Introduction

Spontaneous, exploratory, and punctual are a few words that would describe me, Andrea Proctor. As an avid adventurous seeker, I have found myself hiking through the rainforest and up volcanoes in Central America, sleeping in hostels in Germany, and walking up the Eiffel tower in Paris, France.

As a baby I was chubby and round like most, Colorado born but California-grown.As the oldest of two sisters, leadership skills come with the package. I have no qualms about taking charge, but I am really easy going and would rather not.

Travel is my addiction and experiencing new cultures is my hobby. In order to feed my travel addiction, I currently work part-time at an airline which allows me to have the ability to fly stand-by at discounted rates. However, being able to be standy-by on flights is not all that it is cracked up to be. I found myself last summer stranded in Europe due to an embargoment that did not allow non-revenue passengers to leave. The only way out was to travel to the Netherlands and hope for late passengers or misconnections that would grant me a free seat. Four nights and five days later, the stand-by Gods heard my prayers and I was back on my way to the USA! America really is a wonderful place and I always am reminded of how great it is when I return.

 This June I plan on graduating with a master's degree in Communication and embarking on another adventure: to teach about cultures and communication as an instructor. That would be my long term goal (depending on the economy). I might find myself in another country teaching English as a second language. My life mantra is inspired by Victor Frankl, a Holocaust concentration camp survivor. He stated, "When we are no longer able to change a situation- we are challenged to change ourselves." He felt that wherever we go we can find our own happiness. If we find ourselves in a situation where we are not happy, we then have to change ourselves.

There you have it, the future is mine, and my own happiness is determined by myself. How content I am is decided on how I choose to react to the situations I am given.

I am new to the online class world; however I am excited for this one. I feel that this class will give me the tools to become an effective instructor. In the past, what I thought worked really well for online learning was for the class to form a Goggle group. Goggle groups are set up similarly to our Blackboard, but they are easier to manage and more user-friendly. Each individual receives a new message each time a student posts a comment. It was a great way for the students to communicate and express ideas about class topics and readings. We used this in my Public Relations class and I LOVED it.