After three and a half years, I face my last year of school. My last set of grades. My last classes. My last team, my last project, my last chance to put everything I've learned to the test, and get just that much better at recognizing my strengths, my weaknesses, my limits. Hopefully this blog will both reflect the challenges and successes we have, and that I can go back learn much from this with reflection.
Last semester's capstone project was not the best experience I've had at Champlain. I had a trainwreck of an incredibly public presentation. I had a teammate who brought the whole team's schedule down in shambles thanks to his always dissenting opinions, awful communication of schedule, and constant tardiness of his work. Managing that team was a nightmare thanks to one man. But I learned some valuable lessons. The necessity of putting your foot down on distractions- while they're a great way to keep comradery high, bring the topic back to the project once you get a good laugh out of it. Point out problems that cause some serious issues rather than try to deal with them alone. Delegate. All of this leads to a successful team.
We had a fantastic first meeting during class. We brainstormed, identified problems, identified solutions to those problems, and the whole process went surprisingly naturally for a new team. I made up a checklist so people could account for their weekly tasks, we figured out which team members would step up to take the lead positions, and have an after-meeting event already planned out. This semester is definitely looking up, and I cannot wait to see what our team will come up with when the bell tolls.
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