Reflection Paper

In my small group for the film project analysis project I worked with four other students, Deonte, Frank, Osama, and Stephen. The specific purpose that we came together for was to analyse the film, Oz, The Great and Powerful and identify the different properties of communication in the film and how they were used. We held our group meetings after class three times and once before class. Our group had no clear leader, and instead each member was self-directed, and instead our group came to a general consensus at each meeting as to how tasks should be divided and what should be done before the next meeting. While there were significant setbacks to our group’s progress, aside from one anomaly our group worked well together and had only one major conflict.

While working in our groups, I have noticed that we try to incorporate our class concepts during our meetings in order to make our meetings function smoothly. Also while working together, we have learned each other’s strengths and weaknesses, which we use when someone is better at a certain aspect. For example, one member is more creative so she created the background for our presentation and helped with the ideas for our activities. Working in groups can be challenging, but as a group we do our best to make sure we complete our tasks and stay focused.

We made sure to stay onto of our work and were able to go back and help other group member who worked after us with their parts as well. Because we worked through Google Drive, we were able to all work on the project equally at the same time. We all logged in, created our slides, added our information and picture, and left comments for one another on there. Bhavik introduced me to a new meaning to the quote, ”I don’t want to see you—die—trying not to suffer,” which I was able to later use in my presentation (Baldwin 264). I set up a group text message so we were able to ask each other questions and stay connected at anytime. Our group also met up in the library the morning before presenting so we could discus how we would present to the class. Working in the group setting was very important because we were able to hear each other’s different interpretations of scenes we did not understand or scenes we analyzed

While in nursing school my group was selected to do a presentation about the African American culture. I wanted to be the leader of the presentation. When we all got together I had everyone discuss what information needed to be gathered, what resources we would use, and how we would present it. I assigned my group members roles on what parts they had to do and encouraged them to help one another out if someone was unable to find any information about their section. Over the weeks I would make sure and send out emails that consisted of additional ideas the group had, information that could be useful for the presentation, and followed up with everyone. Before we were going to present I set up group meetings so that we could organize the presentation

In our futures, we are going to be working with people every day. We will be working with people, whether in the work force or community. The more an individual works in a group they become a better team member and gain knowledge by learning from others. Outside of learning the material for our class, I believe we did a lot of group to benefit us in our future group work experiences.

This can work smoothly for some individuals, while making it very difficult for others. There are skills that should be present to make everything run smoothly. Communication is a major skill that everyone should work on when in a group setting. You have to be able to voice your opinion and give ideas. If there is no communication between a group, two individuals may work on the same topic. This causes an issue and everyone to be behind schedule. Communication also allows people to know who is doing what, when everyone is meeting, and how to do a task in the way everyone wants. This then leads to trust. Trust is also a major skill as nursing majors and as students that we need to have and strengthen. In group settings, trust needs to be established to work as a group. When trust is established within a group, the group can rely on others to give feedback if they do not agree with something mentioned. Everyone wants the best grade they can receive and without communication and trust that would not be possible. Relating to nurses, trust needs to be present because if one nurse asks another for help, they need to be able to trust they complete the task the complete and proper way. It works for group projects in the same way. If you ask a member to complete a task for you that you are unable to complete, you have to trust they will complete it and in the same way you would. This then leads to

However, despite this, actually working together was extremely difficult to do. Every person did their portion of the work, and were incredibly nice, but it took them far too long to complete their slides. To begin, our group did not have a solid concept for our presentation for quite some time and nobody was pitching any ideas. We started out wanting to discuss women’s clothing as well as part in society throughout time; however, we eventually settled on westernized ideas of Arab women. Yet, even after finally deciding what topic to research, the group was fairly disorganized as well as unwilling to meet. I had suggested meeting times quite often and nobody would respond. However, when we did eventually meet and work on the project, my group members were nothing but efficient and hardworking. I suppose this problem was just based on different work ethics, yet I still wish they were more responsive to my messages and

For this group, I added more handouts and individual work than I normally would due to the learning constraints in the room. After several attempts to have students work in groups, I learned that they simply cannot work in a group setting well. Several times, I had to improvise for students who were gone a lot due to sports, sickness, etc. However,

Learning as a group consisted of working with others but also figuring out how to work with others. A person needs to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of their group to properly understand how to function efficiently in a group. If the members in the group are not able to work together and argue for the majority of the time, no work will get done. I had the luxury of having to deal with this task of having to discover which methods would work in order to work with others well and efficiently make a quality film. From past experiences, I have learned that groups work together well when everyone is on the same page. No one is confused and rarely questioning other people’s ideas. Also when communicating ideas, it is helpful to have everyone brainstorm. With everyone brainstorming about possible themes or ideas directed towards the project, it makes everyone feel involved in the process of completing the project and no one is left out. In reading different theorists, my ideas about how to work in groups was altered. The two theorists in which I studied and learned from were Knud Illeris and Etienne Wenger. Illeris’ theory emphasized that people that were learning had different backgrounds that affected their ability to learn. Illeris developed a chart in which the Basis, Internal Conditions, External Conditions all determined how people learned and how they applied the knowledge that they had. The Basis consists of the biology, psychology, and social science of the

Our group, was very successful with communication. We choose each other for this task as we both knew we worked well together and would bring the best out of each other. At the beginning of the task we allocated roles and when they would need to be completed by to make sure we stayed on track. We also throughout the lesson would check up on each other or when we needed information that the other person has. We both shared roles with research and I made the slide show and Kalea the survey monkey. Allocating roles at the start was great because we always knew what to do and were focused.

Some of us took more leadership roles than other but everyone was able to contribute and get their ideas across. We decided to do this topic because we felt that it had the most info for us to reflect on. Our process was very successful in this project. First we read the document and took notes. Then after we read we reflected on what we read and then took that conversation into the situations. When we had conflicts we were able to make rational decisions and compromise. Even though all of our conflicts we not handled well are group worked very well and there's not much to be changed.

Even though there were problems with people pulling their own weight, I think that the outcome was great. We were able to create a program and without the other group members, it would not have been successful. I think it is important to keep in mind the end goal while going through some difficult stages with group members.

I believe that my group and I worked really well together. We all had different ideas and suggestions that came together to make our presentation. While being able to suggest our opinions to one another, we were also all able to listen to one another which made the group work really well together. We didn’t specifically assign one task to one person. In our group, we would write on one of the topics that we chose on a piece of paper and then pass it to the next person. On that piece of paper, we were able to either start a new point or branch off from someone else’s idea(s). This process seemed to work really well since we were able to get our own ideas out and help each other make each point as strong as possible. For this reason, all of

The early phases of a collaborative group must establish direction and workflow rhythm to ensure that deadlines and team accountability are present. Creating of a team charter that includes insights and agreement of the whole team is the most vital step to serve as the foundational structure for which group participants will join forces to complete assignments. A shared leadership model, rotating weekly leadership responsibilities, provides a balanced effort in maximizing team talents and distributing all modules among the entire team. Learning the ability to lead from the front in motivating teammates toward assignment objectives, as well as leading from behind in becoming a follower behind others’ leadership, provides a more holistic understanding of the team dynamic. A group set in this type of structure will provide an outlet to encourage, empower, model skill development from one participant to another throughout the team’s involvement together.

One evening, I was studying for my final exams with my friends in the library. We were there for almost the whole day, and most of us got a most of our assignments and studying done. As I meandered down to the printers to print my philosophy paper, I could not help but discern that some of the students around us were also getting their assignments done, albeit rather languidly. A closer look as to what they were doing showed that some students were checking their social media and watching Netflix, while others were online shopping. In other words, they were procrastinating. I knew that our studying period was brief; in fact, we had two or three days until our first finals started. I had a few compelling speculations on why people procrastinate, from that they know everything (unlikely), to they do not know what to study (more likely), or the fact that they are just lazy (very likely). Though I am also a victim of procrastinating, I try to focus on my studies, especially if it is exam season. My insights turned to reality when I asked my friend about something that we were supposed to study for the calculus exam. It turns out that he was watching a football game on his laptop, but he muted it to answer my question and to show me how to do a problem. He proclaimed that he will study it later, even though our exam was in less than forty-eight hours. He knew what and how to study, but he told me he wasn’t up for it. I observed that this is a familiar episode – every time a