Blog #6

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In last weeks class we had a real-life experience of what it means to be handicapped. Many of us go throughout our days complaining about the simple things in life such as what to eat, wear, and that the day is too hot or too cold. On the other hand, we have individuals that have to struggle on a daily basis just to get around. It was really an eye opener for me when I did the exercise that involved the wheelchair. At first I thought I was just going for a ride and somebody would be pushing me and helping me out. I was in fact experiencing what these folks have to go through and be independent. That’s when it struck me. I was simply spinning the wheel a couple of times but then I got tired. I complained right away. I can get away from this struggle and simply stand up on my two feet and carry along with my life. Other people don’t have that opportunity. We all take our healthy lifestyles for granted and don’t stop to think of what a person that is handicapped has to go through. That is why I think that we should make the presidents of colleges, company CEOs, and any other form of institution that does not support the handicap go through a whole day on a wheelchair so that they get to see the other side of the coin and have a firsthand experience. And maybe after their experiences they can be more supportive of the individual with a disability.

 

In this week reading Lipstick and Labcoats it talks about how women and being mistreated because they are pursuing careers in a STEM related field. It is not the norm to see women in these types of careers because they are not being represented as much. Women do not have role models from which they can aspire to and look up to. As part of the findings they were classified into four categories. The one that stood out to me the most was “gender is for my parents and grandparents.” After reading the description of it I saw the reason why this expression was used. Simply put, gender is not the same today where men and women take on the traditional roles. Nowadays, we see where women and men share responsibilities equally. Men have to also take care of the kids, do chores around the house, and cook. Its not the norm, but in todays society women are becoming more independent and don’t need the “financial support” from the man because they are being more educated and obtaining higher paying jobs. The man is being exposed to reality and therefore we have to learn to adapt and accept that women can survive on their own. I personally value women because I am surrounded by strong independent women with whom I can see that they have survived and can survive without a man in their lives. We are not following the norm of where the man is the provider and the women the caregiver. We have to learn how to adapt to such changes for the good.

Connected means more than just “plugging in”

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I’ve been struggling for some time now (well, since the summer anyway) to make sense of what being “connected” really means when it comes to educators and courses.  I’ve seen a few general ideas of what connected means to others and I’ve seen some of it in action through my participation in connected courses.

I’m new at this game, so please, connect me if I’m wrong (and I may be plugged in aloneoversimplifying things) but being connected seems to mostly mean being “plugged in.”  On the individual level, this seems to mean that you’re digitally “plugged in” to various social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) and to current uses of technology.  It’s a sort of individual thing… how well are you connected?

Then there is idea of connecting more than one courses together in some way – either an entire course or even just one module

 

-I made assumptions about what it meant over the summer and it seems my definition is a bit different

-not just about numbers

-aligning outcomes

-working together to create a purposeful

 

Include the Unincluded

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Based on the scores you received on the Organizational Climate Questionnaire on page 190 of the text, what are your strengths and weaknesses regarding establishing a constructive climate for a group or organization?

 

What strategies for establishing a constructive climate for a group or organization discussed in the text could you employ to improve your skills?

An important aspect of establishing a constructive climate is giving recognition to others. Is rewarding or praising others something that comes easily for you as a leader? Discuss.

Better to work hard then to have hard work…

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Based on the scores you received on the Organizational Climate Questionnaire on page 190 of the text, what are your strengths and weaknesses regarding establishing a constructive climate for a group or organization?

Providing structure: 20               Building cohesiveness: 21

clarifying norms: 18                     Promoting standards of excellence: 21

For the most part I ranged between the high and high moderate range. The area in which is scored lower to be considered in the high moderate range is in clarifying norms. In part I agree with the results because sometimes I ignore going over the rules all together because I am under the assumption that everybody is in the same page in regards to knowing what is expected of them. I know that when I assume certain things sometimes certain people who need that extra help will fall through the cracks and just attempt to go with the flow. In regards to my strengths I see as promoting standards of excellence, as my strongest one. I find myself to be that person that will go out of their way to make sure that everybody benefits in the same way, and that nobody misses those benefits because they fell short on something.

 

What strategies for establishing a constructive climate for a group or organization discussed in the text could you employ to improve your skills?

As pointed out in the book, norms need to be developed or established early on. Something that my manager is always saying is that it is better to work hard, initially, then to have hard work down the line. I just need to apply that to how I employ norms within a group setting. I just need to make sure that I don’t oversee them and not to make any assumptions as to where everybody is at.

An important aspect of establishing a constructive climate is giving recognition to others. Is rewarding or praising others something that comes easily for you as a leader? Discuss.

I feel like it depends on the situation and on the person. The task that was completed by the person needs to be worthy of a reward or a praise. You also need to choose wisely, you cant just praise or reward for just about anything, because it could ultimately  loose its value. Which could then  have a negative effect instead of a positive one.

Blog

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Friday’s class began as usual; Julian presented a power point that indicated how to create an outline that helps everyone by narrowing down ideas and structure for papers. For me it was a reminder, in college I had a semester where I had to create many outlines before initiating a paper, but I had forgotten about it or somehow dismissed it. Now that Julian reminded us how important it is for papers to have structure and format I will begin to do outlines. He explained and created the outline so quickly he even had time to create an outline for one of my papers that I will be doing later on this semester . It was nice to have him go over something that is simple but hard to start and remember. Following his presentation Dr. Hoffman created six activities that had to be performed by group members. Each station offered different scenarios with different disabilities. The activities allowed everyone to realize others true realities and hardships. Everyone including myself was affected by the wheel chair activity because we all had to physically work with the wheel chair to accomplish the action. We all realized the troubles people with wheel chair disabilities face each day in order to accomplish small task that normally take five to eight minutes for the average person. I’m very glad we all had the privilege to engage and acknowledge disabilities.

The articles including the chapters touched on gender inequalities. Chapter nine focused on the contributions woman are making in higher education. The chapter stated that sixty – five percent of bachelor degrees were awarded to men but starting in 1982 woman proportion of bachelor’s degrees increased to fifty- seven percent and even today remains the same with a the percentage still increasing in the woman side. It is interesting to read that woman today are more likely to attend graduate school than men. One of the beliefs of why woman now are participation more in educational achievement due to reliable contraception’s that prevents woman from becoming pregnant. I agree with that idea because before woman would become pregnant the minute they would engage in sexual activities and that prevented or restricted them from earning an education. Another obstacle that was eliminated was the occupational sex segregation this allowed woman to pursue for competitive fields. It is interesting to learn the trajectory woman in the past faced in education and occupations. Chapter ten was informative because it uncover information such as how the word homosexual was not created until 1869 even thought homosexuality existed since before that time. Less than nine years after the discovery of the word homosexuality the first gay novel was published. I found this interesting because I could just imagine the controversies that may have revealed immediately after the novel was published. Few other events were talked about that I have personally never even heard of such as government personnel being fired in 1950’s because they suspected they were being gay and following that in 1951 the American Psychiatric Association added homosexuality to the list of mental disorders. Just reading this made me realize how narrow minded people were in the past and how difficult it was to be in this era not only for colored people but also for gender different preferences and woman in general. I can’t imagine not getting a job because they think you look gay, now I understand why many older people today from previous generations still conserve some views of how they see many groups that are not white, male, educated, and economically stable people. Another sad incident  that was talked about was the murder the twenty-one year old student from the University of Wyoming that initiated the allowed LGBT services to be provided in campuses to prevent violent gay crimes.

Blog Post #6

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Last week Julian started off class with a demonstration on how to write a good outline. Writing outlines usually take up a lot of my time but once you have it, it’s a lot easier to write your paper. We had several activities in class last week and they all gave us a glimpse of the challenges students with disabilities face on a daily basis. In one activity we had to listen what one person was reading but at the same time there were many distractions by other students that made it difficult to listen. In this activity I felt the need to escape from the chaos. It was very frustrating. In another activity we had to do a simple task at bell tower but it turned out to be the most frustrating activity than all the others because it we had to do it in a wheelchair. I have never noticed before how difficult it could be to get around bell tower in a wheelchair until that activity. I learned that students with disabilities are the invincible diverse group on campus. 

The article by Goldman had a lot of surprising research. The article mentions that both men and women tend to choose gender-based fields and that women negotiate gender when they pursue majors in STEM fields. I don’t think gender was ever a thought for me when it came to choosing what field I wanted to go into. I remember in the 11th grade I was leaning more towards math and physics fields because for me it was more straightforward than my English classes. I actually learned about women being underrepresented in STEM fields in college and I was shocked at first. I think it’s silly to let gender play a huge role on my choice of academic study. The article by Rankin was about transgender men and women. I found this article a bit depressing. I don’t think anyone should ever be mistreated for being different especially in something they have no control over.  I was happy to learn on chapter 9 that women are now more likely to go to college than men.  I am also now left wondering why that is. Why are less men going to college now?  On chapter 10 of the book Diversity in American Higher Education, I learned for the first time that in 1951 the American Psychiatric Association added homosexuality to its list of mental disorders. At first I laughed when I read this because I had no idea how oblivious Americans were when it came to homosexuality. A lot of mammals display homosexual behaviors. It makes sense that the human species would also display homosexual behaviors and not conclude that it is a mental disorder.

BLOG POST #7 – My Tone as a Leader

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Based on the scores you received on the Organizational Climate Questionnaire on page 190 of the text, what are your strengths and weaknesses regarding establishing a constructive climate for a group or organization?

My highest strengths in establishing a constructive climate for a group or organization are promoting standards of excellence and clarifying norms. My weaknesses on the other hand are providing structure and building cohesiveness. Nonetheless none of the scored dipped down into the low moderate range.

What strategies for establishing a constructive climate for a group or organization discussed in the text could you employ to improve your skills?

In order to improve my ability to provide structure I need to better help my group members understand their purpose for being in the group and I must better help group members understand their roles in the group. In order to improve my ability to build cohesiveness I must encourage my group members to respect each other’s differences and encourage group members to accept each other as unique individuals.

An important aspect of establishing a constructive climate is giving recognition to others. Is rewarding or praising others something that comes easily for you as a leader? Discuss.

I definitely not only find it easy, in fact, I find it enjoyable to recognize others with appropriate praise. I like making people feel good, smile, laugh and what not. So when they do a good job it pleases me to be able to reward and or praise them for it.

Gender Gaps and Sexual Orientation

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Last week class started with Julian showing us how to write an outline. I’ve written outlines before and have found them very helpful in keeping the structure and flow of the paper. I really enjoyed getting a different approach to the outline because new ideas always help when I get stuck. I really enjoyed the activities we did last week with the different disabilities. In my opinion it really did help to understand what they go through and the struggles they have each and every day.  Now that we are aware and more knowledgeable of this we can help educate others and be more aware of our surroundings. I think the wheelchair activity made the biggest impression on each and every one of us. The physical struggle is enough to make you want to give up because it is so much work, time consuming, and when elevators do not work it is probably enough to make you want to stop going to school. This would probably be my thought process that is why it is really important for our buildings to accessible and for maintenance to maybe do daily check ups to see that the equipment is working.

In this weeks reading the Goldman article and Chapter 9 Gender Equity in Higher Education both talk more about gender gaps. Goldman focuses more on how women do not really major in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).  They talk about the three categories of the gap between men and women in STEM subjects: Biological, Social and Structural, and Psychological. The part that really interested me was when women explained how people always said they “did not look the part” for their major. I think it is so interesting that people find it hard to believe that women can major in these subjects. I do not understand what the definition or image is of a person in a STEM major but it seems it is not women which is really sad because women are capable of so much but because they are repressed and discouraged to stay in that major. I respect women that despite these stereotypes and gender imaging they continue to pursue a career in a STEM major. Chapter 9 talked more about how women were only accepted to prestigious colleges until the 1960’s but were more likely to attend a less prestigious school than men. Even though it is more likely that men will attend college women are taking advantage of opportunities in education and are earning their degrees more quickly. This is a different type of gender gap because it is more focused on how women are rising and gaining advantages over men.

The Rankin article, the video, and Chapter 10 concentrate on sexual orientation. One sentence that really caught my attention was that: In 29 states, it remains legal to fire people from their jobs, take away their children, and remove them from rented or leased housing or hotels for no other reason than their sexual orientation or gender identity. I found this to be so sad why do people care so much about their sexual preferences that does not make them less of a person they are just like everyone else except with different likes and dislikes.  I found the 8 transgender identity milestones to be interesting they were: feeling gender different from a young age, seeking to present as a gender different from the one assigned to them at birth, repressing or hiding their identity in the face of hostility and/or isolation, initially misidentifying their identity, learning about and meeting other trans people, changing their outward appearance in order to look more like their self-image, establishing new relationships with family, partners, friends, and coworkers and, developing a sense of wholeness within a gender normative society. It was really interesting to read this because in my Early Childhood Studies class we talked about gender roles and it related to this. One girl shared that a male child wanted to dress up as Elsa for Halloween and the mother was allowing him to dress up as her. He does not want to actually wear a dress he just thinks the character is really “cool”. It is really great that the mother is supporting her child the sad part is that she is getting a lot of negative comments on allowing her child to do this instead of supporting the mother. I do not know how I feel exactly of the Chick-fil-A situation but I understand both views and if the principal thought that it was necessary so no one would feel attacked then the right decision was made. All in all I found this week’s readings to be very informative and interesting.

Blog post numero 6

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Last week Julian made me realize i was neglecting my writing by not creating an outline before writing an essay. Even i was thought how to create an outline i find myself skipping it because i feel its less work ,but in the end i realize i take longer writing a paper and my grade is lower. So i will be working on my outlines now before actually writing a paper  because this lesson made me realize that in the long run its worth it. After we got into groups and did a couple different activities focusing our attention to a minority group we tend to ignore the disabled. I really enjoyed every activity and i feel that us actually trying to put ourselves in their shoes is exactly  what more people need to do in order to actually get an idea of what people with disabilities actually go through on a daily basis. My favorite activity was the wheelchair because i never realized how difficult it is just to push the chair around let alone do everything in a wheelchair, it opened my eyes. Ironically at the same time i was confused because i realized that even though i may be trying to be kind and offer to maybe open the door for someone in a wheelchair they may take it the wrong way and maybe get offended. As i was in the chair i noticed how people would stare ,at that moment i could only think about what goes through their mind in a moment when eyes connect. I found myself avoiding eye contact in my situation i felt a little embarrassed and looked down upon  by others and honestly didn’t want to keep doing the activity anymore. Now i imagine having to go through this everyday actually being permanent and not having the same resources as everyone else does is extremely difficult and i can honestly say i admire anyone who may be going through a similar situation, but i still wonder how can i help without offending them?

In this weeks reading we partially focus on women who decide to pursue a career in the stem field and the gender gaps that still exist and how they negotiate gender while pursuing the field. The article Lipstick and lab coats was very informative i never realized how low the number of  women in fields like technology, math, science and engineering was and how people really seem surprised when a women actually pursues it. Looking back i can only recall one women in one of my classes mentioning she was a math major and like the article said people are amazed and i was, but most interestingly the article mentioned a lot of the women pursuing this field are Indian and she was Indian. This made me realize Indian women and families really value family so maybe that’s why they pursue it because they have strong bond with them. We also focused on the LGBT community and its history and how they till this day are discriminated and like minority groups are looked down upon and are fighting for rights, But i never thought of them as a minority as well but to me it seem they are because they go through similar struggles like minority groups do. The history was very interesting because in order to actually consider  LGBT first a  man named Mathew Sheppard was killed then it was consider serious.    Till today some LGBTs don’t want to identify themselves with the LGBT label because they are afraid of rejection.

blog post #6

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Last week we started by learning how to create an outline (thanks Julian!) in order to organize our thought for a paper. I really appreciated it. That’s the one thing I usually had the most trouble with, but at least now I have a better idea. During last weeks discussion we spoke about different disabilities and to be honest, it really hit close to home. Im going to be honest, for those of you that were there, you heard me say how I had an IEP and and that I had a 504 plan when I was in school. It got me a bit emotional, mainly because at the time that I did this I didn’t realize what I was doing all those tests for, my mother had just asked for me to do them. I didn’t realize I actually had a learning disability. It hit me until I got into college, I’m not sure why, but my mother was never upfront with me about it, maybe she didn’t want me to feel bad? I’m not sure. I had to have a complete stranger tell me in my face I had a learning disability all along so I’m still coping with it. I know it may be not be as severe as other people, but it is there and it does affect me. Last week I had an exam and I almost started to cry because when I saw the exam my mind went totally blank, because right before that someone had asked a question in class as my professor passed out the test, that made me lose my train of thought completely,  as I handed the test back to the professor and walked out I started to say all the answers out loud to myself. It really bothered me because I knew I couldn’t go back and change my answers. This was also the first time I shared anything about my learning disability to anyone besides my mother knowing. It’s really great to be in this class and get the chance to vent.

This weeks readings mainly focused on gender inequality. The “Beyond a Binary” reading really had me thinking right away, when we fill out paper work we usually check off male of female? Why isn’t their an “other” option or fill in the blank? It must be very hard for people to make that decision. Imagine, I feel that gay, lesbian, transgender already have a hard enough time coming out, fitting in and coping with being treated differently, now, even have trouble being able to identify themselves!?

I also found the reading in the textbook in chapter 9 interesting. All I can say is why is the enrollment decreasing for men? I jus assumed more women were enrolling making it SEEM as if men weren’t, but apparently they aren’t continuing their education. It spoke about gender segregation, speaking from the viewpoint of a soc major, I had a professor that did her masters at UCLA in Sociology and she said out of 20 women there was only 1 guy.  Why is this going on? I mean what are your viewpoints besides the ones stated in the article? Without taking the statistics in mind what would you assume?