Wins and Losses of 2017-2018

Wins

• I met and worked with some phenomenal graduate assistants whom, although had no idea what they were getting themselves into, have given me one of the best years of supervision I have ever had.
• I was chosen to lead the student staff recruitment and selection committee. At the beginning I was given a lot of freedom to build a process that resembled what I might have wanted as an applicant.
• At the end of the year during an abruptly planned appreciation event the week before finals I was forced to realize that members of my staff actually liked me. Throughout the year I had deluded myself that my staff either hated me or had no thoughts about me, but the kind things they said and wrote to me as well as the conversations during final one on ones helped me see I did something. I had an impact. Still unclear if it is a good one.
• I have managed to add Desire 2 Learn and Jotform to my repertoire of technology that I know how to use based off integrating them into my job’s processes. It was one victory this year in my endeavor to make things simple and efficient.
• I am able to write this post, meaning I may have more time to blog in the future! Or not. We will see.

Losses

• Volunteered (under duress, I assure you) to move from a supervision area where I was happy, had the small campus feel, and was going to be filled with staff members I had selected to another side of campus with none of those factors (well, the happiness came later re: see wins).
• Once the process I built became internal and there were no more candidates to interview it became riddled with political battlefields.
• I still refuse to come to terms with one of my greatest weaknesses and continue to fight it without assistance.
• Holistically, I have been unable to steer as much positive change as I would have liked. There is still so much that can be better but for each one there is three barriers, whether a person or a mindset.

 

This is just a snippet of the year. Not everything has made it and there may be major things that I have overlooked or forgotten. This is just what is running through my mind recently as well as the desire to post on this website I bought. After all, letting my money go to waste is not Sensibly Shane.