A500.9.3 Course Reflections.

This course is the cornerstone of leadership development, I recommend it to not only people seeking higher education but people seeking to sharpen their own toolbox.  It establishes the standards of behavior and critical thinking for the next several years while seeking out another graduate degree but a lifetime.  I am excited to see what other courses in this program have to offer and how much more I can learn.  

I thought that the interaction with other career professionals was incredible.  The adults in the class are all working adults, each with unique stories.  Each of the classmates I learned from and look forward to more classes together.  Each of my classmates, looked at the questions and dialogue differently, some really expressed their ideas and concepts, others were more reserved at beginning and then by the end really opened up.  This evolution is due in part to the class, the class is an field in which we are all equal, this allowed freedom of thought and open dialogue. 

Now that hard part, the work load.  At certain periods of time, my entire weekend was dedicated to the workload, certainly more then 20+ hours (sometimes 30+) a week dedicated to truly understanding the material.  There was no slowing down and it did not stop.  While I was working on my regular job, home life and school there was periods when I was up sometimes to 3 or 4 in the morning trying to work on the assignments.   I had to learn to juggle the workload with my AF missions and home life, at a great risk to both.

 During certain periods of the last 9 weeks,  I did not find many connections to the reading material for the workload required.  The workload at times seem to just skim the surface of what was required.  I would have loved to spend more time on the text, to go through more drills in the elements of reasoning.  This would have improved my experience.  I also would have loved to spend more time exploring the very short book "Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools", this book now literally lives in my daily planner and goes with me everywhere.  That material was so relatable, I would have loved to spend more time on that in the classroom.  However this is not a negative comment but more of an observation, as through my research project I learned so much about myself.  I explored my deeper flaws and made commitments to better my own fallacies.

All in all I am very pleased with the outcomes of this classroom and the professor.  In every case Matt Earnhardt made himself available for questions even on his sons birthday.  His leadership excelled and reflected in my performance.  I enjoy working with him over the past few weeks and absolutely look forward to more classes with this professor.