Sidewalk-Chalk Project

        Here at Olathe NorthWest, our freshman eCommunication class formed teams with other classes of the second hour to create sidewalk chalk images. Our goal was to create a symbol that defined you, then combine it with the other group members.

        Some other chalk drawings were amazing! They really stood out to me as well working teams. Just based on their combined imagery and teamwork, I could tell what amazing cooperation took place.           

        However, I strongly feel that is not the case when discussing my group's efforts.

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        Being a day or two late coming into the project, it was hard for me to just meld into an existing group structure. Everything about the team design needed to change due to the now five people working together. The members of my group were all very nice, don't take me the wrong way about that, but they were unmotivated. Their efforts to work as a team were as minimal as it could be. I had been excited to work and combine my symbols with theirs, but not one of my group members took charge and as a result of that we were unable to come up with a real combination.

        There is a single photo of me that was taken that really shows a lot of the inner workings of the group.

        This photo is the only one of my group working, and the only members of my group who even made an effort to continue the project was another girl (whose name I don't know) and me. For a brief minute one of the boys drew a small item, but it ended up being insignificant, as everyone walked off to view other creations anyway.

        I ended up unable to learn anything from this project other than "Do your work the best you can, and you can only encourage others to do the same."

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This was the final product:

       I drew the top and the right drawings, the girl drew the left drawing, the one boy drew the bottom figure.
        Everything about this display screams that we worked separately. From the distancing of the images to how disconnected the theme is, overall our work was unacceptable. The point of this project was to use teamwork to bring together separate ideas, to cooperate and compromise. Instead, we worked alone, at what I'm sure is less then half of the amount we all could've participated with.

        My only hope is that in our next group project we are able to come together.

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Sometimes people just don't work together well.
Here's hoping that you and I will, Reader!
Luck to you,

                     A. Spake