Closing Another Chapter

It's that time again. The end of another semester as a college student. It's weird to think how fast time passes. COM320 has been a great experience for me. It's made me learn a lot about my own participation in groups as well as general information about how groups function. This is one of those classes that you know will be applied to several aspects of your life, throughout the rest of your life. I know that I will use the information gathered in this class for the short term (for example, next semester when I might possibly be working in a small group with a professor to collect research) and the long term (I want to work in Human Relations and it will be very likely that I will be working in small groups for projects or meetings).

I had my ups and downs with this class and the group as a whole, but overall I believe that I learned numerous valuable lessons. Thank you to Jasmine for conducting a fun, interesting, and productive semester.

So this is me signing off. Hope everyone enjoyed their experience in this class as much as I did. Good luck on finals, and have a good break.


Katie Spalding

Another reality check

So as many have pointed out, it's the last post of the semester. It's
also nearing the end of our time as groups, and nearing the end of the
semester. And for me, nearing the end to my second to last semester.

When you put all those things together the one that stands out is that
soon I'll be at my last semester at purdue. Scary thought. Up until
this point, it was just a different school to move on to. I feel this
will be the most significant change in my life for many years, and
I've known it was coming this entire time but I'm still not prepared
for it. And I feel that many people are in the same boat, especially
considering our economic situation.

So although this group will end, and this class will end, it is just
one of many things that will be ending to add up to saying "get the
heck out there and do something with your life," or as I would like it
to say "get the heck out there and make a difference." This time
there's no putting it off.

Signing off,
David Loverde

Ooohhhh man...the final week

This week coming up is essentially the final week for our group. We still have to finish our final presentation which will be given on Wednesday. Hopefully we can all get together tomorrow to work on the final presentation. Nothing new has happened since last week seeing that we have only had class once. Thanksgiving was good, hopefully it was for everyone else as well. Again though nothing has really been accomplished in terms of the final project, so there is a lot of work to be done. It really has seemed that time has really flown by. It seems like this final presentation along with other projects have really crept up on me and I'm sure on everyone else. It is really just hard to comprehend how we only have 3 more weeks of class left this semester.

Brandon

ah tis the time for the end of the semester...

So it's already that time of the semester where class work starts to pile on and everything seems like its due either this week or during dead week and in my case it stays true. But it's not so bad since it is almost Christmas break and then should hopefully be my final semester at Purdue pending on whether or not my senior design project passes this semester. Looking back at the semester, it seems that everything flew by even though at the time, I felt that time never passed and the end of the semester was never to come but being at this point of the year, I wish that it was still mid-semester so that I had more time to complete things thoroughly. On that list of completing things, I feel that our COM project could use more work on it before we present it this Wednesday but I'm sure that we will do fine and be able to give a good representation of how our service learning project went.

Chris Wall

The End is Near

Today is November 22nd. November. Already. I'm not quite sure where the time has gone, but yet another month in my senior year here at Purdue is almost at an end. There are so many emotions involved with this. Happiness. Sadness. Relief. Regret. It would make for an extremely long blog to list all the emotions that I'm feeling about my senior year and I doubt Jasmine would want to read that long of a blog.

I'm trying to take everything that happens this year moment-to-moment. So for this blog I am concentrating on the end of the service learning project/COM 320 as a whole. This class has been very interesting and has shown me a lot about myself, especially with how I work in groups. Now that it's the end of the semester I feel as if our group is more committed to the work at hand and in trying to get it done as soon as we can. This could be because the sooner we finish the project, the sooner we are done with class but that is beside the point. There were a few times this semester where we did not put as much effort into projects and assignments that we probably should have, but now I feel like we are exerting more than enough effort to finish this project. The project was fun, but I'm glad it's almost at an end. Assignments as time-consuming as this one has been are not my favorite thing in the world.

I am glad, however, that I have learned so much about myself and how I work in groups. I have learned that I am not very good at certain tasks while I am excellent at others. The group's feedback this past week helped with that. I have learned that I am too uptight with groups. I am disappointed when things do not go according to my plan and get a in a little over my head sometimes because I try to take on too much or expect too much. I have to give up some power to my other group members so the assignment at hand can end up better than if I was working by myself. What I am good at, however, are organizational tasks. I am good at taking notes and reminding group members of tasks that need to be accomplished as well as other things.

This semester has been interesting and more fun than I expected. And as the semester comes to an end, I am happy with my performance as well as my group's performance in the class.

Katie Spalding

Skipped a week...but not too much

The past two weeks have been somewhat laid back in class. We already conducted our creativity workshop the other week which went very well. The other groups had some good presentations as well, some were definitely better than others. Just this past week on the other hand we conducted leadership activities to define us as leaders. Not only did we find out our definitions but we also had to define our group members as well. Ironically two of group members were not present that day so the feedback that we received was less than stellar and not anonymous. We then conducted a few little activities where we all took turns reading questions off to the group and we had to all rate the person reading on that leadership trait that they read off. I don't think that this activity really did anything for me or anybody in my group. It really just got to be annoying having to read the questions and fill out all the papers for everyone. I understand the reasoning behind why we did this but don't feel it was necessary. We just started working on our final presentation outline for our service learning project. Tomorrow in class we intend to actually start working on the power point itself as well. Other than that nothing else has been going on in COM, other classes have been taking over. Will I graduate...the world may never know...


Brandon

Com news.

We are almost there! I can't believe thanksgiving is almost here and the semester is nearly over. It feels like it's been so long since we even did our service learning project and now we are to the final presentations for the class. It seems like we have passed the point of really learning new information in class, and are now just taking what we have learned/accomplished and showcasing it as this final project. Sitting in class on friday I was a little overwhelmed thinking about a presentation that would take the entire class period, but once the group started coming up with ideas and actually wrote some of the points down, I think it will be a quality report and don't think we will have any trouble meeting the time constraint.

Mitch Stamper

Driving Me Crazy

I have officially been out of school for over a week with H1N1 and a sinus infection. During this time, I have been quarantined to my bedroom at my house in Indianapolis. Let me tell you something: you don't realize how much you communicate with someone until you aren't allowed easy access to communication anymore. Being stuck alone in a room for 90% of a day can really drive a person insane. I tried to keep as busy as I could, with homework and such, but I never realized how much I communicated. I usually consider myself to be a quasi-quiet person that usually only voices an opinion when provoked. Well, I think I have found out that is not the truth. I need communication. Badly.

Anytime I left my room to communicate with the rest of my family (my mother and grandparents) I had to wear a surgical mask in order to make sure they were not infected with my sicknesses. That impeded conversations with my grandparents because they do not hear very well and the mask became annoying in all other conversations. The mask in this instance could be considered "noise" that interrupts smooth conversation. And boy did I get my fill of that "noise."

On the bright side, I am doing much better and about to come back to school, so conversation, here I come! I'll be back with a vengeance.

Katie Spalding

time for some fun

Well so far, I'm enjoying the creative group section of class, since it's a change of scenery from the usual "communication" theories. Don't get me wrong its fun and all to learn about those but having these creative activities in class is a good way to stimulate the creative side of the brain. The most recent creative workshop we had with the egg was something I did in high school but with different materials, but in this case they didn't restrict us on what materials could be used so we did utilize a pretty big loophole in their directions. We were still successful in achieving our goal of not having our "egg" break. With our creative workshop that our group will present, I hope that the other groups will come up with some interesting ideas and proposals for commercials and that I hope they enjoy our proposed workshop. Starting this week, I am looking forward to see what the other groups have come up with for their own workshop ideas.

Chris

November Already...

Its hard to believe its already November and the semester is almost over. At this point in class we have gotten down to doing just minor group activities. My last post I talked about the creativity workshop that will be going on, well now is that time. One group already went and they decided to have a form of "egg" drop problem that we all needed to solve in our groups. Just like that of high school physics problems. I thought it was a fun activity and at its core it really did show off groups creativity which was the goal. I think they could have had a little more substance. For example our group decided what we wanted to do and completed doing that about 2 minutes in; they gave us 20 minutes to complete. I just think they could have done something else to perhaps not have as much free time. All in all though it was pretty fun and I think that our design was the best, we could have gotten away with dropping our design off a building and it would be fine.

Now in terms of our own creativity workshop I discussed last time something that I wanted to do incorporating Rock band...obviously that didn't pull through. What we all did decide on though was a workshop where each group would receive a couple components and they have to construct a product and come up with a commercial for this product in a short period of time. The only stipulation that we have is that they do not create something that an individual part can already do by itself. I think it will be pretty fun and hopefully allow the creative juices to get flowing.


Brandon Nelson

Happy day after halloween!

Well lets get things started off by saying im glad that we are working with our original groups for the rest of the semester. Not that the crisis response group didn't work well, but I feel like after spending most of the semester in one group we have figured out how to work well together and understand each others strengths/weaknesses. Other new news, which isnt technically new but I may have missed last weeks blog, our service learning project with the boys and girls club was a big success. Even though a few of the activities didnt actually happen, the pumpkin carving which was the main event went very well and we managed to get 30 pumpkins cleaned and carved. A big thanks goes out to the volunteers that Dave brought and to Jasmine for helping out.

-Mitch Stamper

Swamped

Sometimes there is just so much going on that certain things get forgotten about. What I have come to realize, is that in general, group things are not among those things. During the last few weeks, I've fallen behind in some of my individual work, simply because of the lack of time. But due to others reliance on your work contributions, group work seems to take precedence over other things.

This brings up an intriguing idea: the possibility of using group work in a professional setting to increase the priority that the work has to the people in the group. While hard to measure, I think it is definitely something to look into.

Dave

whoops its been a while...

Well it's been 2 weeks since I've posted and that's my fault, so here's a recap of how the couple of weeks have been since I've already missed some postings. The topic that happened in the 2 weeks I would want to talk about that happened was our service project at the Boys and Girls Club of Lafayette. Well on October 22, our little pumpkin carving event was carried out at the boys and girls club, and looking back at that event, I personally felt it went smoothly even though we didn't get to carry out our original plan of doing a balloon popping game along with the carving. The reasoning for this was probably because the children came to the tables in waves instead of all at once and that a majority of the children had to leave once their pumpkin was done, therefore by the end of the event, which was around 5:45 or so, most of the children had already went home, so it was a bummer for us that we couldn't do more activities but also a somewhat relief because we had just enough pumpkins and no more children were wanting to carve one. We also had candy for the children which we did run out of, so telling some of them that we ran out was almost like telling them there was no Santa Claus cause of the facial expression they had when I told them we ran out. :(

With our service learning project done now, class has just been a myriad of small group activities circling around different issues, such as Problem Solving or Creativity. The problem solving groups were a new activity for me for at the same time, we had to either provide feedback for a selected person on their group communication skills or be the one who was being critiqued. When I had to provide feedback face-to-face, it was a first time experience having to do it in a classroom scenario, so I felt that I might've come off somewhat too relaxed than what I should've been and maybe been more assertive when it came to the "Constructive Criticism" section of the feedback. But I felt that the combination of the group task and feedback task was an interesting combination but truthfully felt that if I'm being graded on how I am in a group, I get conscious of how I'm acting and change my attitude which is not what I want but something I need to work on.

Chris

Technologically Challenged

This blog isn't going to have much to do with COM320 today. I simply need to vent.

Today my laptop quit working. The monitor went dark and fuzzy and I couldn't see much of anything that popped up. I tried to fix it, but to no avail. I had no idea what I was doing anyway.

A week and a half ago or so I got a new phone and I'm still having trouble using it. The keyboard is too small, there are too many options to scroll through, and when I want to text I end up going to the Internet every time. I'm still not sure why.

This whole blog thing is still pretty new to me as well. Don't get me wrong, I like it. It's just...new. I haven't quite caught on to navigating through the different blogs I have set up.

I guess to sum all of this up I would have to say that I am, sadly enough, extremely technologically challenged.

I wish I knew more about technology. Then maybe when things stopped working on me, I would have some sort of an inkling of how to handle it. As it is now, my solution is to stare blankly at the screen and hope that it fixes itself. (I do not recommend this solution; it tends not to work.) I am the dumbest member of this generation that I know of when it comes to technology. Like I said, I'm still trying to get used to my cell phone. I don't know how to navigate through the options and it took me two whole days to find the alarm clock. Very sad.

Knowing all of this, it makes me wonder...why do I bother? Why must I always deal with technology? I miss the good old days before cell phones and laptops. Before blogging and T9. Back when people talked more often face-to-face than through mediated forms. But I guess it's a must that we learn about and use technology nowadays. As much as I dislike it, I have no choice but to suck it up and deal with it. And it's only going to get more difficult for me as time passes. Everyday people are creating more technologies than I even care to know about. I'm just hoping I can catch up on the technological craze sometime. Hopefully soon. Very soon.


Katie Spalding

Well thats that...

Now that our event has been completed a lot of stress has been relieved from not only just me but the entire group. As Katie mentioned in her last blog post not everything went exactly according to plan but in the end everything did go rather smoothly and it turned out to be pretty fun. Now that that is all over with we have been working in other small groups on different little workshops. The last one was about Crisis control which was interesting to discuss in our group. Most of B&G Clubbers was in my group so that was nice but the event in general was something that I really do not have that much experience in which showed in our discussion of how to resolve the problem. Our crisis was about the JetBlue incident and I personally have never flown before so really do not understand how all of the terminal things work in an airport so in terms of solutions I was not very useful even though I still tried to contribute a lot.

The night of our service learning project I did not feel well at all and it just got worse on Friday which was our day to present our Crisis Case. I decided it was a better idea to miss class and the presentation rather than to go in and risk infecting others; which was a good idea since soon after my roommate got ill as well.

The next workshop involves us promoting creativity. I really have no clue as to what I want to propose to my new group in terms of doing something to promote creativity. Hopefully our options are pretty broad cause I would just like to do something fun and abstract. I'm kind of trying to find a way to incorporate RockBand into our creativity because I would have no problem bringing all of my stuff in to play in class haha.

Anyway since the service learning project is over all we have are these little group activities and then our final project presentation to look forward to, so the class is settling down now.

Brandon

Finito

Last Thursday my group, the B&G Clubbers, successfully completed our Service Learning Project at the Boys and Girls Club of Lafayette. Our event did not go quite as we planned, but it was still a success. We had planned pumpkin carving, musical chairs, and balloon popping as well as handing out gift bags of candy. However, the only event we were able to do was the pumpkin carving. We did not expect all of the children to want to participate in that event so we had the other ones lined up just in case, but the kids loved working with the pumpkins. We ended up handing out the balloons with strings on them so the kids could carry them around instead of having the children pop them. We did, however, hand out the goody bags with candy.

The children cooperated very well with our instructions in pumpkin carving. They were to clean the pumpkins out, draw faces on them, and then give the pumpkin to a volunteer so he could carve it. The kids caught on to it and were really excited about the activity. This was a pleasant surprise for our group since we had predicted that only the boys would like the activity and that very few would want to participate. We ended up using all 30 pumpkins in our activity. Also, the children were very creative with their designs. I was impressed with how well the night went.

We ran into some problems during our activity though. We were supposed to bake the pumpkin seeds and bring them back for the kids, but we did not have enough time for that. Plus, we had to keep the kids moving and speed up the carving process because some of the children left earlier than we thought they would. A couple of parents had to wait for the volunteers to finish carving pumpkins before they could take their children home, which the parents did not like too much. Most of them were patient and understanding, however.

Even though our group was a little disorganized with this project over the semester, everything seemed to fall into place on the night of our project's execution. I was very happy with the results. And thank you, Jasmine, for helping us out at the event!

Katie Spalding

Nonverbal

Recently I have begun to notice more and more people expressing themselves through nonverbal communication. For example, this weekend I went to see Dethklok in Illinois. At the show, there were people who gave off vibes of anger while we passed through the crowd to get closer to the stage. Some of the people would try to stay in their spot and not let you pass, while others would jab you with their elbows while you tried to pass behind them hoping that you would eventually give up. By acting in that manner towards me and my friends I was able to understand that they wanted us to go away because they didn't want to lose their spot close to the stage.

Mitch Stamper (hopefully it doesnt say this is late, i had to edit it to add my name.)

Its the Final Countdown...doo doo doo doooo

We are slowly approaching our Service Learning Project Date and we still have quite a bit to do. I think it came up pretty quick for all of us but at least we are ready to going on preparing. Sadly we found out that we will be unable to get the pumpkins from the church that Dave was in contact with. I guess they wont be getting all of their pumpkins till the week after our project, so that isn't going to work. Keeping that in mind we are going to have to find a way to get roughly 30 pumpkins by Thursday for pretty cheap considering we are all having to pay now. On Monday we are all going to go shopping to get all of our supplies that we need, like candy and bags and carving tools. We will then try to go to where Mitch works and get pumpkins their, they do sell them and he gets a discount so hopefully that will be the best option. Other than the whole pumpkin problem everything is going well and after Thursday comes and passes we will all be essentially home free.

On a minor side note, the whole NASA worksheet thing was pretty fun to work on but I dont think that that sort of activity should have a "correct" answer. Oh well, I just wanted to mention that activity.


Brandon Nelson

Final Preparations

It's crunch time for COM320. Next Thursday is when the B&G Clubbers are going to the Boys and Girls Club of greater Lafayette and completing our Service Learning Project. All of our work so far in the semester is boiling down to one day. It's stressful but also exciting. I have never worked with the Boys and Girls Club before, so this will be a new experience for me. The final preparations are coming along just fine. I'm nervous about how things will pan out on Thursday, though. The kids at the Boys and Girls Club are known for not wanting to go along with specific events that are planned for them. They usually pick up a basketball, head to the court, and spend all of their time there. I'm hoping we can motivate them to follow along with what we have planned for them because if they do, I think they'd really enjoy it. Being the only girl in the group, as well as the entire volunteer crew we're taking to the Boys and Girls Club, I feel like I might have to take on some sort of motherly role to motivate the kids to follow our lead.

Our group is planning on meeting at least one more time before Thursday to gather all supplies and finalize plans so we're fully prepared. I'm hoping everything keeps going as well as it has been. If it does, then this project should be fool proof.

Katie Spalding

weight off the chest...

Well it's finally October break which constitutes that's it's about halfway through the semester and I feel that our service learning project is coming along a lot better than I was anticipating. I'm not implying that I have no faith in myself or in our group but I feel confident that our pumpkin carving event with the boys & girls club will be a huge success and something we can all appreciate in taking part of. I believe this will be the case because we achieved a big chunk of our goals these past couple of weeks and we were able to finalize a lot of "grey" areas that we had in our initial proposal. From where we stand now, we only have to sort out where we are getting some supplies and gather up those materials and then let the festivities start on October 22....and hope all goes smoothly.

Chris Wall

Just another week...

This week nothing new really happened in COM but what did happen is we as a group met with the boys and girls club and even arranged a date and time for our event. That was extremely helpful because we had quite a few holes in our proposal prior to but now we finally have a set game plan. Othe than that we submitted what we could for the proposal and did very well and we already proposed our ideas Infront of the class and got a lot of feedback most of which was positive too. All in all our project is coming along very well and as I write this on my iPod at home for break I just need to really remember to bring all my pumpkin carving tools and other things that will be needed for our event from here so we can save some money in the long run.

Brandon

Equal Returns

Something is only worth how much you put into it. We've all heard it many times, and pertaining to many different things.

This class is no different. In fact I would argue that it applies even more in this class. How many classes do you even have the opportunity(or requirement) to interact with outside organizations? How many have the opportunity create your own event that benefits your own community?

Now how many of you can honestly say you've put your all into something? If you have, thats awesome, keep it up and use this as an opportunity to do the same. If you haven't, use this as an opportunity to try it out and get some real world experience. I promise the rewards will be worth it.

Dave Loverde

Blog Post - Week 3

So here I am at the third week of blogging, and I really think I'm starting to like it. I'm also really starting to enjoy this class. It's a good balance of easy and difficult material, with some fun mixed in. There are some very valuable lessons that we learn in this course, but usually don't have too much homework to do. It's a nice break from the overload of homework I get in all of my other classes. It just makes me look forward to class that much more, because it's fun.

I was searching Youtube today and found a humorous clip about office fun. I related that to this course because sometimes fun is necessary to keep morale and cohesion up within a group. That's true for the class itself as well as each small group. I remember hearing that one of the groups is planning on going out to the bars after completing their Service Learning Project. This is a good way to integrate fun into the project and keeping group morale up. Members are less likely to get burned out from the work and are generally happier when there is fun involved with work. Here is the Youtube clip I found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KWY5Oqq1PU

The opening quote in the video says "If you're not having fun doing what you're doing, chances are you're not doing your best." This is really true in terms of groups. If a group is sitting around feeling miserable about the work they have to do, they will not be motivated to do their best. If they are excited about a project then they are more likely to achieve better results. The ending quote in this video is "Appropriate humor can lead to cohesion and bonding among coworkers." This reiterates what the first quote is saying - that fun can lead to group cohesion and better results.

The Youtube video and summary I provided is just food for thought when interacting with groups. Make sure to keep the group on track and achieve the best result possible in your Service Learning Project, but why not add in some fun?!

Katie Spalding

who would've thought

So after about a month and a half into the semester, I find myself already using a lot of the material learned from this class in my everyday life. At first I wouldn't of recognized the different COM techniques used but after soaking in the information from this class, I realize communication is really key in general and not just in group communication. The other day for example, Friday that is, I was with some friends and 3 of them could not decide/agree on a place to eat for dinner, I myself did not care where we ate as long as we ate. But after observing how the 3 were arguing and justifying each owns choice, I realized that their communication skills were poor because none of them would hear out each other at all and just bluntly say "no" but if they were just willing to compensate and say "oh how about we do yours tonight and then next time we'll go to my place" instead of just being in a heated discussion. Unfortunately, the outcome was solved by rock/papers/scissors so they didn't use their communication skills to the utmost but I now realize how important it can be to communicate even though its just between friends over where to eat.

Chris Wall

This week was a very interesting week for me as far as small group communication. In another class, which I won't name, I have a group where half of the group doesn't do anything. Dealing with them this week, I learned why they are the way they are. Relating to the book, it is in their motivations. For them, the class is only a means to an end; the material learned is of no value. If they can get through and pass, they will be perfectly happy.

For me, on the other hand, the class is only of value for what I immediately get out of it; it is an elective. Currently, the issue is not resolved, but I will be sure to update next week on how it is working out.

Dave Loverde

This blog post is based off of the TV show The Office. What happens in this scene is that Jim steals Andy's cell phone and hides it in the ceiling of the office so that everytime it rings, everyone can hear it but Andy cannot find it. The main point of showing this video clip is to discuss the different types of styles for managing conflict. Here is the link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wPn5JsZiMg&feature=related

There are five styles in avoiding conflict. They are avoidance, accommodation, competition, compromise, and collaboration. The only style I see portrayed by Andy in this video is competition. Andy knows that someone has taken his phone and hidden it from him, but instead of cooperating with his fellow office workers or talking to them politely, he yells at his coworkers and blames them for his phone going missing. He even punches a hole into the wall! According to the class textbook, Andy falls under the category of competition because of his desire to win the conflict, being defensive, and feeling adamant that he has the correct information and not allowing anyone else to help him. This might be a stretch on the definition of "competition" but I still believe it applies to this situation.

In this case I think Andy is frustrated because he is competing for attention at work. He has always wanted to be number two behind his boss, Michael Scott, but has never quite made it up to that level. Dwight and Jim usually have the upper hand on him, for various reasons. All of this combined with Andy not knowing the location of his cell phone builds up and makes him explode on his coworkers unnecessarily. Instead, it would have been better for him to use a collaborating strategy to find his phone. That way he could have felt better about the situation and not accused his coworkers of stealing from him. According to the class textbook, collaboration is usually the best solution for managing conflict.

I think we have all been in Andy's shoes before and understand his frustration. I have been in situations like that before as well where I felt out of control and wanted to know what was going on. However, that does not mean that he should yell at his coworkers or punch a hole in the wall. There are much better ways to handle the situation. I have learned first hand that it is better to collaborate with someone rather to accuse them of something. When you collaborate with someone it keeps them from feeling alienated and builds cohesiveness and cooperativeness within a group.

Katie Spalding

not COM related

This has nothing to do with the course at all I just wanted to post this video because it is the coolest thing ever, Chris already knows about this guy like I do but I felt like sharing the amazement...ENJOY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSMjAZvUGFM

...thought bubbles?

I wanted to just cover an overall COM320 thus far in every area sort of blog and all my thoughts. Our SLP (service learning project) so far is going okay and so is my group. I noticed from the beginning and really am noticing it now how much we all like to procrastinate, and us all being either seniors or even higher really doesn't help our motivation sometimes. We end up getting things done in the end which is really all that matters, at least to me. All in all I would say that we on the right track, just at times I almost feel bad for David cause he is the only one whom is talking with our contact and trying to get the event set up which is why I am trying to take all the initiatives with our group presentations and papers.

I thought that the activity in class on Friday was interesting. I really cant believe that the group with give the money back won over our group to be honest. I mean who would rather get a quarter back over possible paper money in the future? Seems like nobody really thought that through. I know we are all poor college students but NEEDING a quarter right then and there is just ridiculous, dare I say shenanigans.

Just know class...this could have been all for you if you chose us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbmxbC39BPY


Brandon Nelson

My view on our group

I'd like to use my first real post to talk about our group. We've been working in our set group for a few weeks now, and I feel that as a group, we have been working very well together. From the very beginning, everyone seemed comfortable expressing their opinions and showed each other with respect. I am looking forward to finishing out our project and the rest of the class as a member of team BG Clubbers.

I would have done a longer post, but unfortunately I have been studying for the test most of the night and am about to fall asleep. More to come..

Reality Check

I realized yesterday that I have or will have a small group in every single one of my classes this semester, most of them lasting the entire semester. Before this semester I would maybe have worked with a group here and there, but never for such an extended period of time.

What this makes me realize is how essential it is to get along with your group. Previously if a group member slacked off or didn't do their work, it wasn't really anything to worry about; the project only lasted a week anyway. But having groups that last an entire semester makes me see the reality behind small groups: When you have them in the real world, they will last for a long time. It is not often in a business setting to have a small group that you work in for only a week or two. Most of the time you work with your same group until your position in the company changes.

Moral of the story is: be prepared to deal with small groups, because they aren't going anywhere.

David Loverde

Blog Post 1

After recopying down the entire exam 1 review into a word document and answering each question given in class, I've decided that small group communication is not as simple of a field to learn about. I have never realized how many different aspects, to simply communicate within a group, there was, from understanding each other on nonverbal cues to approaching the group in such a manner that defensive attitudes are put aside. I feel that this class will greatly enhance my knowledge and attitude towards any groups that I am currently in as well as groups that I will have to participate with in the future. In today's society, group work and communication is the main focus so to be successful in the workplace or at organizations. I hope to retain most of the information from this class so that I can utilize all that I learn so that I can be a step ahead for when it comes to working with groups in my career.

Chris Wall

Blog Post Numero Uno

It came to me today while studying for our exam on Monday really how important small group communication is. You would think that after 23 yrs I would realize this already. Maybe I just never really thought about it and just went with the "program" so to speak but this class is starting to make me realize some things. A good example of this was actually done in class on Friday. The activity that we had where we were forced to solve the nuclear fallout crisis within our groups; I thought this was not only entertaining but relevant. Having us write down the steps we would go through as a group on how we would solve a problem and then actually throwing a problem at us and noticing how we actually did follow that trend almost naturally was very interesting. On a side note I do want to mention that that activity was quite entertaining and I know that my group thought it was "fun" too.

Brandon Nelson

Blog Post #1

So it has occurred to me since the start of this class how often I am actually in a small group setting. I guess I just never thought about it before. This class is starting to be really helpful in understanding different group dynamics too. I've even applied it to roommate situations in trying to understand the different personalities that my roommates and I have. Anytime I have a group meeting or have to work in a group for a class, I just feel more comfortable because I have more of an understanding on how groups work. Knowing that conflict is inevitable is also a relief because I used to think that once conflict became a part of the group, it was all downhill. Now I realize that conflict can actually be beneficial to the group. Hopefully these new insights will stick with me and I will learn more about groups and how to act in them. It's helped so far!

Katie Spalding

Contract (Work in Progress)

Group Contract:

1. Attend all meetings and show up on time
2. Keep up on emails and respond in a timely manner
3. Be open and respectful to other group members’ ideas
4. Complete all individual work on time (i.e. blog posts)
5 .Keep communication lines open
6. Most importantly act and be appropriate when working with children

David Loverde's Resume

My name is David Loverde, a senior majoring in Communications. I can bring several things to my group, both through my experiences and my connections with organizations on campus. First, being a communications major, I have much experience working in groups both leading them and taking a backseat role when needed. I also have extensive volunteering experience and some volunteering coordination experience through my fraternity, which has provided me with many connections to volunteering organizations.

One connection in particular that my group plans to utilize, should all go well with timing, is my experience with the Boys and Girls club of Lafayette (Pictured below in a previous volunteering event). I believe that these qualities make me a valuable asset to our group.

Mitch Stamper's Resume

My name is Mitch Stamper, a senior in the school of Technology. I am very excited to have the opportunity to work with the Boys and Girls Club. For 4 years, I mentored middle schoolers in an after school program. Overall, I have a relaxed personality and work well in group environments. I consider myself a creative person and work well when given some direction. I look forward to working with my group and feel it will be a positive learning experience.

Brandon's Resume

My name is Brandon Nelson and this is what I think that I can bring to B&G Clubbers. I am currently in COM320 and OLS252 which are both associated with small group communications which will allow me to not only organize projects within a group but also work in an efficient manner. My major is ECET which involves a lot of teamwork in labs and also projects so I have a lot of experience in that area as well. I can bring both a leadership figure or a working figure to the group because I have extensive experience doing both. As a youth I belonged to CCD through my church which involved working in groups where we did community service projects similar to this group (old folks home, homeless, etc.) I believe that having all of these qualities will make me a valuable asset to the B&G Clubbers Group in achieving their goal.

Chris Wall's Resume

Hello, Chris Wall is the name and here is what I bring to the game (Lame? Perhaps). What I can contribute to this group is the drive and motivation of achieving our goals. I am currently taking the OLS 252 class which is focused on small group communication and relationships. My past job experiences have dealt with customer service and satisfaction therefore I have an abundant knowledge of how to interact with people and communicate with them efficiently. I like to believe that these attributes will assist the group greatly and ultimately result in a successful, enjoyable group project at the end of the semester.

Katie's Resume

My name is Katie Spalding and here is what I think I can bring to the B&G Clubbers: I have experience in working in small groups from prior classes (including OLS 252, which was based around small groups), I am organized and am able to motivate group members, I am a hard worker and always see a task to its end, and since my major is Human Relations I have a lot of experience handling and talking to all different kinds of people. I believe that all of these qualities and prior experience will help this group achieve its goal.

Katie's first post

Hey everyone! Welcome to our blog! Looking pretty good, isn't it? Nice work, Dave!

Brandon studying enthusiastically in class.