Gene Sullivan's Portfolio  

Elementary School Experience

 

Topic: Penmanship, Writing using cursive

Instructor: A nun

Learning format: By imitation of written examples, repetition and positive and negative feedback

Why? At the time because we were being taught it and it was something we would be expected to do. Atmosphere: Shut up and do what I tell you to do.

My Experience: The process was interesting in that everyone was doing it at the same time. I also got social feedback when you saw how others were treated with respect to the quality of your work. I wanted to avoid the public shaming so it was stressful.

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High School Experience

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Topic:  History

Instructor: The History Teacher, Don Carter (my favorite teacher ever!)

Learning format: By playing a game "Inter-nation Simulation" The impact of a short-term decision on a long-term relationship, it was very constructivist in that you were making new decisions and you were getting feedback. The teacher would step in and do "pointing out" and facilitate group sharing of experiences and results. 

Why: To help us understand how the world worked and give us some historical and present day context for International Politics and Negotiation.

My Experience: I was excited and engaged, unlike any other school activity except for my participation in sports. I really got the message "What you do now to optimize the benefit to you can come back to cost you significantly when you are in a ongoing relationship"

 

 

First Job Experience

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Topic: To understand the properties of glass used in optical lenses,

Instructor: A more senior sales engineer (someone who was actually an engineer!)

Learning format:  There was real self-motivation to make my first job a success. While there were other people to ask questions, it was important that I was thrown in to do the job and needed to find out what I needed to know.

Why? I was learning how to understand the specifications our clients were giving us so our manufacturing arm produced the right lenses. So I could talk to clients and to our manufacturing folks, especially when the client specs that were not currently within our capabilities or our competitions.

My Experience: Learning was very active and that made it interesting and engaging. I learned a ton in a very short period of time. I was also very attentive to how other sales people were addressing problems and asking questions.

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