iBook Outline

Kenneth Anderson, Lexie Brown, Emily Vogt, Molly Aaronson, Colleen Egan

10/5/14

Justice and Civil Society

Dr. Gower

For reference: http://groupformationproject.blogspot.com/

iBook Outline - Team Slytherin

1. Introduction to class/topics studied in class/projects
2. Group formation wrap-up – introducing the authors
1. Include our group goals
2. Include our team roles
3. The Stop
1. Address the problem of food injustice and sustainability
2. Talk about the purpose of food banks
3. Include statistics we’ve obtained from outside research
4. SNAP Challenge – each person will write a wrap-up
1. Include description of SNAP program from SNAP website
2. Personal chapters/conclusions, thoughts
5. Renew Richmond
1. Description of sites, programs offered, what we do there
2. Include our experience with Sonya Allen on 10.4 – master gardener, sustainability advocate, our chance to meet her, her concerns for the environment, her alternative education program
3. Saturday Volunteer Days
1. 10.4
1. Arrived on site at 10am, had the chance to meet a long-time sustainability advocate and master gardener, Sonya Allen
2. Nikki, a site coordinator, quickly showed up with members from a different group (Nicole, Trace, and Ollie)
3. Nikki put us all to work harvesting cherry tomatoes, weeding out plant beds to make room for more plantings, watering beds, and doing other various tasks.
4. Nikki explained that she needed help most weekday afternoons transporting goods from various locations to other locations, including elementary schools, and told us she would email us with all the possible times we could help her out with that
4. Alternative to Renew Richmond Hours:
1. Composting
2. Finding composting at other sources, pine needles
6. Sustainability Pros and Cons at the University of Richmond
1. Student perspective
1. What we see: how much food gets thrown away at dhall, using re-usable cups or not, etc.
2. Greeks Going Green, GreenUR, other groups, etc.
7. The New Jim Crow
8. Talks
1. Robert Thurman (Sept. 30)
1. Colleen’s reflections on talk and Lexie’s extra input from a paper she wrote on Tibetan Buddhism
2. Guantanamo (Oct. 21)
3. Poverty Simulation (Oct. 29)
4. Rival Leadership Strategies (Nov. 13)
9. Ride-Alongs
1. Describe each precinct
2. Each author writes about their experiences during their individual ride-along
1. Lexie & Molly - Precinct 1
2. Emily - Precinct 2
3. Ken & Colleen - Precinct 4
3. How does being on the inside of the car change perspective about social justice?
4. How did you feel breaking out of the Richmond bubble?
10. Conclusion
1. Each author will write about how the class impacted them/changed their mindset, what the class has taught us about leadership, what we found most compelling

*Photos will be shown throughout book for visual appeal

(SNEAK PEAK!!!!!!!!!!!) ;) ;) ;)

Group Roles

Lexie:
My top result from the team-role test was “driver.”  The website, Team Roles Test, describes a driver as “…generally very ambitious and energetic. He or she may appear as impatient and impulsive. The driver is a strong motivator and will challenge others at crucial times. Although the actions of the driver may sometimes seem somewhat emotional, they do play a crucial role in pushing the team forward to succeed.”  I would like to think I identify with this role.  I am very ambitious and I can sometimes come off as impatient or impulsive.  However, I always have a strong motivation to finish my work and hope to motivate others in my group to finish their work as well.  I hope to apply these skills amongst my group by ensuring we are all on the same page when it comes to volunteering and that we are always putting forward our best efforts towards success.                             

Emily: After taking the Team Roles quiz, it was determined that I was definitely the executive. The website determines the executive "is sometimes also referred to as the organizer. The executive is generally disciplined and eager to get the job done. He or she is efficient, practical, and systematic. Executives are well organized and diligent, and quickly turn the ideas of a team into concrete actions and practical plans." I believe that this is an accurate description as I would definitely define myself as organized and systematic. I work hard to get my tasks done efficiently and to the best of my ability. I believe that "The Executive" is important to the group as a whole in order to make sure that the group stays on task and gets the work done practically and with a set plan. 

Ken: After taking the 123 psychology quiz regarding group roles, the test determined that I have high chances of being the analyst, the expert, and the executive of the group. I find this to be an accurate reading of my group personality as I am detail oriented and believe in organization when it comes to multiple people working together. I am a rule-oriented person and find that when an individual or group works within the rules, the progress and success of the group is insured. 

Molly: The driver is generally very ambitious and energetic. He or she may appear as impatient and impulsive. The driver is a strong motivator and will challenge others at crucial times. Although the actions of the driver may sometimes seem somewhat emotional, they do play a crucial role in pushing the team forward to succeed. I am confident that I can complete my role as a driver simply because these characteristics are synonymous to my personality. I am stubborn and impulsive, however I want our group to succeed at our goals and thus I will push them to do so.

Colleen: After completing the test, I was assigned to the role of innovator. The innovator is often the creative generator of a team. The innovator has a strong imagination and a desire to be original. The innovator prefers to be independent and tends to approach tasks in a scientific way. As an creative individual the innovator may play a crucial role in the way a team approaches tasks and solves problems. I am confident that I will be able to carry out my role of the innovator. I am very open minded and enjoy thinking outside the box. My goals are to approach this project and guide my team in a way that thinks outside the box. 

Fears in a Hat

Distribute a piece of paper to each member in the group. Each member should write a fear or worry about group work onto the piece of paper and then placed into a hat. Then each member will pick out a piece of paper, read the fear aloud to the group, and explain why they think someone has this fear.

Fear 1: "That one person will not fully dedicate themselves to the success of the project and the quality will suffer."  This is a very valid fear because we are all so busy and have such different schedules.  However, we think we can find blocks of time to dedicate ourselves even if it is separate times - the workload will be equal.

Fear 2: "Working with a group that is not interested in the project, so they don't work very hard as a result."  It is really important to stay interested in the project so that the final result does not suffer. 

Fear 3: "We won't be able to communicate/come to agreement on any problems we may face.  We have a lot of strong personalities that could potentially clash."  We will all work to hear everyone's opinions and be aware and respectful of everyone's individual personalities.

Fear 4: "Group members not having fun together."  We will work to make our trips down to Renew Richmond as fun as possible and worth everyone's time.

Fear 5: "Having to do it alone/pick up slack for others."  We will work to all do our part, even if we can't always get together.  We will do our best to contribute equally and make sure no one is taking on more responsibilities than others.

Never Have I Ever

Emily Vogt

Instructions: Each member of the team puts up five fingers and then one member is selected to begin the activity. That person will then make a statement beginning with "I've Never" and if any other member of the group has completed the activity they will put a finger down. Once one member has put down all of his or her fingers, then the game is over.

Source: Prior Knowledge

Instructions can be found on this website.

 Proposed Results: I believe that members of this group will have similar life experiences, so it will take multiple rounds of the game to end the game and determine a winner!

Emily: Never have I been to California

Molly: Never have I ridden a campus bike

Colleen: Never have I had a buffalo chicken wrap from Tyler's

Lexie: Never have I been to England

Results: Both Molly and Colleen put down all of their fingers at the same time! This shows that we have all gone through different life events and experiences. The purpose of this game is to get to know your group members on a unique and personal way. Sharing our different life experiences created a relaxed environment for us to laugh and get to know each other.

Telephone

Ken Anderson

Telephone Game (Whisper Down the Lane)

Instructions: The Telephone game is played with as few as five people (usually sitting in a circle or line formation) and starts when one person whispers a statement to the person sitting to their right. Each person whispers and repeats the statement in the next person's ear until the end of the line or circle is reached. The last person in the group announces the statement aloud for the rest of the group to compare the original statement with the end statement.

Results: Our group successfully repeated the correct and original dictation. In larger groups with less personal relationships have a greater chance of diverging from the original statement. 

According to education.com, the game can be played over a longer amount of time to test information retention.

Sources:

Dictionary.com- Chinese Whispers

http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/communication-transformation/

Conclusions: The exercise highlights the important group skills of listening and information retention of the participants. The exercise also illustrates individual interpretation of dialogue within a group. 

One Word at a Time

Colleen Egan

What you need: a piece of paper, pencil, group members.

How to play: One person starts the activity by writing "Once upon a time" on the piece of paper and then passing it to the left. The next person in the circle then adds his/her own phrase onto the sentence, which results in a story that is made by all group members. However, when adding a phrase, members can only look at the phrase last written. 

Proposed Result: Members will able creativity through their phrases. It will also test members' ability to put a sentence together. Some might have a difficult time coming up with a phrase that "makes sense", but the great part about this exercise is that is doesn't have make sense. 

Result: Here's our story:

Once upon a time in a land far away there was a fairy princess and three sticks of butter. The fairy princess was on a strict diet that only consisted of string cheese and hard-boiled eggs. She hated to cook cake so she made cookies which tasted like steaks. Her mouth watered and as she walked down the castle steps that were covered in barnacles because the castle flooded in hurricane Katrina. 

In the summer, the princess of the castle traveled on a magical vacation to Bali and she was enamored with all the boos in the library. Suddenly, the library caught fire, trapping her inside. Faced with her impending death she drank a potion that Hermione made. 

The End. 

Conclusion: The One Word at a Time activity was fun and lighter-hearted. We were able to see another side of everyone's personality as well as work off of each others ideas. It also gave us a good laugh. :)

Paper Tearing

Molly Aaronson

Instructions: Begin by telling participants that they’re going to play a game that will reveal a lot about communication and that no questions are tolerated. Have each participant pick up their piece of paper and close their eyes. Then give the following directions, carrying them out yourself with your own piece of paper: first, fold your sheet of paper in half. Second, tear off the upper left corner. Fold it in half again and tear off the upper right hand corner of the sheet. Fold it in half again, now tear off the lower right hand corner of the sheet. After participants finish tearing their papers, say, “Open your eyes and compare papers. If I did a good job communicating and you did a good job listening, all of our sheets should be identical”. Observe the differences and discuss why no one’s paper matched. End with a discussion on the importance of two-way communication.

This team building exercise is important because it highlights the problems that groups often face when working together on projects. In order to achieve our goals, we must foster thoughtful communication. Without communicating with each other about our thoughts, problems and ideas, we won’t be able to make a meaningful impact on our project as we will not have shared goals.

Proposed results: Different looking papers

Results: Our papers!

Conclusions: While there were some noticeable similarities, the papers did not end up resembling each other much. The activity would have been better if the participants had been able to ask questions and allowed communication to flow both ways.