Running like a well-oiled machine

As soon as our team members dropped from four members to three without any warning, our team continued to function smoothly, and from this I knew our team would work together very well.

Getting started was one of the challenges in our team, but once we got started there was no holding us back. We took so long to get started because we weren’t too sure about all of the details involved with the assignment. As soon as we had our group meetings and talked over what we thought was expected in assignment two, we were away with the wind. 

Our team worked so well together because we each had different strengths and weaknesses and all had different Belbin team roles. The diversity in our group is what made it run so smoothly. Everyone listened to each others ideas about the assignments, as we all had different approaches to it. It was interesting to see how one assignment could be interpreted in so many different ways.

According to the Belbin team roles, I was a teamworker, and with this my biggest weakness was being indecisive with decisions. Luckily with decisions made as a team, we all came to the same conclusion so this wasn’t really a problem. Decisions were mainly made when we were first figuring out the assignment but even then we all came to the same conclusion pretty quickly.

Kelly appeared to an implementer as she was always very organized in our assignments and was the leader of the group. She organized most, if not all of the meetings we had as a team. It was good to have a strong leader for the group as I think this is one of the determining factors of the success in a  group.

Grace was the editor of assignment two and was very good in this role, possibly meaning that she was partly the role of completer finisher. She was able to edit our report down immensely so that we were within the word count, and also so we were getting straight to the point. 

In assignment two, roles were changed, mainly due to one person withdrawing from the paper and our group. This means that we all had added workload placed upon us. However we all just continued as usual and everything turned out as well as we could have hoped. 

As a team we were very successful in achieving our objectives efficiently. Once we got the initial idea, we completed the assignments in a very timely manner, each taking different roles. We all finished our given tasks by the set deadline. I think another main reasons we all worked so well together was due to all wanting the same result from the two assignments we did together. We all wanted good grades and a good understanding of what we were learning.   

Overall our group ran like a well-oiled machine and I would be very happy to work in this group again.  

Skipping Class = Skipping Speeches

Skipping days of school, skipping classes and coming up with every excuse teachers have heard. I and the majority of people in my classes did this every year whenever speeches came around. The later in the week you got to do your speech the better. If you were really lucky, the class would run out of time and you would do it during lunchtime. Everyone’s aim was to try and do their speech with the least people in the room. 

However, I don’t think it’s talking in front of people that makes me nervous, rather the fear is within the content of the oral report. It worries me that what I’m talking about is boring to the audience and they don’t want to listen. I think to overcome this, I need to be confident in the content of the speech. I am confident that with the content I have prepared for assignment three, so believe that I will sound confident in my topic and in myself when presenting.   

I improved my public speaking this year through my job at a trampoline park, where I give safety briefings to large groups of people. I feel like this has given me a lot more confidence talking in front of a lot of people. It think it is important to be confident at public speaking if working in science, as one of the best ways to learn in science. Sharing ideas through oral communication rather than written communication. Oral communication allows for more clarity and understanding on a given topic as more breath and depth can be established and understood.

In the upcoming assignment, I am confident that as a team, we will successfully communicate to the Minister, the different aspects that we communicated in our report. So far we have planned to do our oral report using PowerPoint with a voice over. Unlike the previous years, when we skipped school just to avoid a speech, I will be confident in my content and presentation of this seminar.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Sitting in five different classrooms a day, listening to a teacher and working in silence on your own. This was a typical day at high school for me in 2014. On the odd occasion, you were told to work in groups and this was exciting and unusual. However since going to university, I have learned that for most students, group assignments are looked at in a very different light. However I have not found this at all with the group I am working in for this paper especially compared to some other groups I have worked with previously in other papers.        

    

We only had one set back with writing our report paper. One member of our team decided not to continue with our team report and paper. With the help of our tutor Pete, we worked around this. He allowed us to either drop the interview/survey or to only do two topics for step two. We chose the second option as we had already distributed the surveys and received completed surveys back. From there we chose to focus on the two topics which we could focus our ethical principles on.

Everything  else ran smoothly in the group I am working in and this could possibly be due to being allowed to choose who we work with. All of us have had the mutual goal of wanting to achieve a good grade.We didn’t have any trouble in decision making because whenever we had to make decisions about any aspect of assignment two, we all came to a decision which accommodated for everyone. This included choosing what part of the assignment we wanted to do or simply making a time for group meetings.The group meetings which we had were very useful as they allowed us to clarify any questions or confusion we have had about assignment two. They were also useful as they set a deadline for us to ensure that we had our work completed.

 

Like back in high school, I have enjoyed creating a report for this group assignment, mostly due to the people I was working with. I think the most important part in creating a team for a group assignment is having the right combination of people. To do this, I believe a common goal for the end result is needed.