Thanks for the presentations this past week. While they did not all meet the requirements we were hoping for, I really did enjoy seeing you all get up and speak and interact in front of the classroom! I hope you all enjoyed that as well! Please do get working with your groups for the health presentations on Oct 7th.
For the blog this week, please talk about some strategies you can use to improve your OWN effective participation in groups. We know that group work is challenging...so what can you do to make it better?
What are the most difficult challenges? Can you think of ways that you contribute to these challenges? Be specific...
This is just the beginning of your college career and there will be many times you are faced with group assignments...I want you to start to focus on what you can do on your own to make it better.
Bring your binders and scrapbook and collage stuff for Wednesday. And we WILL have a check in.
I know one of my weakness of work on group is express my opinion or ideas, if I need to solutions is talking more , ask questions if I have, don't be shy/quite because is not a great solution.
ReplyDeleteI think I can contribute to my group ideas and help of everything that I can do.
Two ways of improving my participation would be by having some input on what we are working on and stating my opinion. If the members of group don't communicate their thoughts with each other problems come up and it makes it more difficult to work with each other. I tend to be the person stays back and lets things fall into place then work on my designated part of the project. I can do more, So in saying that I would also say that another thing I need to work on is my leadership when it comes to working in a group. Usually the task falls on someone else but when it doesn't and there is a need for a leader I don't take on the challenge even when I know that it's a role I can take on.
ReplyDeleteTwo difficult challenges that I have are getting up and speaking infront of people and getting nervous. How I can over come these two problems is by being more prepared before, so I won't be that nervous and know what I'm going to say. I will also have to speak up more and get use to that fact that I will have to speak infront of people all the time.
ReplyDeleteA strategy I can use is to listen to overyones ideas on the subject on hand before I express my opinion. Therefore, I would get an overview of everyones thoughts about the subject. After that, I can add my opinion if I see we are missing something, for clarification, or to agree with my group. Also, a challenge I face while working in groups is that sometimes some members hardly do any work, or their work on their part is disappointing. Thus, a strategy I can use is get everyone to agree that it is best if from the beginning we assign each indiviual a task in equal amounts in compare to everyone which should solve the problem of people not wanting to do work. Next, I can also present the strategy of emailing us the work we have done, a couple of days before the due date. Therefore, our group can correct each others works. Lastly, if the assignment is a group presentation I can consider the strategy of reciting my part in the mirror the night before to improve my public speaking skills.
ReplyDeleteMy strategy of group work is to plan it with the group first. For example, talk about the subject, collect ideas and thoughts. Then design the structure of how we want our presentation or work to look like. After that we will began dividing the work between us and each one of us is responsible for the work that he or she put in. At least one member of the group will take the leader role and make sure that everyone is doing what they supposed to do. In my opinion the most challenges in group work, is when one or two of the members does not agree with the rest about specific subject, or he or she wants to do it in their own way. The way I deal with this challenge is that I do the PowerPoint or the presentation the I pass it to the other person, so he or she would write something and so on. Lastly we meet again to decide which part we want to delete and which part we want to keep. ( Every member in the group will have a copy of the presentation and everyone is responsible to practice the public speaking).
ReplyDeleteThe most difficult challenge that I have while working in group is time management. It's so hard for me to match my schedule with my group, so I don't really have enough time to practice. However, to improve this challenge, I need to be more organize with my schedule and being prepare the week before, not in the week that I need to present.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy working on group project because you get to learn from other people, For example, Last week, Suma, Nhu, and I, went to Suma's house to work on our 2000's decade presentation and we really enjoy our self. We brought different ideas to the table, But I have no tolerance, when working in group projects with people who are lazy and do not put in effort or any work. For example, this week Eli (Third year prices scholar) and three other class members where in a group project for Latin american food. We all had different countries, but all the same amount of work. On the day of the presentation, one member on our group had not done their work. That one member disappointed our group. I am really good at giving ideas and listening to ideas. I encourage people to participate in the group discussion. My weakness in a group project is presenting. I get nervous when people look at me. I have improved throughout the years, but I have a lot to work on. People always tell me to look at people's forehead, but I tend to look on top of peoples heads.
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Deletethat is always disappointing, especially when it is a fellow scholar, but it does happen that there are parts of group work that are beyond your control. Did you (and the other group members) express your disappointment with the scholar who did not do the work?
DeleteOh, no it wasn't a scholar. It was a classmate who disappointed us. We reached out to her, but she said she worked, we understood she works, but many us did too.
DeleteThere are many ways in which I can improve my performance and participation in groups. My greatest challenge would have to be time constraints. I have a very specific schedule and am very busy almost every day. This makes it very hard for me to adapt to other people's schedules in order to meet up to work on something. More often than not, I end up assigning people in my group individual things to work on so that when we come together we each have something to discuss. However, this takes away from the group and teamwork experience as what it is is basically individual presentations done together. Although this is the option I usually fall back on, I realize it isn't the best way to go about things. In order to improve this, working with plenty of time in advance is the best option. That way, even if the work is done little by little, it is at least done together as a collaborative effort instead of individual efforts.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, working as a group means Teamwork. and teamwork means working together in order to achieve a goal. Each member of the team contributes their personal skills, ideas and opinions towards the one common goal. last week project was awesome I loved how we shared ideas and thoughts. participation is also important, particularly when it comes to encouraging each other with learning how to express and communicate ideas to your peers. the most difficult change for me is time management and I am working hard to make it happen when I need to be done something.
ReplyDeleteI am not an extrovert student, but I enjoy working in group. I can learn from the other members by asking questions and sharing ideas because I think we can learn from anyone else we meet. If they do right ways, we can learn from them. On the contrary, we can avoid doing it. One of my difficult challenges is speaking in front of lots of people. I try to improve it day by day. My strategies are to be prepared in advance, do not wait until the last minutes. I try to practice speaking in front of the mirror, or recording and listening several times. I also have to learn to be confident in myself.
DeleteFor me I feel like we did a great job. What I feel I can improve is being ready before hand, so I don't have to rush to get started. Another thing, I feel like I could try and take charge and get everyone to finished their part in the group. I feel like we could communicate better so we can practice our presentation.
ReplyDeleteBeing able to work in team is very challenging but at the same time it is very beneficial. We put a lot of our minds together and we are capable of creating amazing presentations. Obviously to make a great presentation we need to make sure that we meet up together as a group more often and we communicate more. We can distribute the work equally in order for everyone to participate well. Also, another thing is that we need to stop procrastinating although that is very difficult! Instead of doing our projects a day before lets actually get to work on it once we know about it. Other than that I thought everyone did great by the way!
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion to be able to work in a group we need to be able give our own opinions about the subject we work on. We all need to make sure we agree in everything on how we will do the project. Also, to be able to make a better presentation we need to give each other our parts to present and each of us needs to say something about it. Not just one individual taking over. The most difficult thing about working in a team is that not all were agreeing in stuff and all we did was loose time because it can get intense and in the end we don’t end up doing anything to be successful in our presentations. Although all the difficulties I enjoy it because we have more ideas that I’m always opened to listen to .
ReplyDeleteI have mixed feelings about group work because of past experiences. In high school when we had group work it was usually me doing most of the work and that became very frustrating. It was frustrating because it ended up affecting my grade when someone in the group didn't do what they had to. I guess what I can do to make it better is express my own ideas and concerns and keep my part of the work on time. Although I do not speak much or participate much in class, when it comes to smaller groups I tend to talk more. The most difficult challenges is having to consistently remind your group members of their part of the assignment. Overall, I think it really depends on the group members and myself and how we collaborate.
ReplyDeleteMy potential as a good student does not show when I am assigned to a group work. I sometimes becomes the negotiator which becomes very hard when my group members start to rely on me. I can also feel very reluctant with a group project when my group members do not have much to offer. Maybe is it because, I am an independent person. I work more efficiently when I am alone! Most challenges would be my schedule, it might conflict with the other group members schedules. A strategy that I use is usually trying to get my part of the work done and leave the rest for the others. I become impatient when I have lazy people in my groups that might depend on me to get their jobs done. Another strategy would be assigning specific parts of the assigned project to the group members, as in taking initiatives. Overall, group work does not work for me because I do not entertain people ruining my chances of getting good grades!
ReplyDeleteStrategies that can be used to improve my participation in my group is actually take the people and the assignment serious. It would make it better if people could explain themselves better before asking for something that won’t feel their expectations. The most difficult challenge was making people happy and fulfilling expectations. And as well as putting more time into it, and asking questions to understand the assignment.
ReplyDeleteTeam work has always been my biggest struggle. I believe that my participation in a team depends a lot on the type of people I am working with. It is hard for me to get my thoughts out and if I feel like they are not acknowledging my ideas I just step back and let them do their own thing. I haven't yet learned how to keep pushing on what I believe should be done. Teamwork is a lot simpler when you can chose who you work with and are prepared ahead of time with a little summary on the subject. Being organized and aware of the different types of personalities in the group is extremely important. I think I can improve myself by being open minded to other ideas even if they seem outside of my comfort zone, also if I put in extra effort to understand the big picture and be prepared for the assignment or presentation. Also I can improve my participation by knowing what is to be expected from the assignment.
ReplyDeleteSome difficulties I have in group settings are, being able to relate. Sometimes I feel like I am a leader and when I'm in a group with people that have different views that I can't relate to it makes it hard for us to connect. Another problem I have is feeling equal I hate roles because in my past situations roles make people change and it's not fun. I always want to be fair and understanding. To make these challenges better I feel like I can try to voice my opinion ahead of time and if it doesn't work just come to an agreement so the whole group is happy and no one feels left out. My biggest challenge is over thinking I wish it was easy for me so I could make a decision and be happy about it. To better this I am evaluating my values then making a decision. Another big challenge Procrastination I've been really good with it my whole life but lately I've spiraled down hill this year. But one thing I can do to better this is create a planner and set goals so I can Be more efficient.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to groups I love the whole experience of it all. The whole group working together putting different ideas out there and glueing those ideas together to make something even better. I believe I don't have a lot of problems in a group setting but possibly equal communication throughout the group. I don't like when some people in groups get assigned certain roles then power begins to take over then tht person becomes different.
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