Experiential Learning for Disabled Children - Essay Example

Assignment 5: Thick Description of Experiential Learning Running a facility for disabled children and adults requires a lot of dedication and planning in order for them to function effectively. The skills required to run facility are acquired and include experience, reading and consultation from senior individuals. For instance, I have derived integral information and knowledge concerning experiential learning through an inference to my experience and practice as an assistant director in a nonprofit agency. The agency involved activities aimed at all ages of disabled children and adults. The program was scheduled in a 24 hour period. It entailed being on call, responding to emergences as well as supervising routine activities. With such a schedule, I learnt about proper time management. Additionally, working with other colleagues cohesively involved good communication skills. Good communications skills can be learnt. Therefore, it is appropriate for every team member to enroll. In essence, the experience of my practice has equipped me with sufficient skills to coordinate and ensure efficient supervision of the residents in the community living program. Firstly, as an assistant director I have learned to wear many different “hats” at work to correspond with the various roles they are expected of me to fill. Different roles such as that of a mentor, teacher, coach, friend, an administrator and a leader require me to focus on each specific role to achieve the ultimate optimal result.  Communication is crucial to proper management, and it is important to open the communication lines between the management, the parents and the staff about the welfare of the children for the facility to run smoothly. As the assistant director of the agency, I have come up with numerous policies. For example recently I came up with a policy of issuing cell phones to every group home in the facility. There was a lot of thought put into making this decision. For this particular assignment I would like to focus of the concrete task of creating policies for the company. During weekly assistant director and directors meeting, one of the main concerns discussed were from guardians unable to get in touch with staff when they are out on recreational activities with their family member. Once we determine that a policy is necessary, we determined the goal we wanted to accomplish in writing the particular policy. The goal that we were leading to was the ability to enhance communication for individuals and their families, especially during off site visits. We came up with different cost effective solutions such as assigning cell phones to manager of the house vs. assigning one cell phone per site. If we assigned a cell phone to each manager, then they will be expected to carry a cell phone at all times making them an on call staff. This was later discussed at manager’s meeting and as a group we came up with pros and cons to assigning a cell phone to a house manager. At the managers’ meeting they were informed why this policy was being implemented. A house manager’s job responsibility significantly increases and a salary raise will be expected. In other words they will really have no life of their own. How is that fair to any staff? Instead each group home was assigned a “Site cell phone” to ensure an agency representative is always available for contact for that location. This site cell phone will enable guardians to keep in touch with their family member even when they are out on a recreational activity. The site cell phones will also allow guardians to alert the facility beforehand if they want to visit their family member. As an assistant director of the company, I have come up with this policy to enable parents to keep in touch with their children at all times. As I was developing this policy I had to consider different factors that helped me lay out specific expectations from staff. What happens if the cell phone is not charged or the parents leave a voicemail? I had to spell out in detail the expectation from staff assigned to hold the cell phone on their shift. One of the procedures included was that the assigned designee must ensure that the site cell phone is fully charged and that staff is reachable at all times. It was proposed that the assigned staff would be responsible for checking all the voice messages. Any information that is intended for the management should be forwarded accordingly. Different experiences and staff concerns kept flashing before my eyes. For example, I had to specifically add that although the cell phone needs to be carried it should not distract from staff responsibilities. In the end it was decided that the new cell phones will be managed by the manager of each facility, and they will be in charge of assigning a staff in charge of handling the mobile phone. The responsibility of the assigned staff would be to ensure that the one is charged all the time so that it never goes off to ensure that the facility is reachable at all times. The assigned staff would also be responsible for checking all the voice messages, and any information that is intended for the management should be forwarded accordingly. In cases where there are two groups going out for a recreation facility, it is the responsibility of the staff in charge to ensure that the other group has a reliable phone number that can be used in cases of emergency. In reference to the theoretical framework of experiential learning, the practical skills that I have been employing in my duties include but are not limited to the following: Mentoring new hires Training new house managers Monthly financial ledger reviews Monthly supervisions of house managers Annual evaluation reviews Monthly house reports to the director Leading management meetings Developing new policies for the agency Presentations on new changes or policies Approving monthly notes Approving individual habitat plans Therefore, these are some of the crucial elements enhancing my general understanding of the society and the social construct of the community and my work environment. According to Mike Rose’s ‘Mind at Work’, his mother achieved mastery in waitressing through observation, practice and working smart. Mike Rose states that most physical work is social and interactive. A waiter/waitress when they receive an order from a customer it requires a lot of coordination, vigilance, planning, negotiation and establishing the set goals required for the task to be completed. Therefore, simple words, gestures and a scribble on the note pad are supposed to get the rhythm of the work right. Therefore, it is important to consider the communicative and the social aspects of physical work for they provide the tool required for work intelligence (1-30). My job and experience as an assistant director equally borrows a leaf from Mike Rose’s reasoning concept of the necessity of the intelligence aspect in the performance of effective duty. Naturally, I am very shy. It takes a lot for me to come out of my shell. However, I make a conscious effort to ensure that I do open up. Coordinating meetings and managing the communication strategies of other employees and having to report the practical endeavors to the director of community living service program demands a level of cognitive and social intelligence to manipulate the tasks to ensure the company achieves its short, intermediate and the long-term objectives. Thus, drawing all correlations of my present and past experiences in the labor market, I am a proponent of experiential learning. I truly acknowledge the significance of experiential learning as a crucial component in the acquisition of knowledge and understanding among the adult learners. This is of course validated through my work on a daily basis. In consideration of my situation relating the Geertz way of reasoning, my goal is to work in synergy to proving the need for cooperation and the influence of one another as the motivator of learning. With my job entailing frequent meetings with family members and legal guardians of the disabled individuals, I have often found new information that is beneficial to my task through communication and sharing with others. It is through communication with families that I realized that we need to have an efficient method of communication at all times. In summary, it is; therefore, understood that my job as an assistant director draws on the cognitive skills of a concrete manager of effective communication and socialization with members of the society. Additionally, there are guidelines to derive information from for further care of the vulnerable members of the society. Finally, the skills required to run facility are acquired and include experience, reading and consultation from senior individuals. Therefore, I would urge potential managers to enroll on management courses in order to be effective managers. References Read More