Group Work at School Pt.2

          Hey everyone,
I just realized that a few months back, I wrote a similar blog post about group work!! So I guess this is part 2..?

My school was invited (every year) to participate in this project called I Cubed. Basically, students are to invent or innovate something they want, whether it be new and improved headphones, or a new way of conserving energy. At my school, I Cubed was for the students in my grade, so I got to participate in it. And based on the title of this post, I will be talking about the group work I had while working on this very stressful yet very exciting project that is I Cubed.

My group was probably the largest group in the whole grade. My math and science teacher created the groups. In all, we were six people in my group, including me. The average number of people in a group in the whole grade was about 4 people, so we had two more people above the average! I don't know if the background information on the project I Cubed was enough for you to understand, but because we could invent or innovate whatever we want, and my group consisted of 6 people, it was extremely difficult to communicate about all of the ideas we had and cooperate with the choices we had to make.

In my last post about group work, I said that when you work in a group full of different ideas and opinions, it's important to take in every moment you have with them because you'll never be in a group quite like that one again. In this post, I want to emphasize that whenever you work in a group, it's best to really be a part of it, and to put 100% into your work.

My teacher told us near the end of the project this: "This project isn't really about inventing, isn't it? It's mostly about working in a group.". She also said this at the beginning of the project: "Lead, follow, or get out of the way.", meaning lead the group, follow the person in charge, or don't do anything to sabotage the project. She was really right. You can either make or break the project. You can either get a step ahead for your group, or be a step behind. If you are really committed to your team, you would put 100% of your heart and sweat into the project. It's always better to knock every obstacle in the way during your project than to let someone else do it for you, because in the end it'll be worth it. That's what I learned.

At the end of I Cubed, our final product was incredible, and it was worth all the sweat and stress and hair-pulling anger! I realized that if you didn't really do anything during the whole process, you wouldn't be as relieved and proud of yourself. Wouldn't you want the satisfaction of saying that you put everything, your heart, sweat, maybe even tears, into something you care about?

Now that the project is over, the memory of it is bittersweet. I won't be talking to some of my group mates as much anymore because we aren't in the same circle of friends, I won't feel the rush when I'm running around the school (or maybe I'll have another chance to, because next year we have another neck-breaking project) to finish building our project, or to finish the tri-fold in just three days. But, at the same time, it was a really cool experience. It was a one kind of project you can't really re-live again. Plus, I got to create something very innovative! And again, you should really take in the experience when working with other people because you'll never get the same one again.

I'll stop writing now before it gets too long (or maybe it already is). Thank you all for reading!

Keep Smiling,
M-L