Module 2 (Part 2)

My picture in its original form.

Module 2 (Part 1)

Sorry to post this one so late, but here's my contribution to the week 2 module. This image is of a scene in my neighborhood. Northern VA is a very woodsy place and ironically it is one of the things I really enjoy about living in this area.... However, thanks to the blizzard of last winter and the frigid winter this year, I am starting to wonder what happened to the mild winters I had heard so much about before moving here. So, I distorted the picture to resemble one of those 1000 piece puzzles. What's meaningful about this picture for me is that I can't quite figure out the 4th season of year here. It  is a puzzle sometimes but when I put all the pieces together, I see a complete and fascinating picture.

This same theory applies to how I view teaching, particularly as it pertains to training out new subject matter. I am an Instructional Designer and sometimes in designing training programs the "picture" I originally see of a learning experience doesn't carry over into real life. That is why I believe feedback from our trainers and course participants is so valuable. In my daily practice, assessments help me make the correct updates and revisions to our training programs (just like how my classmates have reimaged some of their photos to get them to accurately represent their meaningful experiences). I typically use quizzes and surveys to help me redesign new and existing training manuals, demos, and simulations to improve the learning experience. So in its own unique way, exercises like this photography module helps me realize the link or "imaginative bridge" between visual and theoretical pictures.

Weekend Update!

Wow! What a week! I finally arrived back at home in Northern Virginia after living out of a hotel for a week and a half and then on Wednesday a big snowstorm hit the metro area. DC, Maryland and my neck of the woods got hammered with snow, thundersnow, and sleet. Mother Nature's trio nearly brought the surrounding aread to a complete halt. I had the pleasure (pun intended) of spending close to eight hours out in the madness of stalled traffic. But since I am a glass half full type of girl, I did stop to capture the "compelling" moments. First of all, everyone (and I do mean everyone) I cam in contact with, banded together to help each other. People were literally jumping out of their cars helping people who had ran out of gas from sitting in traffic for more than four hours. Two strangers even offered to dig me out of the parking lot I got stuck in. Talk about making lemons out of lemonade! Well, it's been super busy for me (more about that in the coming weeks) but on to my (akwardly late) assignments for this week.

Hello and Welcome to the Princess and the Blog

First of all, don't be fooled by the name. I am not a princess but I do adore the popular fable about the Princess and the Frog, which is why I decided to do a little play on words with the name of this blog. And speaking of Disney (we were right?), I would like to share with you a famous quote from author and former Disney employee Dennis Snow. According to him, in business and in life, we should all strive for the "WOW" factor.

What is the WOW factor?

Stay tuned. I think this class has the potential to bring it out in all of us.