What a gem!

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to be a part of what I would refer to as a social experiment. In class, I was asked to get into a group of three people. Together, we formed a country and had to use our countries "resources" which were represented as gemstones to barter with the other "countries" to diversify our resources. Thinking this would be a fun experiment, I was ready to get started. Something I wasn't anticipating was the issues that would arise from the group dynamics. The instructor didn't really offer any rules. We could trade or not trade with the other countries. We could trade as a country or we could take some of our country's resources and run off as an individual and trade for individual gain.
I decided out of personal choice, to trade as a group. I didn't want to be a traitor. I wanted to help my country. My group mates felt the same way. So, we chose to trade as a group.
With a business background, I had a different view of resource worth than my group members did which caused a lot of head-butting and a sort of stalemate between the three of us.
I thought it was very interesting to see how outside elements played into how we ran our group. My business background affected the way that I thought about the challenge. However, the other two girls did not have a business background. Unfortunately, I had made up my mind about how I wanted to attack the challenge and they had made up their mind to attack the problem in a different way. Neither myself, nor the other two girls were willing to budge on our solutions.
Group projects have always bothered me. I have tried to learn to become whatever the group needs me to be. I am a born leader, but I have the ability to be a follower, if I feel that the group leader has the ability to lead. I felt that I had a fresh idea that no one else in the class had, but I wasn't being listened to. It is frustrating to be in a group and feel that your ideas are not being heard.
This was a growing experience for me. Looking back, I should have taken some of the country's resources and went off on my own. I never dreamed that values, educational background, and communication style would have such an impact on something as simple as the trading of gemstones. It was really interesting and as I said, quite a learning experience.

Eye Opener

In yesterday’s class, some of my classmates were asked to be “substitute teachers” for the class period. These classmates were unprepared to teach the lesson. I was in Danielle’s group. Danielle took the challenge in stride. It was a biology lesson using onion cells and microscopes. I never enjoyed using microscopes. I could never focus them correctly and ended up seeing my eyelashes more often than the specimen I was supposed to be examining. I complained and Danielle readjusted the lesson so that she could help me focus the microscope. Rachel and I used different solvents – she used a hypertonic solution and I used a hypotonic solution. Danielle drew pictures for us and had us label the different parts of the cell. I compared a cell in a hypertonic solution to a raisin, a shriveled piece of fruit. Using this comparison, Danielle changed the words she was using and incorporated the “raisin” thought into our discussion. It made it much easier for me to understand the concepts rather than using the big terms. The three of us all used one microscope so that I could have help from both the “teacher” and from my other classmate.
I want to use Danielle’s technique in my own classroom. I will surely have students who will not want to participate in class activities because they have their own hang-ups related to the subject I’ll be teaching. Danielle was able to make a few minor adjustments to keep me interested in the activity. I got a lot more out of the activity since my teacher listened to my problems and re-adjusted the lesson so that I could accomplish the assignment.