HD 205

“Notice…adjust...evolve.” –Dr. Kim Kidwell

My experience with HD 205 was pretty interesting.  I really did not expect it to go the way it did when I first walked into my discussion session on the first Monday of discussion groups.  I had discussion group before the actual lecture class.  That was a first.  I almost got lost trying to find my way to Clark 151.  I had no idea that part of campus existed.  As I walked towards Clark, I asked two people if I was going the right way.  Thankfully enough I was.  I walked into class and I felt like I was being stared at.  I even asked Tiffany, the teacher’s aide, if I was in the right room because it really didn’t feel right.  I thought to myself…a human development class in an animal science building…weird.  I knew this trek from Cleveland to Clark was going to be a problem, a ten to fifteen minute walk from and to polar opposites of campus.  I was going to be late to discussion every Monday unless my noon class got over early.  I really feel bad walking into discussion five minutes late.  Turns out, it was not a problem during the course of the semester.

One of the most memorable experiences from HD 205 was our second week of classes.  It was the week when we met in the CUB Ballroom for Challenge Course I.  At that point, none of us in our discussion sections really knew each other.  The week before we learned each others names, majors and where we were from.  We did not get to learn each others leadership skills or how we dealt with a different variety of people and their opinions.  It was definitely a learning moment.  I walked into the CUB Ballroom and some people called my name, at first I did not recognize any of them right away, I’ve only seen these people three times.  I went and sat with them as we listened to why we were here.  For Challenge Course I, we were supposed to build the tallest tower (and it had to stand by itself) out of “the bag of goodies” they handed out to each group.  They gave us two instructions, you have fifteen minutes and you have to use the materials in the bag.  Other than that, we had no rules.  We could construct this tower in any which way or form.  The fifteen minutes started.  It was interesting to see who dove in and who stood on the outside of the group to observe everyone.  I felt like I made a difference in the tower building project because I was the one who suggested using the paper bag as an anchor and my group agreed.  It was pretty cool that my group liked my idea and put it into effect, it made me feel a part of the tower making process.  At one point, Dusty had some great ideas on how we could make it stronger…it was nice to have some construction management majors in our group I might add, and we went with his ideas.  It ended up working for us in the end.  At the end of the fifteen minutes, it was time to put down the remaining materials.  Our tower…team 11’s tower was the only one left standing.  We won the challenge.  At that point, I thought we were all going to get along and the project was going to be a piece of cake.  I was so wrong about that.

As we moved into our community service project, people became very hostile with one another and each others ideas.  We had a great bunch of ideas when we were deciding what to do with our projects.  Once we figured out what we were going to do, some of the people did not like the ideas and we would have to start over from scratch.  This became a difficult task because our deadline for our proposal was due in a week.  It was crunch time…were we going to get it done?  We should have tried out an idea to see if it worked rather than shooting it down before it had time to breathe, who knows…it could have worked.  That was the biggest problem throughout the entire project, just doing it!  I learned while working with this group of people to just get a plan see if it works and do it, if it doesn’t work, try it again and find something that does work and when it does give each other high fives and do a happy dance.  

Around the middle of the semester we did these self disclosure projects, an assignment to get to know your teammates a little better.  Most of the stories I heard were really sad things like family members dying, alcoholism, drugs, prison, hard life lessons and divorce.  Mine was nothing like that.  I took a different approach to my story.

Near the end of the semester was the final challenge course if you wanted to do it.  Of course I did, it was the coolest one out of the previous courses we have done.  I walked up to the REC Center and joined one of the groups.  It was a chilly afternoon and I am glad I brought my jacket.  We had a safety lecture about the challenge course, got our helmets, ropes and safety harnesses all straightened out.  We each got to go up one by one to the course and it was the coolest feeling ever.  We were about fifty feet in the air strapped to a rope.  You could swing, hang upside down or just walk around...I have no idea why I didn’t bring my camera.  It was probably one of the coolest activities I’ve ever gotten to do in a college class.

There was one lecture activity that really stood out as far as group 11 was concerned.  Kim, our professor, handed out a piece of paper to everyone in class.  On it was a list of different types of people, their occupations, and an item he or she had with them.  They were all on a boat and it was sinking fast.  We had to prioritize what we thought was most important to keep as we tried to save their lives.  The first task was to put them in an order that fit your criteria first.  Then we got into a group of people sitting close by (which was most of my group 11 teammates) and had ten minutes to put them in an order and we all had to agree on it. Some groups did not survive and others did depending on if they could reach a consensus about what to get rid of and what to keep.  We got into a bigger group and it made it more difficult to reach an agreement.  We had fifteen minutes to make the list.  My group did not make it.  One of the items on the list was a dog and it wasn’t exactly a lap dog either.  According to me, the dog was the first thing to go overboard, however many people did not see that the dog caused a huge problem and so they kept it.  It wasn’t just confined to my group; other groups struggled with the dog.  After awhile, we had representatives from both sides of the argument went up to the front of the classroom and presented their sides of the problem.  The both had great arguments but I am still sticking with my decision…get rid of the dog.  The two things I noticed from this activity were that people have different opinions and they were not willing to compromise at all.

As we moved closer and closer towards the completion of our project, time was not on our side.  We came up with many good ideas and this time we just did them without the bickering and fighting.  The projects we chose to do for the Council on Aging (out of Colfax, Washington) turned out to be a success after fighting over it for many weeks.  We put together a food drive (Rosauer’s in Moscow where I hung out with Zach), a car wash (at Dissmore’s) and completed services for the people of Whitman County (I partnered up with Jessica Dominoski, who was from Hoquiam, and did yard work for a lady in Pullman).  It was really fun to help the people of the community with things that they could not do by themselves.  I learned that community service can be fun.

I missed our final presentation because I went to nationals in Maryland.  I presented it to my group during one of our class sessions and they said it was okay to miss it.  My classmates and my professor were not going to punish me or my grade for missing the presentation.

The part of HD 205 that I thought really meant a lot to me as a student was the last day of discussion session because we completed something that I did not ever think would happen. We had our fair share of fights, fusses and feuds with one another, but in the end we worked together as a team to get it done.  Kim was right, breakdown does lead to breakthrough.  At the time I did not believe it, but now I do after what we accomplished as a team these last sixteen weeks.  In discussion, it was extraordinary to hear all of the nice feedback from my classmates.  A lot of them said I put humor into just about everything I did.  I honestly did not know I was being funny…it’s just my personality.  It is important to let people know you appreciate them and they need to hear you say it out loud for it to actually mean something.  It was encouraging to hear some nice comments from our own teacher about each and every one of us and how we contributed positively to this project.  Kim has been the only teacher I’ve had that actually cared what her students felt, said or did.  She knew that we all had other things to focus on besides her class.  I am really glad she mentioned that in one of her lectures, it relieved me.  She is also is the only teacher that knew every single student in her class by name.  I have gone through so many teachers who just come to class and teach and don’t really care who’s in their classes or not.  She is very animated when she lectures and the stuff that she said was pretty funny.  She even used “liquid courage” as one of her examples.  The last day of discussion she gave each of us a blue “teamwork” bracelet and complimented that our group was one of the best ones she taught this semester.