Group Project Reminders

With your group project being due this Friday, March 4, by 11:55 p.m., I wanted to remind you a little bit about what you should be learning from the group project…

That said, I have had a few students tell me that they are having difficulty with particular members. That said:

I bring this up because several groups have contacted me about a lack of communication. Remember, this is a communication course! Your FIRST objective is always to find ways to improve your skills and effectiveness at communicating with one another. If you are spending no time communicating with your group, you probably are experiencing difficulty in completing the tasks associated with the assignment.

That said, there is STILL hope! (Yes, even 3 days away!)

Be sure that you have completed your components of the group project. Further, be certain that you have contacted group members when there’s a challenge you’re facing. Finally, ensure that you are carefully reviewing how your grade is earned. If you don’t take your own grade seriously, how can anyone else?

Once again, I am confident in your abilities to complete these assignments on time and effectively. Have faith!

SHARED: How to EDIT a video

This video is a follow-up to the last post, and focuses its energy on how to edit videos for YouTube. Remember that YouTube will be the place you will upload your group’s video. You will need to email me the link, but you can set privacy as needed for yourself or your group.

SHARED: How to make a YouTube video

I found this video after a brief search. Thought it might be helpful for you as you start working in earnest on your projects.

Group Contract information video

Ladies and gents: I found this video the other day and realized immediately that it has some great potential long-term effects for your groups.

My only caveat against the video is that you cannot expel a member from your group. If an individual consistently does not complete assignments, you need to go through me. Ensure that you have a procedure in place for determining point or percentage deductions. I will review your team’s thoughts to ensure that it is reasonable.

Otherwise, enjoy this video!!!

Bonus opportunity next week

For those of you who check the blog, this is your “heads up” for the upcoming bonus opportunity next week.

Be working intently on your research this week for your group project. You need to have some great sources planned out and ready to consider. If you have already started reviewing sources and taking notes, you’re even closer to having this bonus project done.

Keep in mind that ONLY students who are present and include their signature and printed name on the bonus assignment will be eligible for the bonus points. All other students automatically forfeit points. That said, groups CAN work together to make the assignment load quicker and easier, as long as each student takes part of the load.

You may want to review *HINT, HINT, HINT* what we discussed about Annotated Bibliographies. That could be VERY key to some of these points.

If you aren’t concerned about bonus points, let it go and forget this post!

Goals vs. Resolutions

With it being the first day of the new year, I find myself being a little more reflective than normal. For me, it begins with the concept of goals or resolutions. So easily, we make resolutions to trust at midnight as the new year begins, then within a week (if we are lucky enough to maintain that!), we lose steam.

So, here’s my challenge: Set goals rather than resolutions. Make sure they are achievable, and ensure that you are willing to work toward them. If you want to lose weight or eat healthier, do so! But be sure that you really consider the small changes that are necessary along the way. Start with those, rather than the 2-hour gym mode, or cutting everything.

What are your goals for 2015?

Student-Driven Learning Goals

Each year, I challenge myself to find some new way to improve my instructional methods, as well as to motivate my students. One of the challenges I have discovered in this constant self-development, however, has been that I neglect the MOST important part in all of it: the learners. 

At least once during the semester I share with my students a very emotionally-driven part of my past: weight has been an ongoing struggle with me since childhood. Last year, I made strides I never anticipated, and was down to my lowest weight since the earliest part of my college career. Despite being told by health-conscious individuals and championed by friends, my weight loss started and ended with my own desire to accomplish it. This year, I rebounded slightly, and am working to get the regained weight off for good.

This is the primary connection between my experience with weight and my students: if it doesn’t matter to you, you won’t do it. My learning goals for students are NOT their own goals. That’s been proven to me time and again, and as a result, students frequently don’t learn what I hope they will from the course. This year, I am making a change to my course that will (hopefully) allow the learners to take center stage.

In small groups, students set goals for their learning prior to starting each unit. This offers a few important benefits:

1. It fosters within learners ownership of their education (because the learners set the goal, THEY own it)
2. It promotes camaraderie among students by forcing them to interact (it is a communication class!!!)
3. It cultivates individual and group accountability (they share the group’s goal with each other and the class)
4. It encourages students to make SMART goals (you can find lots of resources on this strategy online)
5. It advances planning skills (they are required to make a plan of action for each chapter in the unit)

Many of the groups have chosen goals directly tied to grades (such as a group average grade for the unit). I’m okay with that for now, but I would like them to develop more complex goals as we progress through more units. Grades are an external motivator, which can be helpful, but without some internal motivation, some “fire in the belly,” it’s difficult to make the goals stick long-term.

Here’s hoping!