I would like to just start off by stating how much I hate group work. Yes, I would rather give a group presentation than an individual presentation, but it is the most difficult thing to try and get everyone to meet up and pull his or her weight. I would rather not have to rely on other people for my grade; however, with this project I know that that is how it is going to be.
For starters, we decided the night that the project was assigned that we would meet the following Monday (a week before the day we would present) to gather our thoughts and to help form how we would discuss the text. Of course, not everyone showed up. It is inevitable with a group this size that everyone would be able to meet. Of the 7 of us, only 5 of us showed up. Brittany told us very early on that she could not make the meeting, and sent us with plenty of information that really dug into the text and brought very important issues to light. Needless to say, Brittany’s absence was forgiven. The same could not be said for Ken. I’m not sure if Ken remembers that this was a GROUP project or not, because he decided to only communicate to Bernie and no one else. He did not show up to the meeting and he did not contribute anything to the group, period. (Until the night of the actual presentation.. which is sad because it seems as though he really understood the text.. we could have used his brain from the start. Very unfortunate). We had a group document online that we would post to, he posted a 3-line paragraph that had nothing to do with our presentation at all, and upon asking him to elaborate, I got nothing in return. Everyone else did his or her part, if not more to try and pull everything together.
From the first meeting, we decided that we were going to do a game show. We were all to gather different information and share it on the document so everyone could see and decide what we would use. I volunteered to do my research and make the posters that we originally were going to use for the game show. I asked everyone to come together by Thursday and send me exactly what questions and answers I was going to put on the poster boards. I had a very busy weekend with work and dealing with identity theft issues, so Thursday would have given me more than enough time to figure everything out and make the posters. No one could come up with a conclusive decision and decided Saturday that we were all just going to split up and do different things. I had work both Saturday and I worked 14 hours on Sunday and was more than frustrated that I had literally no time to figure anything out. Holly decided that we could be partners and work on the gender issue that the text explores. She did more than her part to pull it together, and I contributed what I had, although it might have been too late since none of what I had to say made the cut (Kudos to Holly.. without her I'm not even sure we would have gotten as far as we did Monday.. she really was the person who pulled us all together and if anyone deserves the highest grade, it is her). We have a PowerPoint now and issues at hand to talk about, so as far as I am concerned, we have done our part. We are going to present ours first, and we have a couple of questions lined up to ask the class that really explores the ideas of gender. I am upset that at the last second everything was switched around. I feel as though we needed more time, since the majority of the time we could not agree on anything. As far as Leandro and Brittany, I have a clear idea of what they are doing and their part will flow right after Holly and myself present. With Ken and Bernie, I have absolutely no idea what they are doing. Bernie is the only one who connected with the group, stating that they were going to focus on “class” issues within the text. Ken still has not to this day sent a single e-mail or text to any of the group with what he contributed. You will find out when I do with what they decided to present. The same goes with Katie’s contribution, I have no idea what she is doing either.




AFTER PRESENTATION:

I am please with how things turned out.. However I wish things would have gone differently. I really just wish we had more time. Picking the first presentation date was originally for the convince of it not being tangled with other classes and class projects, however I wish I knew then what I know now.. I would have gone with a different date. I am glad it is over.. I learned a good lesson from all of this.