The Rhythm of Academic Life
January 18, 2009 by Terry Carter
It is circular, this process in which we engage, semester after semester, and there’s something exciting about it: a new beginning every 15 weeks. By December, we are tired, students and faculty alike. After a few short weeks’ break, we are starting afresh, a new semester: new tasks, new books, new challenges. Welcome back, Adult Learning students.
This semester promises to be busy and full. We have capstone course students working with three organizations on an action learning project: The Read Center, Luckstone Corporation, and WRIR radio. The Change Strategies students will be digging deep into the nature of organizational change and facilitating three large group intervention strategies: Future Search, Open Space Technology, and Appreciative Inquiry. The Groups and Teams class, after getting to know one another with a shoebox exercise (bring items that are important to you in a shoebox and share your “story” with members of your team in class), are ready to use film and video to explore group dynamics.
On top of that, we have the Academy of HRD annual conference just “up the street” this year, in Washington, D.C., with an opportunity for students in the Adult Learning program to attend one of the pre-conference workshops on action learning presented by Dr. Michael Marquardt of George Washington University and author of our texts. The weeks ahead promise to be full ones. So grab your running shoes …. I’m hoping to keep up with you! 
Photo Credits, Creative Commons Attribution License:
circular rhythm of life: nexus6, photo taken April 27.08
running shoes: karen_d, photo taken June 11, 2007
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Buddy has a statement at the end of his email signature – “I think my learning curve is a circle!”….so appropriate.
Years ago, my husband used to joke that I couldn’t put a flower arrangement together that wasn’t linear – all the flowers just standing straight up. Back then, I tested as a pretty high “J” in MBTI. Last year, I tested a slight “P”. Nothing else has changed in my INTJ_P profile. But I see learning as a circle that doesn’t end. A few years ago, that open-endedness would have driven me up a wall. Today I’m basking in circling back and reflecting. And my whole approach to flower arranging has changed as well ;–)
Hi, Carol,
Thanks for this post –that’s the nice part about having a little experience behind us … the perspective changes! I think you and Buddy are both on the right track in seeing the circularity of life and learning! It’s fun to revisit and perceive things differently the second (or third) time around. tjc