Samesies Weblog

Peer Evaluations Hurtful but Helpful

samesies20 — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:32:52 +0000

It was extremely informative to read the feedback from my peers. There were many things that I did not realize I had been doing during the class, such as being a leader during Schien team meetings and offering good suggestions regularly. Sometimes during the class because I was confused about what was going on it made it difficult for me to participate as much or as inclusive as I would have liked to. I think this class helped me to learn patience as a group member and understanding. There were many times when people would be absent who would be an important member of the schien team or the wiki team, this made it difficult to complete tasks correctly, but I understood these students much have had valid reasons for missing the class. I hope to take some of the skills I learned in this class such as being more patient and speaking my mind regularly to other groups in the future. I am hoping to be a teacher so the name game definitely provided me with some experience in explaining tasks to a large group, a quality that is imperative in the field of education.

I felt slightly aggravated when I saw that some students gave me a “dot” for not being present. I was unable to attend class due to a family obligation, and the only other class I missed was for a medical reason for which I provided documentation. I thought it was uncalled for other students to negatively mark me for not being present. I had participated in almost every discussion during the course of the semester and had no choice but to miss this one class. It was an unfair evaluation and it isn’t peers job to record my attendance in the class.

Overall, the class taught me how to be a better group member by learning patience. The class was often intense and hostile, and it gave me an eye opening first hand experience of how people react when they dislike something or are confused. Myself included who often times got frustrated and did not participate as actively as possible.

Response to After Dachau comments

samesies20 — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:17:51 +0000

I would argue that the role function that ehanft is portraying here is similar to that of the “group observer and commentator” according to membership roles explained by Beene and Sheats. That becomes clear when ehanft states that it “was unfamiliar in a classroom setting back then, it was more uncomfortable then it is now.” This shows a clear observation that has been made over the course of the semester. Ehanft has clearly made a mental note of the level of comfort among the members of the class and recalls that in this post. Hence he fits the group observer and commentator because he was “keeping records of various aspects of group process and feeds such data with proposed interpretations into the group’s evaluation of its own procedures.” (Beene, Sheats, p 56) It seems that the group was working towards the stage of adulthood when ehanft wrote this, since he observed that the group was more comfortable and that students are hopeful and excited indicates that we had possibly moved beyond the “storming stage”.

It was interesting to read the different types of responses that classmates gave in regards to After Dachua blog posts. Summer22 posted a comment that seemed to establish her as the “encourager”. Throughout the post she states that, “after reading the responses I felt like everyone did a great job representing what this class is about and what we as a group have been learning and experiencing” (Summer22) This fits into Benne and Sheats role as the “encourager” because Summer22 is, “offering praises, agrees with and accepts the contributions of others.” (Benne, Sheets p 55) Summer22 shows similar qualities that can be found in enhafts post as the group observer by recognizing progression among the group by stating, “as a group I feel like we have progressed on many levels, learning to understand individual frames, learning that its okay to question things and be confused, and that not all teacher/student relationships need to be on the formal level in which our culture generally expects.” (Summer22) This comment also confirms my assumption that we are no longer in Webbers “storming stage” her posts suggests a level of understanding that is shared amongst the class that would not exist if the class remained in the “storming stages”.

Another interesting role explained by Benne and Sheats is that of the “elaborator”. After reading through the 14 posts I found that buckets34 seemed to fit some of the “elaborator” qualities. According to Benne and Sheats the elaborator, “spells out suggestions in terms of examples or developed meanings, offers a rationale for suggestions previously made, and tries to deduce how an idea or suggestion would work out if adopted by the group.” (Benne, Sheats p 55) Buckets34 elaborates on the class and offers suggestions by explaining, “If we could all just have a little definition about due dates I think it would a lot easier and less stressful to work on this project.” (buckets34) Buckets34 shows excitement for future progress of the class but saying “I hope to see this Wiki go places”. All of the comments I have read have showed a positive attitude towards the class only confirming once again that we are not in Weber’s “storming” stage. At this point I would conclude that we have moved to the “norming & performing” stages of Adulthood. Since the level of comfort has been improving among the class one can infer that “interpersonally, members are now working out of affection or a caring about others in a deeper, less superficial manner than before.” (Weber, p 3)

I hope to see the group continue through to the Transforming stage once we achieve the goals set forth by Steph and our groups for the Wiki!

Harsh group leader? Or friendly and understanding? Ohh the choices

samesies20 — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:21:53 +0000

True/False:

The quality and amount of group production is the responsibility of the group. TRUE
I am a member of the group. TRUE
The quality and amount of group production is my responsibility. TRUE
Goal-setting is a responsibility that I share. If true, explain how. TRUE, because there needs to be goals set in order to make progress. Since I am a member of the group and want success for the group it becomes my responsibility to set goals in order to further our project and reach a level of success.
I have been instrumental in marshalling resources for the group. TRUE. I have participated in larger group activites, facilitated an activity. In my smaller group for the wiki I have provided pictures, outlines, and ideas to help complete the project.
Members are more important to groups than leaders. FALSE
I am using this class to satisfy my individual and group-irrelevant needs. True, I can earn a passing grade by participating appropriately in my small groups and in the large group. Completing assignments efficiently and on time.
To be a member in a group means I have to take on one or more roles. TRUE
If I am in a group, I am either a functional member or an un- or dys-functional member. TRUE
Our class/group has all the roles necessary to achieve optimum group growth and productivity. True, there are leaders or certain groups, and active followers who help and assist with the leaders ideas and add to the ideas and opinions of the leader. These active group members make sure that certain tasks are carried out efficiently. There are also non active group members who would be followers that do not follow the leader or the active group members. These members don’t add any extra dynamic to the group and pose as a problem for the rest of the group because usually extra explanation is required because they have missed the goals and ideas that were put in place by the leaders and active followers.
Our class/group has not yet generated effective work on the problem of role-requiredness. TRUE, I have been playing the role as the energizer. I have facilitated an activity in the beginning of the class. I came up with the idea of having a night life group for the class wiki which other members of the class wished to join. I assisted group members in coming up with ideas for the wiki ie. Pictures and what places were important to include.
My role(s) in the class/group and different sub-group teams has changed depending on the stage of development. If false, why not, and what does having a static, unchanging role “do” to or for the group? True. It depends on how interested I am in the topic of the group. If I am interested and wish to see something come out of the discussion or project then I will usually try to take on the role of a leader so that I can ensure success. However, if I am confused and aggravated by a task or discussion sometimes I will actively chose to disengage myself as a member and I become useless to the class and myself.
Improving the group’s quality of functioning requires diagnosing role requirements needed at the current stage of development. TRUE
I am unsure how to diagnose role requirements needed by my sub-group team. FALSE
I have role flexibility? TRUE. I have role flexibility for example in one instance when I facilitated the class in the name game I took on the role as a leader almost serving as the teacher. In other areas such as the Schien teams I took on a role of an activator by splitting up the different types of decisions among the group and assigning people to focus on these areas during the fish bowls. There are other times when I chose to be an inactive member of the class and be a follower such as during certain fishbowls or when observing fishbowls. If the conversation in the fishbowl begins to aggravate me or disinterest me, then I remove from being the leader that I had been in other groups and become just another follower among the group. Therefore my roles in the class do have flexibility depending on what the activity is.
Developing role flexibility is an important objective of group member training. The three roles I flex among the most are: a)_initiator_______, b)_energizer_______, and c)____follower_____. My decision to flex is based upon: _group activities__________ If the activity interests me I take on a role as an energizer or initiator because I wish to be in control and oversee that things are done properly and efficiently. If it is something that disinterest me I decide to be lazy and even though I should participate just the same I chose not to because I don’t feel like dealing with the hassle that is accompanied by that activity.
My personality and the role(s) I play in groups are the same thing. TRUE
I never find myself resisting the retraining required to be a functional group member. False. My resistance tends to show itself in role behavior if I continue to try and be a leader where one is not needed. If I push my opinions and ideas on a group even when they already have plans established and are carrying it out.
I am highly sensitive to criticism about my functional role in a group. TRUE
I will do anything possible to make sure everyone feels good, even if it means producing an inferior product. FALSE
I am sensitive to the operation of member roles in our class/group and in my sub-group teams. TRUE
I am aware of and conscious about my own proficiency in different functional roles. TRUE
I can identify several functional roles in any group. TRUE
I can match the roles required to the stage of development a group is in. FALSE
I can assess what role I can play best based on changing requirements for the group. TRUE

Proposal for NIGHT LIFE!

samesies20 — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:53:37 +0000

So Kat and I have decided to focus on the nightlife aspect of college and UMASS! In order to put together our part of the Wiki we have decided to take pictures of the uptown Amherst area during the day including some of the bars like The Pub, The Monkey Bar, Delanos, ABC, The Spoke, and Charlies. Most of these are restuarants during the day, and turn into college bars at night. We are then planning to take pictures of the bars at night, and talk about which bars are most popular on what night. ie. The Pub on Tuesdays, any bar on Thursdays, that sort of thing. We have decided to include pictures of the two of us, and also trying to recruit some other members of the class to join in on some of the photos.

This will hopefully provide anyone who is looking at the wiki with some general ideas about what goes on around UMASS on the weeknights and weekends. We are not sure yet if after we take these picutres we just submit them to the Tech people, or if part of our project is to learn how to upload the photos and the comments etc. I’m sure some of this will get answerd in the upcoming classes, but for now I think our idea is coming along nicely. Kat and I got some great photos on Thursday of The Pub, and club sidewalk where people go after the bars to get Antonio’s pizza! All things we plan on including in the wiki in more detail! Keep posted for some great pics and info!

my personality?

samesies20 — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:41:23 +0000

check it out!

http://kevan.org/johari?name=samesies

Eye Contact..Universal symbol of respect?

samesies20 — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:21:40 +0000

“I imagined someone telling an autistic person to look them in the eye…I was already aware that its difficult”“The image I had was a book about truth and integrity, with looking someone in the eye traditionally being a visual clue of honesty.”“I didn’t believe it was to look the author in the eye, but people/others.”

Eye contact is a cultural symbol of showing respect for which ever you are engaging with. After consideration and reading most of the book, I thought it was funny that the author chose this as his title. I still think that it relates to the book is about truth and integrity because despite the author’s disabilities he does the best he can while interacting with others. Making eye contact or not doesn’t necessarily mean that you aren’t following the cultural norm, just like writing sideways on the board doesn’t mean that you have no respect for the people in your class. The author of the book doesn’t have autism, so I don’t know why this was brought up. The author could have chosen this title because eye contact makes his message clearer, even though his facial expressions may show the opposite. I am at a loss for what to write about thinking look me in eye referred to others not the author, because the book is about his retelling and experiences, it doesn’t convey the feelings of others.

More in common then we think?

samesies20 — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:03:59 +0000

After reading numerous posts from my fellow peers I found common themes. Almost all of the posts refer to the idea of “framing” which is something that obviously has stuck with us since Steph’s lecture. I notice a lot of talk about college framing, and gender framing, as well as cultural frames, all of these framing views definitely affect the discourse that goes on in our group dynamics class. I also think that the idea of “college” and “gender” frames will affect our final product for the course wiki. Each person seems to have their own idea of what will serve the class project in the best way possible, these ideas stem from the frame of the author. All of this talking, and the repeated choice in certain words like love suggests that maybe we all have more in common then we think? I’ve noticed some hostility in the class when discussing the idea of the “survival guide” as our class project, and I sense that it is because there are so many different view points coming together that it is a giant CLASH! However, after reading the posts I really don’t think it should be that hard for us to come up with a common theme or idea that we can agree upon as a whole. MAYBE, we are thinking to detailed? And we need to bring the project a little wider and broader? Is broader a word? I don’t know, anyways I think that tomorrow’s class should bring some interesting ideas to the table, and we should definitely get rolling on this project! The semester is more then half over..YIKES!

Who doesn’t love a contribution?

samesies20 — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:08:26 +0000

So after looking at some of the possibilities posted by Steph, I was thinking I liked the English 112 piecing it together thing the best. I thought I might be able to do something similar to this by doing a sort of collage and including pictures of things that I am interested in. I might put pictures of my friends, places that I like to hang out, favorite restaurants like Judies. I might also include words and phrases that I like to say, quotes from movies and video clips. I think that this would be a positive contribution to the class wiki because it would hopefully be funny and entertaining to look at, but it would also give a visitor and classmates a chance to see somethings that interest me around campus etc. I might use media content by including graphic images and word art, or maybe even links to other websites like youtube!

Will the word Love make an appearance?

samesies20 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:03:54 +0000

I found that I completely agreed with what I learned about the use of the word “love”. The posting I read taught me some new ideas and ways that love can be used, ways that I had not considered as being reasons for saying the words “I love you”. Such as saying I love you could possibly imply, “I want to be like you”. This is something that I had never thought to be a valid reason for saying I love you. However wanting to be like someone also goes hand in hand with admiration and in many cases admiration and love are two in the same. Also I found it interesting that the author of this web blog gave examples about the different views on love between her and her boyfriend. I found myself in a similar situation, because I had dated someone from another culture who was even more open about the use of the word “I love you”. The person I dated was from Puerto Rico and after just a few short weeks frequently used the term “Te Querio” which translated basically means I love you. I was uncomfortable with the use of this term because I feel that love is something that develops after a long time between two people. It requires a great deal of getting to know someone before you can establish the kind of I love you that is attached to romantic relationships. I found it interesting that we felt so differently about the use of the word, even though I am American and frequently use the word excessively with my friends and my family. I guess this shows that the word I love you means something different to me when it is exchanged romantically, versus perhaps platonically. I don’t feel as though I can relate the use of the word “I love you” in the group dynamics class because the use of the word I love you generally isn’t used in a professional setting such as the classroom. No one has used the word “love” in my Schien team meetings, and I haven’t noticed any patterns of it during the fishbowls. I will be interested to see if as the class progresses the use of the word may become more frequent. If people establish more friendly relationships the use of the word love could possibly become something that peers say to one another upon greeting and departure. What do you think?

The reoccurring theme that I find to be prevalent in our class discussions is the idea of being in college. This relates back to framing, I think the idea of being in college is such a huge part of our lives right now that is its difficult for some of us to think in any other frame of mind. This I suppose could be a label of being a “college student” right away with the first posting this was something that was addressed the issues and constraints that accompany college life. In another one of my classes which involves a lot of group dynamic type discussions as well, the reoccurring pattern of religion not being an important aspect of our lives was discovered. Then later on in the class one of the students addressed the issue of being a college student, and right now religion doesn’t fit into the “average college student life style”. Religion is something that can perhaps resurface once we all establish families, and we want to give our children something to believe in etc. I thought this idea was interesting because I find it to be true! This idea of certain things being important at different times in your life, which made me realize that the time you spend in college, is really the most unique time in all of your life. You are pushing away from your parents, becoming more independent etc.

The use of the word “love” can not really be identified in our group dynamics class yet, but it will hopefully surface later on in the semester!

Decision making process

samesies20 — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 01:15:20 +0000

I have decided not to attend the No Mas Farc rally in Boston. It didn’t take me very long to decide this because I simply could not go. The reasons for this stem from many different circumstances in my life, mainly the fact that I am in college and am poor. The fact that I have no money affected my decision making because I work on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I have to work in order to pay my bills, and it is also difficult for me to find a substitute to fill my position. On another note I can not afford to miss one day of work and drive to Boston because that would mean incurring certain expenses such as gas money. If the rally would have been on a different day or been in place of the class it might have made my decision more difficult because I wouldn’t have been stuck with no room to even make a decision because of prior obligations. I think that my decision making process relates to the course material in many ways, for example the rally posed as a potential conflict with the rest of my schedule and I used my problem solving skills to help make the decision. I asked myself ” how can I avoid having conflict with my already existing obligations?” and the answer was simple, don’t attend the rally. Therefore I used both problem solving skills and conflict resolution both of which related to course material.