates growth that focusses on both my time and energy. I have learned that without focusing intentionally, I can continue being busy without growing. Growth is essential for several reasons; sanctification a growth process or one to be like Jesus needs change as well as growth. Also, as a leader, the growth of the people I am leading r looking up to me depends on my growth. One cannot lead where they don’t want to go. I have discovered if I wish to the ones I lead to get to a place of fruitfulness and maturity, I must go further, and that needs motivational growth. As I look towards my future both as a leader and just a person, I ask in prayer how the lord would want me to grow in character(https://biblehub.com/proverbs/29-18.htm).
Reflecting the past eight weeks, I have gained a lot of respect for both the students and, more especially, the teachers who have taught me by not telling me the answers but assuring me that I already knew it and I could easily fin it myself. I can listen to another person’sstory without having to think that I am always right by viewing it from a different perspective. I should embrace people from all walks of life and not be afraid of speaking up on the negatives of society. And above all, I have learned how to be a leader not only in spiritual matters but in all aspects of life.
References
Andersen, E. S. (2016). Do project managers have different perspectives on project management?. International Journal of Project Management, 34(1), 58-65.
Bellman, K. L., Landauer, C., Nelson, P., Bencomo, N., Götz, S., Lewis, P., & Esterle, L. (2017). Self-modeling and Self-awareness. In Self-Aware Computing Systems (pp. 279-304). Springer, Cham.
Bledow, R., Carette, B., Kühnel, J., & Bister, D. (2017). Learning from others’ failures: The effectiveness of failure stories for managerial learning. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 16(1), 39-53.
Goodman, D. S. (2017). Teamwork, communication, and empathy: a case study examining social skills in drama class (Doctoral dissertation, Bilkent University).
https://biblehub.com/proverbs/29-18.htm
Hutto, J. W., & Green, R. D. (2016). Social movements against racist police brutality and Department of Justice Intervention in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Journal of Urban Health, 93(1), 89-121.