Alana Rivers

EDEE 492/490

Dr. Kamai & Katie

4/17/2023

Personal Perspective

In any group assignment, I feel it is natural to have some ups and downs. Some people

might disagree with your opinion on things, some people might not pull their weight, and

sometimes it can be difficult to balance everyone's unique personalities and different schedules.

However, going into a group project with a positive mindset, positive thoughts, and good

intentions can make the world of a difference in how everyone's experiences turns out.

My experience with this group project was quite positive. From the very beginning of the

project, my group and I laid out some norms to follow so that we can all be held accountable for

our portion of the work. We exchanged numbers if we didn’t already have them, and we created

a group chat with an app where we could all communicate with each other in a fast manner. We

set up dates to meet online to accomplish work together and to collaborate on different aspects of

the project. And in the case that one of us could not meet, my group was very understanding, and

the individual would have to cover their portion of the work on their own. Thankfully, there

wasn't much of a problem with group members not contributing because if one of us was quiet,

we would ask that individual for their thoughts and insights. We made sure that everyone felt

heard and contributed their thoughts and ideas on every step of the project.

One thing I really enjoyed was watching Patricia interact with my students. I was so

happy that she took the time out of her day to come visit them, talk story with them, and get to

know them a little before conducting the lesson. Just in that short amount of time, she was able to
connect with my students and I feel like this helped to keep behaviors down a bit. My students

got to know her as well. They loved talking stories with someone from their community, aside

from me. I remember one of my students asked me when we came back to school after

conducting the lesson study if there were more teachers in my class who were from the west side.

I said yes, and used that to segway into a pep talk on how they can be anything they want to, but

they need to work hard and persevere.

Overall it was a successful research project that I enjoyed conducting with my group. My

group members had some awesome ideas, and were very welcoming to my ideas. I enjoyed

bouncing ideas off of each other and how we helped each other find clarity in areas of the project

that was hazy for some. I feel like we equally contributed to this project and we all found our

roles naturally. We lifted each other up when one of us was feeling overwhelmed. Our project

might not have gone perfectly, but what I learned from conducting this research project with my

group was beyond what I could imagine. The learning didn't just come from the research or the

collaboration, but it also came from the errors in our project. Reflecting on how the lesson study

went, and brainstorming ways to make the lesson different if we were given another chance is

also where the learning happened.