Group Review

     I hate group work. I think it is way for teachers to punish students. I don't mind it as much when my group actually works and can make complete sentences. To me group work with unwilling kids is just as bad as word searches, if not worse. This is not to say that my group didn't do anything, but it was like convincing a immature middle school-er to do a book report. My first problem with my group was the procedure. The member assigned to do this kept asking me what we did, I literally went over the steps at least five times. I was okay with this, he was making sure he was doing the assignment correctly. What got to me was when he showed me his finished product there were only three steps (He was with us out side, he did more than three steps on his own.) On top of that only one of the steps was a coherent sentence. For example, he wouldn't capitalize the word "I," and instead of the word trees he had the word "TRESS" he did this multiple times so it obviously wasn't a typo. Why are you a senior that can't make a compete sentence.  I had to retype the procedure on my own time, on my PHONE, after I did  my part of the daily assignment. My next problem was when I was working on the excel (because neither of them could do it) and a member was to be working on the power point. It was the second day and I asked him if he needed any help, he told me he could do it, so I left it. At the end of the class I asked to see what he had finished, he had the cover page finished with a picture of some trees and our names so dark that you couldn't even read them. The next day was our final day to work on the power point, so I asked him to light a fire under his butt and to finish the power point, to my surprise he hadn't gotten 3 pages done by the end of class. I wasn't about to let my grade in this class drop because someone was to lazy to do their part. I had to completely redo the power point that weekend along with a band comp. concession stand on Sunday, and projects for my other classes. I was busier that a one-armed paper hanger. My last problem was presenting. One of the members has a problem presenting, so I agreed to only make him read one slide. I told he had to face the class and read the number at the bottom and say it was the total value of the HHS hill. He couldn't do it, he faced directly at the board and practically whispered his part, I had to re-say it just so the class knew what they were looking at. Bad presenters are one of my biggest pet peeves.

     Things that went right during the project you ask? When we were measuring the trees outside my group member had no problem helping out and walk the 66 feet away. We worked well together and got the measurements done in record time. When we came inside to calculate the price of each tree I thought I was going to have to do it all on my own, but a member of the group agreed to help with calculations, he even caught one of my mistakes, I love when group members work together. The last thing I really liked from my group was when we were deciding who was doing what. A member was assigned the GIS portion. He had no problem with it and did his work on his own. When he had a question he asked Mr. Sharpe and didn't come running to me to fix his problem, which he had done earlier. He knew what he had to do and he got it dine without complaining, a trooper.

     Sorry to make you read a freaking novel, but I wanted you to know what happened. For the record.... I still hate group work.