An entry for its blog

I think using blog to post students’ thoughts and communicate to each other is an interesting idea. But as the end of the semester is near and I think about it, I don’t really know if it is necessary to comment on other people’s entries. Most time I found the people who I responded to were having really similar ideas so I have to repeat the similar comment again and again. On the other hand, I don’t really have the time to go through all the thoughts and try to find out unique opinions. Therefore, I feel like I’ve been pushed to read other people’s blogs (not because they are boring). I really enjoyed writing about my thoughts on the blog, nevertheless at the same time I think we should have the freedom to decide whether or not we give comments to others. It did work well to refresh the memory of the class activities and related topics on certain topic assignments, and it probably will encourage non-participative type of people dive in to group activities in order to be able to write something about them after the class. In conclusion, I think the blog is more like a homework which separates from the true meaning of blog which is about free writing. However, doing so is much better than dreadful real homework so I have nothing to complain about it. I won’t keep posting my blog after the final because I have my only personal space as well, but I believe the experience of this class will be unforgettable.
now, it's time for the final!

poem?

looking back,
time flies;
management as a word,
its meaning yet to be found.
can it be trully simple,
just like making a schedule;
or can it be very profound,
like The Goldbach conjecture;
can it be fun as in the class,
or it's actually a puzzle on the earth.
different people give differnt thoughts;
different personalities act with varieties.
maybe flexibiliy is its core after all,
how to treat it just look at it now.

the DISC

The test result I got for myself was Cd, which according to the professor this is the type that is considered as a creative managerial style that your left brain and right brain work together. I definitely agree there is indeed some quality of me, as a person, relates to creativity. Part of my part time job I have been doing now is jewelry design and making; this may not necessarily relates to management but I think it implies the probability that if I manage a business, I possibly would be a creative type of manager. I think the test result certainly reflects some aspect of my personal profile, but I think the importance of this test is to make you to realize your advantage and the fields you are bad at; even if the result mismatches you complete it still makes you think about your managerial type that you probably have never thought of.
I don’t really agree a simple test can determine the traits of a complex human being and his/her behaviors but I do believe it will help us in the ways we are doing managerial jobs.

My short-term Vision

The visions or goals I thought right away after I read the topic assignment were three. They may not be really a huge blueprint for my life, but at least from my prospective view, for now they are what I’m planning to do or already been striving for. They three visions are related to my career, my language skill and something to do with a music instrument.

The most important thing so far I want to achieve certainly relates to my major: accountancy. Like many people, passing the CPA exam and acquiring an accounting license would be most desirable. First step for me to achieve this goal is trying to graduate before May 2009 which is the time that the rule of CPA exam will be altered. Nevertheless, this is something I have to count on with the luck whether the college grants me the permission to take the accounting course during this summer as soon as possible (they said they will be giving permission after April the 9th, but I’m afraid that by then their won’t be any spot available). If not so, I have to take master degree which I’m planning to do it whatever I can graduate before next Spring or not, but doing that might be much more time consuming to take CAP exam. In addition, not only graduate soon, in my opinion the quality has to be outstanding too, which means graduate with real accounting knowledge in my head. Although many people say really experience is from actual working, but I would argue learning from school gives you a strong base to let you gradually keep continuing upgrading your excellence with your working experience in certain area. Therefore, study hard is crucial, and if time allows me, reading extra books or magazines that relates to business or accountancy will be beneficial as well.

Next is about my Japanese studying and pass the level 1 (highest level) Japanese proficiency test. Although English is my second language as well I am not really worry about it since I’m studying in this country which English is the major language. I learned Japanese since junior high school back to the time where I was living in China and I think if I stop learning it would be a real loss and I will be regret later. Besides, to be a multilingual is always advantageous and sometimes indisputably beneficial, and this is the reason why I’m studying Japanese as a minor in Baruch even now. However, as far as I’m concerned, living in a country where the native language is the one you want to learn makes you master the language faster and much more accurate in terms of usage of the language and sounding more accurate pronunciation (someone may argue pronunciation is not really important, but come one, you cannot say you speak the language if other people cannot understand what you are saying.). So, I am planning to move to Japan for few years someday, and while I am still mastering in accountancy in the States, passing the proficiency test will be my first step. How to make it happen? Study hard. (And my extracurricular I normally reading Manga in Japanese or watching Japanese dramas with English or Chinese subtitle if it is the first time I’m watching.)

The last thing and maybe the least vision of the three I’m having so far is that comes up in my head is to acquiring the ability to play a fluent guitar (acoustic not electric). I play guitar sometimes with the only few songs that I know how to play, but I really would like to start from mastering as many chords as possible which would make learning easier.

Another thing I want to mention about maybe not really included in my vision, but I want to become a more socialized person. I admit I am not a really outgoing person, but I think I can learn a lot from other people through conversations or interactions. So trying to make more friends and build up my social net work can be a good supporting element to any of my vision. Therefore, I have been trying to change my personality a little bit. To do this, I think communication is important, to talk to your classmates, your co-works (if they don’t find me annoying) more often can be a good way in my point of view.

About the post-exam debate

The way I was acting during the discussion can be described as avoidance. The reason I reacted in that way was not because I thought there was no chance to win but the opposite. As professor mentioned that we had an average of C- in the class, therefore I thought there would be a lot of people who will strive for an opportunity to boost up their grade. Since I already got an A-, I didn’t really care about discussion (it sounds selfish, sorry) and I knew whatever result came out it would be beneficial to me. I think leader is a really important part in group communication; he made our discussion more organized, and as far as I’m concerned, without leader the discussion would end undesirably since there were just too many thought and conflicts going on. I was really glad the leader mentioned about we had to get something with in limited time which it set a goal to the class.

If there is anything that could make the discussion better, I think it would be divide people into small groups and choose a representative from each group. This way I think we could reduced the time spending on larger scale of entire class debate.

An Eggs-cellent Plan

The goal in our group was to get 5 points extra credits which would be gained upon the satisfactory test result: making sure we create a good protection device that will prevent our egg from breaking after it dropped in the basket within limited time, and the device will be constructed with limited resources.
The objectives are: first, within 25 minutes, we have to come up an ideal or usable construction plan for the egg. Second, we have to build up the protective piece within the following 10 minutes.

Our group identified that the limited resources we will receive were 8 straws and about 24 inches long tape. Beside choosing the shortest person who would go on to the chair and drop the egg, we didn’t really specify who would be doing which part of the tasks in the first 25 minutes discussion time, but just simply everyone pitched in and talk about each member’s opinion. We did question about whether someone in our team was good at physics or some sorts to exam if the final decision could work out, but since no one was the method was eventually decided by popular votes.

I think our group’s strength was that everybody was willing and enthusiastically participated, and we allow each person talk about their opinion in a democratic way which I think was really cool.

The only alternative strategies to back up or contingency plan was probably the other building method of the only two we came up with. The weakness was obvious our team had too little back up plans to choose if the first decision was hard to accomplish. (Although I mentioned about someone might want to go to downstairs’ cafeteria to grab some extra straws in case we don’t have enough to use. Because our group values ethic due to fair competition, everyone just gave it a laugh.)

During the last 10 minutes, we assigned the jobs to each member in terms of straw folding, egg holding and taping. However since the time was so limited, we stick to the first plan throughout the whole building process. Though we did encounter some difficult issues in the building process, however we could only alternate the positions of straws in order to make them and the egg stay together.

Despite of coming up more building ideas (which now I think about it, brain storming can be really helpful), I don’t really think we can really alternate our process in planning during such limited time. In my opinion, the only improvement we could do is to acquire more knowledge and try to think outside of box like the other “long rope of straw-plus-tape combination” in the future, so next time if we get another similar “egg”, we will be able to do better.

In end, I think the class was really fine,; although our group didn't get the credits, I really enjoyed team working.

Current management problem and solution

How to manage well my school work is always the most important issue since the day I entered college. Nevertheless, because I’m also working four to five days a week, how to arrange my schedule effectively to correspond my full time student status makes this task more difficult. I am a person who strongly believes getting good grades is crucial to students, therefore I think to full-time and working students, good time management is critical to academic success.
This semester I am taking four courses which absolutely require a considerable amount of time to study in order to get good grades. Since working occupied a huge portion of my time, besides the days I go to school (Mondays, Wednesdays, and the evenings of Tuesdays and Thursdays) I have to divide my time to small sections that can fit in my working schedule. And how to divide it efficiently becomes one of the most important tasks right now. Unfortunately, all my professors in this semester do not tell which parts of the material in the text books will be tested in the exams, which implies I’d better read everything in every single chapter in the syllabuses (which I think it is pretty unfair), it makes my time management more difficult .

What I’m doing right now to manage my time table is listed below:

1. Although there is no scientific evidence to prove, but it seems that I can memorize and remember more things and material in morning than other time. Therefore, I force myself get up early and try to study at least 2 hours. (Honesty, I’m really not a morning person, to accomplish this is pretty difficult for me. Still, I cannot promise to get up early every morning 3 hours before my first class or work starts, but I am getting better ) In addition, the main course that are reviewed or studied during morning time are history and management which I think there are lots of things to remember.

2. Utilizing small-scaled time period such as forty minutes subway riding and lunch break during my work days.

3. Sleeping before 1 am. I think to use time more sufficiently, only saving the time to study from a hectic schedule as much as possible is not good enough; to realize how to stop and take a break is also an essential factor to success. Since in late nights I cannot really focuse , instead of pushing myself keep my red eyes open and shove more thing into my head, I think the best way is to stop what I’ve been doing and go to bed. If I don’t do so, first I cannot really get my job done well, and I probably ruin my first plan which is to get up early.

Above are some of my plans. Nevertheless I’m not a workaholic or studyholic, and I can still arrange some leisure time to relax (although I admit it is much less than before). However, I think my leisure time will be more enjoyable if I know my proprieties (school and work) are managed well.
In conclusion, self-management is the key to this semester’s success for me.