Rolando Rodriguez Fernandez

                 "None of us is as smart as all of us." --Ken Blanchard

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        It's incredible to see how individuals that have never met or have any history come together as a team. College life is hard as is and working together with a group of strangers is an even bigger task. In normal circumstance a class has time to interact with each other. The professor would sometimes have all the students stand and introduce themselves to the class. We all know that we dreaded doing that. All the nerves and speech impairments that you thought you never had suddenly come rushing out. Next thing you know, you are standing in the middle of class with a blank look not knowing what to say. The point of this exercises is to break the ice in the room. Professors do this for their benefit, but they also do it so other students can start to feel a little more comfortable in this new environment. Unfortunately, with how crazy our world is today, with the pandemic, we have lost a lot of face to face classrooms. Schools have started implementing classes with students in them, but it's honestly not the same. You have to wear a mask all day and we are separated to a point where we feel totally isolated from everyone else.

        Situations like the one we are currently in make learning a little bit different. Thankfully we have been giving an opportunity to attended are respected college through the power of online learning. Yes, at the end of the day students find this method to be much easier for them. We don't have to get up extra early to beat the morning rush and we are at the comfort of our own home. At the same time, we are very foreign to this new way of learning. Many students, and honestly I, see this opportunity as a way to be lazy and slack off in class. This makes group presentations INCREDIBLY frustrating to say the least. You have the student that don't pay any attention to the class. You have the student that falls asleep through the class. Finally, you have the worst of them all, the student that doesn't want to do any work when it comes down it. This, mixed in with online learning, can potentially lead to disaster. 

        Luckily, our class over at SPC 1017, are of the rare few that actually know how to work well together! As soon as Professor Sinkoff assigned the groups and gave us the assignment to present we all jumped into action. Everyone got into their respective groups and quickly started a game plan. Groups divided the work evenly in between themselves and started on their slides. Working together with a group of strangers is hard but imagine working with someone you haven't even seen. To me that is a little difficult. I personally like the old ways, when students would get together in class or after class and worked together on the project. Now a group presentation is not just comprised of a single individual, it takes a group effort to make things click and make sense. My group always stayed in contact with each other in order to be in the same page. Without teamwork a presentation can simply look like a bunch of boring and independent slides that were just glued together. A group presentation should look fluent. It should feel like a masterpiece done by different artist.

                                                  

        Coming together and making the slides is the easy part, presenting those slides is another story. When Monday came around and the first group was up. Normally people that present fist are nervous and shy. They are the first to put their work out in front of the class. The first group was probably feeling the pressure but then they got the news from Professor Sinkoff. "By the way guys, please turn on your camera when you start presenting". I honestly got nervous for them. First group and first time showing your face on class. After a long moment of silence, the first person started up their part of the project. Unfazed, every single person turned on their camera when it was their turn, and they all did amazing! The first group informed us about intercultural communications. They talked about culture and communication, dominant cultures, co-cultures, and cultural identity. The slides were well put together and each person spoke clearly and fluently. They also talked about how cultures differ, and about developing intercultural communication competence. Overall, this group did an amazing job! They helped us understand so many good points in this chapter. Appealing to both audio and visual learners.     

 

        Next up was group 2. They talked about a topic that in my opinion, most college students lack. Just like the first group, group 2 killed their presentation. All the speakers spoke like they've been presenting for years! All of them informed us about the key to a killer presentation. According to them, you have to know the nature and types of groups that you are working with. Within groups they're several different categories. Social groups, support groups, interest groups, service groups, work groups and teams, finally, virtual groups. This helps us know who we are working with. Next, they taught us how to identify the characteristics of healthy groups. The group showed us the perfect videos to really understand this section of the chapter. A healthy group that communicates equals a perfect presentation. We also learned about the stages of group development. Groups have to be synergetic in order to be successful. They taught us about forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Finally, they went over conflict that can potentially happened in a group. The way that they presented this was perfect. Slides that contained a lot of information were broken up so everyone could understand them. Even though it was the first time that everyone has presented, they all did an amazing job. 

        Last but not least it was group 3 turn. This is my group! Everyone in the group is more than ready to present. We had all gotten together in a group chat and quickly came up with a game plan and started the slides. We decide to break the sections evenly throughout the group. Our section was about group leadership and problem solving. This section goes into detail about different kinds of leadership within a group. Our first presenter talks about what leadership is and the three different types. Formal leader, informal emergent functions, and shared leadership functions are the three types. Next presenter talked about effective meetings. After that the next presenter went over communicating group solutions. Lastly it was my partner and I turn. Our section was short, but we tried to make the most with what we had. Overall, everyone did an amazing job and i can't wait to see what's next.