Rashel Rubio Blog Post #1

 When getting to work on our group communications project, writing and presenting the work gave me a much more different perspective of teamwork and communication among people than I had before. I've never been a big fan of group assignments, hearing about a group assignment makes me want to divide the work and going through the process on my own and hope for the best. Despite my original worries, this project ended up becoming more than that because of how it helped me understand how people in groups actually work together and why good communication is the most important part of learning to work with others around you. throughout this entire assignment I really learned about interests groups and how they bring people of all kinds anywhere in the world together over similar interest like books or games, service groups and how amazing it is that people come together for a great cause and do charity together, and support groups that bring people together to provide encouragement and create safe environments for people who have been or are going through things. All of these groups showed me that there is so much community and so many ways for people to not feel alone with things like their emotions, experiences, interests and wants for change. 

One of the first things I kind of had to learn was how to communicate with my classmates. Everyone in my group was patient and very understanding with each other. We all tried our best to communicate what needed to be done when it needed to be done and how we were going to go about things. I've always hated the idea of sharing an assignment with others because I feared their lack of work or knowledge would bring my grade down and would look bad on me but this group assignment not just with what I learned but because of the people I was working with changed my perspective. Everyone in my group knew what they were talking about, I was very confident that everyone had done their share and I wasn't worried for a second on how the group as a whole would reflect back on me. I became very proud of the constant communication we held whether it was about concerns or questions. Not one question went unanswered and everyone was always willing to go out of their way to explain things. Trust cooperation and communications was always mutual and respectful between everyone in the group as I think it should be within any group of people. Feeling comfortable within a group helps in being able to ask questions and admit when your confused about something, creating a judgement free energy is what I think made it easier for everyone. 

Our presentation was focused on different groups and their ways of communicating, with topics likes healthy groups, stages of development within groups, conflict in groups and the nature of different groups. In my part of the presentation I talked about interest groups and how they bring people with common interests, hobbies, and activities together, service groups of people who come together worldwide to work on charity or organizations together, and lastly support groups composed of people who come together that provide encouragement, and a safe space for people to express themselves and their problems. In the beginning I was very worried about presenting because I tend to get very nervous when speaking publicly to larger groups of people but seeing my group of classmates presenting before me really gave me the confidence to speak. Being in such a supportive group made it easier on me to speak about all the things that I had learned and be proud of the work I put into my part of the presentation. The time management within our group was the part I respected the most, some people had jobs others had other classes but despite time differences everyone made sure to communicate to their best ability and work together so that no one fell behind. During the time frame of the project I had to work double shifts at my job and I was becoming increasingly worried about falling behind and not putting my best work out there. But my group was very understanding with everyone's situations and made sure to always talk it out and explain anything at any hour of the day, morning and night which saved me a lot of worry and trouble. I think our group reflected some of the things we learned in our chapter like taking accountability for our work, working together and speaking well within ourselves. 

I really enjoyed watching all the other presentations and they all taught me a lot about groups and communication, things that i want to learn to be better at in the future. Every group worked so well together and delivered amazing presentations and great information. I am glad this project showed me not just how to better my communication skills with people and groups around me but to understand people and how to work with them. I am very proud of my group and all the others in the class.