Group work

[Kacie_bride]

I am so upset right now! I've said before, but I am a college student still and tomorrow I have a group project due. There are 4 of us in the group and we split the paper up. We were supposed to have it done by Tuesday so another group member could put it all together. I e-mailed my part to him on Sunday, but the two other group member still haven't gotten it done yet. I am supposed to do a powerpoint, but I cannot finish it without the other's information. We are meeting to practice our presentation at 8 AM tomorrow morning. That means I have to get up at 5:30 AM because I drive over an hour to get to school. Those two who still haven't gotten it done complained about meeting so early and they live in town! I have had at least 2 test a week for the last month. I am taking 17 hours and I drive over an hour. I have a house to take care of, a horse, a dog, two cats, and I also have a class horse that I have to take care of. I got it done, so I don't want to hear their excuses. If they would have gotten it done on time we could have met up to practice this afternoon instead! I hate group work! I will be so glad when December comes and there will be no more school group work ever again!

[WebLady]

Yeah group stuff like that sux when only part of the group partisipates. I remember things like that in HS ... I had to do a similar group project with a couple of slackers at an job once.

:goodluck:

[Kacie_bride]

In high school, to tell you the truth, I would have just gone to bed and forgot about it. The teacher would do something about it. However, this is a different story when it is 20% of the final grade. I'm just tired and would really like to get some sleep.

[Jenn060306]

Hey Kacie, i know how you feel. It totally sucks and is tough to handle because there isn't alot you can do about it when your at the college/ university level.
In h/s you could get away with saying well so-in-so didn't do their part. But here i find the teachers don't really care all that much. One of my classes has us doing a group project that is many parts due through out the semester. Our saving grace is that at the end of the project we get to evaluate the other people in our group and if they don't get 100% then they will get whatever percentage of the final grade given.
I have found the past year very fustrating being at school listening to my classmates complain about their problems which sound so petty at times. I sometimes want to tell them to suck it up. I have a wedding in 3 months, a home to keep up, a job, pets, and i do alot for my FH as well because he is out of the house for 14-15 hours a day because of his job. I also can't belive it when other students use weather and the school being closed as an exuse for not getting their work done on time. If the weather is bad it doesen't mean you don't have to go to work. Deadlines are deadlines in the real world. There are no exuses.
Anyways.... sorry about my little rant there. I hope everything works out for your project. Good luck with your presentation. Hopefully you won't have to do any other group projects with these people again!

[WhiskeyGirl]

Group work sucks! I don't know why teachers continue to asign it to their classes! Most times you get stuck in a group with people who don't give a rats butt and then you end having to fight to get them to start and even finish!! I'm sorry that this is happening to you! I hope it all works out for you!!

[LaceyinPgh]

First of all, I rarely give group work. When I worked in another district I never gave group work because of situations like this. Now that I am working more with gifted students who are paranoid about their grades I give a couple of assignments a term. I also have the kids evaluate how their group members did. And, I ask them to grade them on effort. I take all of that into consideration when I enter their grades. There have been a couple of occasiona when I have given one memeber of a group an A while someone else got a D.

In your professor's defense. Contrary to popular belief, teachers of any type are not mind readers or psychics. You need to talk to him/her when you first see the problem arising as opposed to stressing about it the day that hte project is due. If your professor is decent about it they will offer advice, tell you what they are planning, or allow you to move to another group. If they are a complete :censored: then you are stuck.

By the way we don't give group work just because we are lazy and want fewer papers to grade. We do it because in life you are going ot have to deal with people and situations where group work or group thought come into play. This is a teaching guide for those situations. In real life if a member of your group wasn't pulling their own at work how would you handle it?

[Kacie_bride]

Okay, I got through the project and it went pretty badily. One of my group members didn't even get her part done until 9 in the morning and the project was due at 11. But it's over now and we will not get grades back for awhile. Then I was reading over the final paper and the guy who put it together didn't know how to write in APA style. I fixed it as best as I could in the amount of time we had. I would have rather have just done the whole thing myself. Usually in groups I pretty much just do everything or at least the big parts, but this time I couldn't do that.

I'm not mad at my professor for assigning a group project or anything. I like her a lot. She even let us pick our groups, but I am not in that major. I am a communication minor so I really don't know anyone in the department. If it was in my major I would have known who to group up with or not. Even in my major when groups are assigned I know about everyone's abilities and work ethic and I can tell how much I personally need to take on.

[Kacie_bride]

grades. In real life if a member of your group wasn't pulling their own at work how would you handle it?


I would just do it all myself.

[WebLady]

Sorry to hear your group project didn't go well. I know how that feels and I have had to deal with it in 'real' life too. I hate it when I do most of the work and someone else gets credit for it. But you learn from it one way or another. At least it is over and you don't have to stress about it. Hopefully you will still get a good grade. :goodluck:

[Kacie_bride]

Yes it is over and I think I have gotten over it. The day off really helped me out. Thanks for the support guys!