Learning About Myself

This semester, not only did I learn a lot of key terms, more about my major, and realize why Recreation Management is a perfect fit for me, but I also learned more about myself as a leader. Through the strengths finder that I completed in my KNR 171 class, the strengths really stood out to me and made me see the accuracy in the assessment. After reading up on what the strengths finder found out about me, I recognized all those strengths within myself as time went on. The strengths contained responsibility, communication, relator, woo, and positivity. The more I thought about it and put them to use, the more I realized how much those strengths really were in my top 5.

 

My Top 5 Strengths

While working in a group setting, those strengths stood out to me. I’ve always been responsible when trying to accomplish something. I enjoy having the satisfaction of my work being done and having it done to the best of my ability. Once I am comfortable with people, I am a very good communicator. I like to voice my own opinion in a respectful way as well as come to an agreement/compromise with my team members to make the work run smoothly. I am a relator while working with team members because I enjoy making close relationships with new people. I enjoy meeting new people, so while working with my group during our group facilitation, I built relationships with my team members, and we each now have friendships among each other. This goes along with woo (winning others over). I enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to like me, as well. I have a positive attitude when working with a group because I know that not all of my ideas will be fitting for my group, so I need to have a good attitude to be understanding and open-minded of their idea. In every group setting, I see each of these stand out mostly, but as the semester went on, I found more and more out about myself as a leader.

 

Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone

With each activity we worked on during class, I broke out of my shell a little more. In the very beginning of the semester, my teacher, Tracy, drew a circle on the board and told us this is where each student is. She drew a bigger circle around the first circle and said that she wanted us to grow into the bigger circle. She called that "stepping out of our comfort zone." I brushed it off, because just like my classes in Elementary Education, I figured I wouldn't go past my boundaries. As outgoing as I am, I am extremely shy when it comes to being surrounded by new people. I am no longer shy around my classmates. I feel very comfortable with them. I felt as if with each activity that we worked on in class, I worked with someone new. That helped me meet new people in the same field as me and I've developed close relationships in my major. I am thankful for that. This will help me in the work setting because when I get my first job, chances are, I will not know anyone, so breaking out of my comfort zone and meeting new people will be extremely important to show that I work well with others and am open to meeting new people around me.

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Growth As a Leader

What helped me grow as a leader most was working on my group's facilitation plan, which is located in this website under “one hour facilitation plan” at the top of the page. During the facilitation plan, I worked on all of my strengths as a leader. I helped contribute to the group facilitation plan with putting ideas out there and coming together to agree on ideas to meet our goal at the finishing of the project. Once we had to actually get out there in the gym and facilitate the activities we came up with, I was pretty nervous but not as nervous as I expected myself to be. That is because I have built friendships with many of the people in the class, so I didn’t feel as uncomfortable performing my facilitation in front of them. If I had to lead a facilitation in this class in the beginning of the semester, I would have been a nervous wreck and would not have found comfort in doing it, but after everything we learned in class and all the relationships I’ve built with people during class time activities, I was not anywhere near as nervous as I would have been before taking this class. At first, when I heard all of the different things we would be doing throughout the semester, I wasn't very enthused about it. Once I started working on everything, though, I began to notice why it was crucial to have these different activities. They were all very beneficial, in my eyes and I will use them for later use in my future classes/career.

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Note Taking the Qualities to Becoming a Successful Leader

I took many notes during my KNR 171 class and will continue taking notes as my field of study goes on. Each note helps remind me of all the qualities I need to become a successful leader. I will take these notes with me through each step of the way until and while I become a better leader for my career. I know through my future classes, I will continue to learn more about myself as a leader and add that to my strengths, as well. I will also continue to volunteer in organizations throughout the next semesters and the rest of my time at ISU, where I have a leading role to give myself as much practice as possible before I land my dream job as a leader. 

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What I Need to Build On

For just starting the Recreation Management major this semester, I still have some improvements I need to grow on. As I have come to realize that I am not as nervous as I thought I would be during my first facilitation in front of class, I am going to work on reminding myself that everyone that I am facilitating to is in the same boat as me. They have to facilitate in front of me, just as I have to in front of them. I would like to work on my nerves. I know that being nervous means I care about being an effective leader, but sometimes I let my nerves get the best of me, and I get flustered.

The entire time during my first facilitation, I thought that I was not doing an exceptional job at all. I got down on myself so much afterwards. We were recorded during the facilitations to help us leaders see what we did well at and what we needed to work on. After watching the recording, I realized that I do not give myself enough credit. It was nowhere near as bad as I thought it was, fortunately. To work on my nerves and getting down on myself, I am going to keep leading a group of people just to make myself feel practiced enough and to the point where I can perfect it, and just enjoy it by not be so nervous and stressed out about being a leader. As the TED talk we watched in my class said, "Don't fake it until you make it. Fake it until you become it." I will live by those words for the rest of my life. They are very powerful words. Not only will it help me for my career, but also for my personal life.

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Learning Connections          

My learning in KNR 171 has connected to my other classes because in my other classes we talk about leadership and how it’s connected to my major, Recreation Management. No matter what role that I take on during my future career, I will be a leader of some sort, and I truly look forward to that. This is my first year in the major, and I really believe that my classes at ISU are preparing me to become a better leader myself. Flow Theory is another connection that my classes have. Flow Theory is where challenge and skill meet. In each class, we have talked about how important it is to have them come together. If the skill for an activity is hardly doing anything, but the challenge is extremely difficult, they do not match up and will not be as successful as if they did meet. My KNR 171 class has connected to my personal life, as well, because I enjoy being a leader, not a follower. I like to have my own ideas and go off of what I think is right as an individual. In my personal life, I babysit 5 times a week and being a leader as a babysitter is crucial. As much as I love to have fun with the children, I also have to stick to the roles and duties that the parents of the children want me to go by. I need to be responsible of the children and recognize the rights and wrongs of their actions and be the leader I was taught to be. 

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Growth in Recreation Leadership           

My engagement and growth within KNR 171 really surprised me by a lot of things. I am surprised at how many friends I have made in just one semester of being in this major. In my other major, Elementary Education, I had friends, but those friends were ones that I already knew before I was in that major. If it weren’t for this class, I would not have made that many friendships. The only reason I made those friendships is because I was always engaged in the learning in class and we constantly had activities we had to complete with new partners or groups. Another thing that surprised me while taking this class was how much I did learn. I have always been a good student and paid attention in class, but I have never taken away so much that made an impression on me in a class before.  We were constantly going over new material, but also keeping the old material handy because it all tied in together. Overall, KNR 171 was a huge success at teaching us students how to prepare to become a leader. I feel more of a leader than I ever have and am going to continue at bettering myself as a leader.