Collections of Learning Experiences

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I’ve been doing so much LEARNING lately that I’m full to bursting. I’ve got like 10 different books that I’m reading, I’ve gone to some events, I’m studying for the CPLP, I’ve just wrapped up a leadership course and volunteer training and Family and Children’s services. I’ve been going through some internal courses at work. So many things! So I thought I’d talk it out here and try to get my thoughts in order!

First things first- the CanWIT event I went to this past week. So, I’ve recently joined the local Chapter of CanWIT, which is Canadian Women in Technology. They held an event called “Pitch Perfect”, which was mostly focused on pitching startups, but there were some good tips as well for just selling ideas in general. It was held at Workplace One in the newly renovated section of the Breithaupt Block, and the building is just gorgeous inside- worth the price of admission alone! There was a panel, and a number of young women there. I got to meet the mayor and the MPP, which was pretty awesome. Overall, a great event and I got some good tips.

In other news. my CPLP study group’s has been doing teachback sessions and they’re going pretty well, though I had to miss last week’s because I wasn’t feeling too hot. I’m starting to get kind of anxious about studying- there’s so much material to cover and sometimes I have no idea how I’ll manage. But I’m definitely learning new things, so that’s good!

I’ve also recently wrapped up a leadership course through University of Waterloo Professional Development. That was pretty good!

I have more presentations coming up. I (along with a couple of co-workers) also got accepted to present at a conference that unfortunately we can’t attend, which is too bad. I was really looking forward to that presentation.

Busy couple of weeks!

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It has been a busy couple of weeks for me! I recently wrapped up training to be a volunteer with Family and Children’s Services, which was a really great learning experience. The group of volunteers I was training with were really engaged and it was a really positive experience. I look forward to taking an assignment with them and being able to help the organization do great work helping families.

I also got to give my very first conference presentation a couple weeks ago! I was super nervous but it wound up going pretty well. I got to talk to a lot of different people, got great feedback, and got a good glimpse of things from another perspective, which was awesome. I’m taking on a lot of public speaking opportunities, and I think it’s really helping me to learn better how to speak and connect with an audience, and how to organize a presentation. I’m still really new to it, and I know I have a lot of things I need to work on (I tend to sway a bit, I talk too fast, etc) but I’m getting more and more opportunities to work on that, which is awesome (and terrifying). 🙂 Maybe I’ll join Toastmasters.

Work has been busy as well, helping out with a bunch of really great projects. Exciting stuff, though!

I’ve also joined a CPLP study group. It’s a group that met online via a Linkedin group, and already I’m finding that it has been helpful, and we haven’t even properly started studying yet. I’m able to connect with others who are working on the same thing I am, and that’s invaluable. We’re planning to meet weekly via webex to discuss and teachback what we’re learning in our individual study. Tons of great ideas and I’m excited to be a part of it- I’ll learn a lot just being around this group of candidates.

We’re using a cool collaborative tool which I hadn’t heard of, but seems to be pretty useful thusfar!

So yes, a busy and exciting time!

CPLP Study Notes – Module 9: Career Planning and Talent Management

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I started actively studying my ASTD Learning System materials last night. I started at “the back”, with Module 9, for a number of reasons, not the least because I don’t have a lot of expertise in that area already. Module 9 is Career Planning and Talent Management.

The first few chapters deal with workforce planning, stragetic planning, and succession and replacement planning. It’s awesome to gain some new insights into how these types of plans are formulated, and the roles workplace learning and performance professionals can play in this planning. Following that are chapters on job analysis, career development theories, and assessment tools. Some of these things I’ve had some exposure to, but definitely not at this level of detail. I’m pretty fascinated already, and I haven’t even gotten into my area of expertise yet!

One thing I’m noticing- as a courseware developer, I’m constantly thinking about how I could design the learning materials better, and develop visuals and activities to improve transfer and retention. I already have a list of objects I want to develop in order to improve my own retention of the key points. I may post those items here as I make them!

May, and embarking on my quest for certification!

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With the beginning of May came a bunch of really lovely weather, and it feels like there’s been a collective sigh of relief that winter is finally over.

I’m also starting on one of my major projects for this year, CPLP certification. I’ve been planning on doing this for a while, and I’ve finally signed up and am now preparing for the exam (which I plan to take in September) and the work product (which I’m submitting in either August, or February, not sure yet, more likely February). I’m excited about all the things I will learn in the process of preparing. I’m also interested to use the process as a sort of study of adult learning itself- it’ll be interesting to see what works and what doesn’t for me as I study and prepare.

The exam is changing next year, so I’ll be one of the last few to test on the current ASTD competency model. There are nine modules of content I will be assessed on, some of which fall into areas I know well, and some that don’t. I have a copy of the study materials, and I opened the box like it was Christmas morning. I’m making a study schedule this weekend with the help of a friend to help keep me on track for the exam in September. I may also use this blog as an outlet for summarizing what I’ve learned throughout the process of studying, and for reflecting on other professional development, we’ll see. Maybe I can connect with some other CPLP candidates this way!

Also coming up at the end of this month, I have some volunteer training with FACS, and a presentation at the accessibility conference in Guelph. Lots of exciting things going on!

April Updates

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I think (hope?) that spring is finally starting to arrive. Of course, I pick a day where there was snow on the ground this morning to say that, but I’m convinced enough that I swapped the snow tires off my car, so hopefully spring is properly here now.

My US taxes are kind of a pain this year for a variety of reasons, so I’ve decided to have an accountant help me out, which has been super pleasant thusfar. Hopefully we’ll be back to normal easyness next year, but this past year I definitely wanted an extra hand. It wasn’t even figuring out what to file, it was just that some of the forms I need to file are super annoying. I do think I’ll be able to wrap things up by the June deadline, which is good, I didn’t really want to file an extension again this year.

Wesley has started to properly walk now. He’s been walking while holding on for ages, but he just wasn’t comfortable letting go and taking steps unaided until recently (and I don’t blame him, as someone who still ice skates right by the boards to this day). He’s getting more confident with it though, and it’s super fun to watch. He’s a blast. He likes to dance and he likes cars a lot right now, and computer mice, which he also likes to drive around like little cars. 😀

wesley_walks

Easter has come and gone, and it wasn’t quite as busy this year since we didn’t make the trip up to visit Trevor’s parents. It’s tough squeezing in family time around holy week services! And Advent and Christmas services, for that matter.

On the volunteering front, I have nearly got all my paperwork finished for Family and Childrens’ services- I should get my police record check back shortly. Then, next month, four evenings of training, and then I’m able to actually volunteer!

I got a new laptop recently, a Samsung ultrabook. I really love it. It has Windows 8, which I like more than I expected. It also has a touchscreen, which I am finding useful off and on as well. The best part is that it’s small, and weighs less than 4 pounds, so it’s super easy to carry around, while still being powerful enough for me to do work on it if I need to, or play video for a presentation or whatever. It tucks nicely into my laptop bag along with all my other junk. I’m a fan. I’ve been using it at work, since I have a desktop at work and the team loaner laptop is this huge heavy monstrosity that I don’t love carting around, and I don’t always have enough time to set up what I need on it.

Along with the technology vein, I also got a BlackBerry z10 a while back, and I’m a fan of that, too. I’m really coming around on the topic of touchscreens. The flick-up typing on it is super nice, and I love being able to peek into my email when I’m in another app. Overall, it’s pretty awesome.

March

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So I guess I am falling into a once-a-month routine with writing here. I think I’ll just embrace it. 🙂  So here are the updates for March!

Earlier this month, we got back from a week-long trip down to Florida (my first time visiting that particular state)!  Trevor’s parents were renting a house down there for the month, and invited us to come stay for a bit. It was a nice trip.

Wesley is not nearly as easy to manage on a plane as he was the last time we flew.  He was only 4 months old then, and he was awesome, mostly slept.  He did okay, but now he’s a big strong writhing ball of kiddo, and it’s harder to keep him happy in our laps for any length of time.  Next time we fly, even if he’s not 2 yet, we’re getting him his own seat for sure.

Southwest Florida is nice, but if the weather isn’t super hot (it was warm, but not beach-going-hot most of the time we were there) there’s not a lot to do. We did some shopping and did visit the beach, but mostly we stayed at the house. This was actually a good thing, though, because it was nice to be able to just sit and read as much as we did.  Going outside without coats on was a huge plus as well (and spring would do well to arrive here anytime now!)

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Work has gotten nice and busy the past few weeks!  Lots of exciting projects on the go.   That, combined with singing holy week services for choir means I’m looking at a pretty busy upcoming week, but it should be good.  I’m looking forward to the long weekend from work though. Also in the work category, a presentation that a co-worker and I proposed for a conference got accepted, so we’ll be doing a presentation in May! Should be good.

I got in touch with Family and Children’s Services about volunteering, and went for an interview there recently.  It’s a really amazing organization, and I’m kind of fascinated with their programs. I have to do some paperwork and training before I can be a proper volunteer, but I’m pretty excited.  I also got to see a presentation about another awesome local organization called Strong Start, and I’m really blown away by their programs as well, and hopefully will be able to help them out in some way. So many cool things happening here, if only I had unlimited time to volunteer!

Speaking of volunteering, I’ve been asked to be the costumer for a show that’s going up next year, so I’m pretty stoked about that. Hooray for costuming, my biggest theatre love! I might have to get a tuneup on my sewing machine- it’s been running pretty clunkily for a bit. It’s a really sweet workhorse of a machine- one of the older Singer school machines that have decent speed and are more heavy duty than what is produced now.

TedX is next week as well (falling during my busy week of busyness)! I’m really stoked about going, especially since I went last year and I know a little better what to expect. I hope that the talks are super inspiring!

February!

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Hey everyone!

It’s been a while since I properly posted something, so in fine fashion, I will just sum up things that have happened in the past month. Lots of things have gone on! We’ve been going along with our routine with me back and working full time, and I’m finally starting to feel adjusted to it. I am finding I really miss out on Wesley-time during a full work/choir/etc/week, but I did get some really nice time off recently to top that back up, because…

Wesley and his Grandpa

My parents came to visit! They live in Texas, so they haven’t gotten to hang out with us much or see Wesley much, so we shipped them up here as a Christmas gift. It was nice! We didn’t do a ton of running around, mostly just cooking and playing with the baby and hanging out at home. We had a pretty big snow storm while they were here too, so that kept us close to home as well!  It was nice to be able to hang out with them and for them to get the chance to see Wesley. He misses them for sure!

We have a trip to Florida coming up in a couple weeks, so I’ll get some more family time then, but with Trevor’s family this time. Despite being from the US and having visited plenty of the states, I have never been to Florida, so I’m excited. We probably won’t get to do Disney World (another thing I have never done) but hopefully sometime in the future when Wesley is big enough to really appreciate it.

I got accepted to go to TEDx Waterloo again, which is nice. I’m really looking forward to going again, and having the opportunity to discuss things with my coworkers as well!

I pitched an article to a learning magazine this past week, and they asked me to write it! I’m all excited. I hope I do a decent enough job of stringing the words together. But I have some friends who will look over it, and I believe they have editors who help out with that bit as well. So if all goes well, that should happen in April.

Looking into some other professional development things coming up as well- I’m working on a certification this year, so I’m going to need to start studying for the exam for that, I’m in a creative learning MOOC at the moment, and I’m looking at a few other courses as well. Should be fun!

New year, new routine!

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Lots of changes for us in this new year- I’m back at work!  Wesley is in daycare full time. He seems to really like the opportunity to get to play with other kids and other toys, and seems to do well with it. All these things have meant some changes to our daily routine.  Overall though, things have been going really well.

I’m really enjoying being back at work. There has been a lot of growth and change on my team while I was on leave, but lots of things have stayed the same as well.  I’m working from home one day a week and taking some time off here and there as well to ease the transition, which is nice. I’m liking going to the office, I like my new desk (lots of growth means lots of moving around in our office space!), and I like having a reason to wear a lot of my nicer clothes and rock the corporate-Jenny look. 🙂 Here’s what my new desk looks like:

desk

The work itself is still super great.  I’m getting to know the new people on my team and trying to introduce some organization that we will probably need more and more as we become a bigger team.

In the evenings, we don’t get a lot of time to hang out with Wesley before it’s time to put him to bed- in fact, this past week, Trevor and I were so busy that our whole family wasn’t all awake and home at the same time for more than a a couple hours the whole week. This coming week should hopefully be a little bit calmer.  On evenings where we don’t have anything else on though, we all eat dinner together and then spend time playing  in the basement- playing blocks, watching tv, doing whatever.

In other news, I’ve decided to learn to cross-stitch. I made a little project (one that’s meant for kids, but it was the perfect size to start off with). I really enjoyed it! I am going to try making some bigger things next.  It’s pretty satisfying actually, pretty simple and not quite as fiddly for me as knitting or crochet. Here’s the little penguin I made:

penguin

Year in Review

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This has been quite an interesting year. I thought I would write up a point-form summary of some things that went on.

  • Was on maternity leave all year. This was interesting and I grew to enjoy it.
  • Adjusted to being a parent, mostly it’s awesome.
  • Recorded a track for the Virtual Choir.
  • Sang with the church choir through the year.
  • Went to my first TEDx conference.
  • One of my co-workers passed away, which was sad.
  • Did our first big improvement to our house- we finished the basement.
  • We visited my family in Texas and they got to meet Wesley.
  • I got a BlackBerry Playbook, which I really like.
  • I took my first water fitness classes, which I (and Wesley!) really enjoyed.
  • Enjoyed time with my friends even though sometimes having a kid means having to turn down invitations.
  • Had good holidays and birthdays.
  • Dealt with a few illnesses off and on- including the worst cold I have had in years, which we have at the moment.

Wesley is pulling himself up and cruising on furniture now, and is a crazy fast crawler. He says mama and dada (though dada a lot more than mama) and cat, and occasionally mimicks other words. He’s been a bit of a bear the past week, but he’s also been sick. Most of the time, he’s charming and friendly and really easygoing.  He flirts with people wherever we go, which is fun, but can be distracting. I pretty much won the baby lottery, because aside from feeding issues in the beginning, he has been a dream. He’s a great sleeper, he eats really well now, he’s pretty independent and plays on his own without needing a lot of intervention from me. He laughs and he’s ticklish and he’s fast and awesome. I love him like crazy.

Next year, we’re looking forward to having a membership at a new gym, which has pools and water programs as well as all the things our current gym has (save for all the locations). I’m heading back to work next week, and Wesley will be in daycare full time (he’s really enjoying it, thankfully). 2013 should be pretty good! Once I get over this cold, anyway. 🙂

Thursday

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Tuesday, during naptime, I put up the Christmas decorations. The tree is in the basement this year, which actually makes the basement more cozy, I think.

Yesterday was Wesley’s first day at daycare. We’re taking him part-time in order to get him comfortable before he goes full time in January, when I’m back at work. A friend of mine does childcare at home, and she’s awesome, so I’m more than comfortable with him there, but still, it is hard leeeeaaaaaving my baaaaaby. I got to stick around for a few minutes while he got accustomed to the surroundings (and the attentions of three charming little girls) but tried not to hang around for tooo long.

He seemed to have a good time though, so I’m glad. I was home in the morning, waiting for a furniture delivery that never came (oh, The Brick, you fickle pickles). I called them around lunch and found out they weren’t planning on coming until next week, so I was understandably a little cranky about that, but glad to know I didn’t need to stick around for them. So in the afternoon, I went out all by myself and finished all the Christmas shopping and wandered around. It was good to get out- in the morning I went into Wesley’s room to hang up some wall clings and was like “He’s not heeere :(”

Christmas shopping is done though, so hooray for that! I even wrapped the last few things. I am on fire this year.

I’m back to work in less than a month now. We’re going to be moving into a new area of the building, so I’m excited to see that space soon.