Chambers 1

Shawn Chambers

10/30/19

HDF417

Robert Vincent

Midterm Evaluation

In HDF417, the Leadership Internship class, we have goals reflected in our syllabus that

we will hopefully achieve by the end of the semester. We are expected to do a midterm

evaluation about ourselves and if we have completed any of the listed goals. The internship I’m

currently a part of is being a teaching assistant for one of the classes available this semester

HDF413, Advanced Facilitation and Consulting Skills. This class is taught by Alison Jackson

Frasier, with the expectations for the students to attend class from 4 - 4:45 as well as attend a

meeting from 3 – 4.

For this current internship, we have established certain learning outcomes that we are

expected to achieve throughout our time as teaching assistants. These learning outcomes are as

followed; “Student will show evidence of goals and objectives that were planned and achieved;

Student will demonstrate personal application of the Situational Leadership theory by Hersey &

Blanchard; Student will demonstrate personal example of using cultural anthropology/paradigms

as a leader; Student will create a personal code of inclusive leadership; Student will demonstrate

knowledge of the Model of Intercultural Sensitivity by Bennett and its uses in leadership; and

Student will demonstrate personal application of the Model of Intercultural Sensitivity by

Bennett and its uses in leadership.” When looking over this list of learning outcomes, I can see

some which are easier to see myself learning and growing upon than others, such as Inclusive
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Leadership. While going through this course, my supervisor and I have seen progress in myself

in completing these goals to the best of my abilities. I am able to include all of the students when

applicable, and also use this as an opportunity to work on the other learning outcomes.

Based upon the outcome categories, the one that stands out the most to me is the

interpersonal and organizational concepts and skills category. This outcome is one of the most

important for this type of experience and work, considering everyone that I will work with, either

student or client, will be working with other people in the group to come capacity. One of my

favorite and also most used theories to fuel this type of learning is challenge and support. In class

I taught this theory to the students (with Alison to the side in case I missed something), and was

able to put my own spin onto how to get the students to understand. I personally had a throwable

ball with me as I presented the theory, so when I was talking about the challenge portion, I tossed

it to one of the students while not looking or calling their name. Afterwards I talked about

support and threw the ball to one the students after saying their name and making eye contact

with them. I then talked about readiness and how the level of challenge influences the amount of

fun participants have, i.e. if it is too easy, they won’t have fun, and if it is too hard, they will shut

down and not do it.

Inside the classroom, I try as hard as I can to use my strengths to their fullest. My top five

Gallup strengths are Restorative, Developer, Harmony, Analytical, and Achiever. When I’m in

this role, I can see all of these come out in different ways, either when I’m interacting with the

students or with my supervisor. When I’m interacting with the students, Developer is the one that

comes out the most often, considering my main goal is to try to give the next year of facilitators

the tools that they need in order to succeed, grow, and be successful. That may look like me just

joking around with some of them in order to have them be comfortable and feel included, or
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having a conversation with them about activities and putting my input into how I would do it an

how that might help them facilitate it in the future. When I’m not directly teaching a class, one of

the first things I do is talk to the person teaching and ask if there is anything that they want me to

do in order to help them out. Afterwards I either help them or take a step back and see what else I

can do to add myself into the group without taking away from their time. I use Restorative,

Analytical, and Harmony for this in order to make sure I’m doing just enough that I’m helping,

but not in the way. Finally, I use Achiever internally whenever I’m teaching or talking to other

people. I create boxes of what they want me to do and throughout I gradually check off the boxes

when I can.

In total, I’m enjoying my position as a teaching assistant for HDF413. I can feel myself

grow both as a person and as a mentor for the other facilitators. Having this position is giving me

confidence in order to help the people around me and know that I know what I know and can

help. It also allows me to use what I’ve learned over the summer and in different situations, and

to pass that knowledge onto the students so they can take what they want into their own

facilitation styles. I’m excited for the rest of the semester (in terms of this class), and I’m excited

to see how the rest of the semester will pan out.