So what’s this blogging thing about?

In the beginning of the semester, when Professor Kurpis told us it’s mandatory for us to create our own blogs I thought to myself this is going to be a different kind of class for the next four months. Boy was I right! Mgt 3120 with Professor Kurpis was a lot of fun, interesting, unique, motivating, and subject matter talked about in class were very appealing to his students. I think what made Professor Kurpis class appealing was that he always referred to past experiences and give real-life examples. I also noticed he would constantly refer to his students as “future managers” and “leaders,” I think that’s very motivating. He sees us as not just students but as professionals as well. And yes, his exams were hard, but he didn’t include anything on the test that he didn’t cover in class, it was just a lot of material. So, let’s get to this blogging thing…

I really like the idea of blogging our thoughts, opinions and suggestions for our classmates to read and comment on. I think for a big class like ours, it’s the best chance we have of interacting with each other and sharing our thoughts. We all can’t share what we think each and every time in class, then there will be no time available for Professor Kurpis to teach. Another reason why I think blogging is effective is for students who are more “active listeners” it gives them a chance to voice what they think. Some students are very afraid of speaking in front of a group of people; this is another way to communicate what you feel without saying a word. I also noticed by expressing our opinions, thoughts and blogging about the activities we did in class help me in remembering material for the test. For example, we had to blog about our planning process in one of the activities and it helped me to remember the 5 steps of planning.

I feel like blogging also provided a way for us to get to know each, after blogging about our goals, many of us realized that most of us have similar goals. I also liked that Professor Kurpis encourage us to say something positive about someone else goal(s), positive reaction from your peers is very important I think. It motivates us, because we can now see or figure a way to have our dreams turn into actions. Somehow when we have thoughts of doing something and we never get around to it, we tend to say to ourselves, “it’s was just thought.” But when we express our thoughts and goals, and get positive feedback it pushes us to achieve our goals. Even in times of doubt we look back at what encourage us in the first place and we keep going until we achieve our goals. I’m not naive to think that we will achieve all of goals because of this exercise or because we express where we want to be in the future, life changes and things happen but it’s a step to taking a dream and putting it into action. I don’t think any other professors at Baruch have ever asked me to write about my goals in life both professionally and personally.

In summation, blogging was an effective way for students to communicate to each other and communicate what they think about the class activities. I must say I enjoyed blogging. I don’t know if I will continue with it, that depends on my work load (both school and work) and I’m not sure if anyone will read what I write since it will no longer be mandatory.