In my World Studies class, I was assigned a group to do a “Theater of War” project where we performed a readers theater script that we put together ourselves about World War 1, 2, and the Interwar periods. I think that we totally rocked our performance and we did great with the content that we used in our script, but I do believe that we could have been better at collaboration. So, I’m going to give you a few tips and tricks so that the next time you’re on a team, you will have the tools necessary to create the perfect team who will all contribute to your discussions and give you their full attention in group meetings.
When you notice a teammate missing the deadline or making small talk during class, don’t be afraid to tell them that it's not ok. And this goes for your whole team. If you don't like that one minute you're talking to everyone during a team meeting and then the next you're talking to an empty chair minus 6 of your teammates, maybe you should make a rule that your team members can't leave while a team meeting is in session. Setting boundaries is extremely important because if neither you nor the people that you are working with know what ticks you off, a bomb is bound to explode, and it’s going to be everyone's fault.
I will say the toughest thing about this step is when you are completely in panic mode trying to get everything done fast as possible, it’s really hard to slow down or even notice that you are in panic mode about to fight everyone around you. Alot of times you just want to stay in denial or say that you don't have enough time because it’s too much to actually stop and think. But after you stop, check in with your team, and breathe… you find out that even in the eye of the hurricane, one can find peace. If you follow all of these steps to creating the perfect team, you will end up with a fantastic collaborative outcome that will put a smile on your face, your teams face, and most importantly, your teacher's face. Good luck! And don’t forget;Slow breathing and a team meeting cures all crunch-time panic!
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In my digital media class, I collaborated with my team and was given the topic “Error Detection” to make a project about the topic I was given. The only catch was it had to be a Maker's Faire project. When I first started making it, I knew that I wanted to incorporate the Error detection card game that I learned while before this project when I was learning about error detection. The basis of the card game is you let an audience member lay out the cards randomly. Since the cards have one side that’s black and one that’s white, when they lay out the cards, they are random. Then you tell them you “want to add another row to make the game even harder”. This makes the audience member think that you're making the game harder when really you are counting the number of odds and evens in each row. Then you turn around and ask an audience member to flip over a card and then tell them the card that they flipped over. For our project, on the top of a pushpin board, we had big letters that said “Error Detection” . We later colored these letters with glitter and beads and put spoons and straws on the borders of the board to give it more of a makers feel. Remember the card game I was telling you about? Well on the lower half of the board, we dangled hearts with different colored sides for the audience to turn over and learn about Error Detection within our makers project. Isn’t that cool?! All in all, I think that making this project forced me expand my horizons regarding thinking of completely unique and out of the box ideas whereas before, I would come up with a safe idea to stay in the box. I think it was good for me to finally get out of my box, and I would totally do it again!
During my latest project in Bio-fitness, I learned about invasive species and how they hurt our environment. For the project, we got to pick our own invasive species that invades the city that we live in. My team chose the French Broom, and the following link is a link to our website that talks about everything that you need to know about the French Broom. Thanks for checking it out!
http://thefrenchbroomwebsite.weebly.com During Winter break I had a lot more free time to help my mom in the house, work, read, or anything I wanted to do! But one thing that I loved doing was to walk my dog. I have a 4 year old boxer named Ruby who is a very energetic dog who needs a lot of attention when it comes to getting a walk. When we first got Ruby she was always an easy to excite kind of dog which led to her getting walks every now and then. Nowadays if she doesn’t get her walk at least once a day, she goes crazy. So since she pulls so much when I walk Ruby I usually trail behind on my skateboard which is why I love to do it. But don’t worry, she can pull me along easily and she she can run as fast as she wants this way. Whenever I walk her I feel like taking care of animals is exactly what I want to do in life. I want to get my veterinary doctorate degree and take care of animals when I get older and I like to think that the reason why is because I fell in love with walking my dog. The best part of the walk is when she falls asleep afterwards because shes so tired
Here is the image I created about my experiment/ data collection.Here you can see thee thoughts of a Orca before it attacks. What I want to express is that if; during fight or flight; and you had nowhere to run too, what is the only thing left to do, in your eyes? I believe that the real only thing left to do is to just fight for your life. So I wanted to illustrate the thoughts that a captive orca could have and what would contribute to its fight or flight instincts kicking in. Although, I will say this… I am not an artist, I believe being the terrible drawer that I am, I got my point across efficiently in this drawing. For close ups to the drawing, go to this link.
This is how much my data table has grown since the last you have probably seen it. Keep in mind that I am not finished collecting data. So far I have asked to collect data from Sea World and they turned me down. That part makes me think; Why turn me down if you have nothing to hide? If you have nothing to hide you shouldn't turn down a science experiment especially if you are getting critique from others because of how you hold the orcas in your tanks. So, although I never got to test the water, I am glad that I finally have a clear understanding of Sea World. In the beginning my original hypothesis was that “captivated animals have such emotional duress during captivity that they somehow don’t understand their fight or flight trigger.” The problem with that is I never got to prove my hypothesis because Seaworld never sent me their water. But, I will say that I didn't let my entire experiment go to nothing just because Seaworld doesn't want the truth about their water to be exposed; I collected data from Bodega Bay and researched what kind of water orcas are supposed to be in so it gave me some outlook on their behavior and what triggers their fight or flight. I believe that my data supports my hypothesis because judging by the videos of the orcas attacking whales, I do believe that the water does make the orca feel differently both physically and mentally. In conclusion, although, because I don't have millions of dollars and I don't have a marine biology degree (yet), I do believe that the environment and food supply triggers any animals fight or flight instincts. I have proven it with this data because of the videos I have shown and the data I have collected(check my data table for the videos). The Interdependence of Organisms relates to my topic because when animals are used to fighting for their food, but when you keep an animal in captivity without any other animal of the same or a different species, you are keeping it in an environment which is harmful to their very existence, and when you keep it in a harmful environment (as we have now learned) it triggers its fight or flight instinct.The reason I feel that Population strongly represent my topic is because animals have instincts to find food. When they realize that the only way they get food is to fight for it, they become savages. So this helps my hypothesis that food supply triggers an animal's instincts. Recently I have been working on an Epic Movie with my teammates and I have found that although the end product (in my opinion) was great, I believe that there are some things that we could have improved on to help the making of the project. So here I have made a Guide containing three rules to live by on what NOT to do with your team. Number 1: Do not miss class/work time without talking to your teammates about it or at least sending an email. This, I have found can be very hard to do. Especially because during certain times you’re not automatically thinking about telling your teammates that you won’t be at school. For example; when you’re sick the first thing that you think to do isn't usually to send an email/text to all of your teammates explaining why you won't be at work time that day. The first thing you do is usually to put on some fuzzy socks and grab as much tissue as you can. But here is my advice; when you're grabbing all that tissue, you might as well grab your laptop too so you can email your teammates. Number 2: Never not know what you're supposed to be doing during work time. This one is super critical because if you don't know what you're doing in class, chances are you don't know what the end product is nor the due date. If you don't know what the due date is then you are getting an F for not knowing what you are doing. So when it comes to your projects, knowledge is definitely the key to success. Number 3: Do not walk away during work time assuming that you're done with your work. This is something I have seen constantly and I can honestly say it is the most annoying of them all. If you are working with someone and you get up and leave that person has to pick up where you left off and coming from the person who has been the person who was left at the table, it's extremely annoying. Even if you think you're done. Always check and see if there is more work to be done. Taking water/bathroom breaks is one thing but when you get up for long periods of time to go talk to friends or go on your phone while there is work to be done, it's pretty disrespectful to the people working. In conclusion;
When it comes to working with your teammates, everyone is different. Some are more lenient on some things while others have pet peeves about others. It’s always good to stay in communication about those things when you’re working together, but if you're always following at least these three rules, then your group should succeed enough so that everyone gets an A on the project. |
AuthorFor all 3 years I have spent at New Tech High, I have all of my blog posts listed. Everything from Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year is posted here, in order from when I posted it. ArchivesCategoriesCategories
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