Blog Post #1 - Michael Navarrete

Michael Navarrete                                            SPC1017-2462                                                   Prof. Sinkoff
 

I looked forward to how each group, including ours, was going to perform in our first presentation of the term. Since the professor also discussed how the presentation for each group should look like the members worked together to make it look nice and unified, I was also viewing to see if the presentations looked like a single person made it.

Starting with group one, they were given chapter 3 on Intercultural Communication, which is an important chapter that matters in the society we live in today. Group one also set up how these presentations should go, acting as an example the next two groups would have to follow to make a successful showing of their work. The chapter they worked on included topics that talked about culture and communication, dominant cultures, co-cultures, cultural identity, how these cultures differ, and developing intercultural communication competence. To some people, their culture is the most important aspect of life. It is important to learn how to approach these cultures in a professional manner without being offensive to those who take part in their culture. For group one’s member performance, they did great in transitioning to each slide without making it look awkward most of the time. The way each member sounded professional when they presented their parts is also noteworthy, as they listed some important information that some of us may not have known before. For example, learning the importance of a person’s sexual orientation. The world has mostly become an accepting place for these people who identify themselves as either homosexual or any other orientation they feel defines them. How this applies in a professional setting should not be ignored as well, as acting offensive towards those who are a part of this culture can weaken relationships and build distrust. The presentation itself was nice and informative, with each member giving it their all to deliver an awesome presentation. Like I talked about before, this group would set up how these presentations should go and they did a great job setting an example for the next two groups that are presenting. Of course, this does not mean that they will follow exactly how group one was moving. For my group, group three, we agreed on saying “Next slide!” whenever a member was finished reading through their slide instead of having an awkward silence that follows after a member is finished going over a slide. But that discussion will be saved when I talk about group three later in this post!

Moving on to group two, they were given the perfect chapter to talk about which relates to the group project. It was Communicating in Groups. This group talked about the nature and types of groups, characteristics of healthy groups, stages of group development, and conflict in groups. It is an important subject to learn about as group members, and the professor also saw how ironic it was that this chapter would be talking about how to work together and identify different conflicts that can occur as a group. I feel that it was important to cover the previously mentioned conflicts that can happen in a group because if there are uninformed members that run into one of the situations that were listed in the chapter, then it will take a long time to figure out a solution. The solutions to group problems is talked about in chapter ten, which group three presented so I will save that discussion when talking about that group. This chapter contained a lot of sub-topics to go over, but group two did a fantastic job condensing it in just 3 slides. They summarized the important points and information presented in the chapter, and the slides themselves looked nice to look at. It made me give a deeper focus on each member’s presentations. There was one slide a member made that included a lot of information and looked cluttered, but the person who was presenting that slide did a great job going over the important points of their assigned section of the chapter. Overall, group two did a fantastic job with their chapter nine presentation. Everything looked nice and each member’s performance was great as they researched additional information that was not present in the chapter to add to this project. I like that kind of investment that goes into assignments like this.

 

Now it is time to talk about the final group of this project, and it is group three. This is the group that I was chosen to be a part of, and things went smoothly throughout the entire project. My team members were also nice and understanding of the task at hand, but at the same time the presentation was not that challenging to begin with. Our group was assigned to do a presentation on chapter ten that goes over Group Leadership and Problem Solving. This chapter goes over leadership, performing effective meetings, systematic problem solving in a group, communicating group solutions, and evaluating group effectiveness. I worked on 10-3c and 10-3d, which is not a lot compared to what some of the other group members decided to do but that was how we decided to split it. After that it was pretty much just each member working on their own slides which also went smoothly. Before the day of the presentation, some of us got into the zoom meeting for the class and rehearsed our slides. I joined in late and the whole group was not there, but there were 5 of us so it was good enough to plan out how we want our presentation to go. Following that day of course, the presentation occurred and our presentation went how we wanted it to go. I mentioned before that we also agreed to say “Next slide!” instead of having silence and assuming if a member is done reading their slide. For this group performance, just like the rest of them, it did a great job preparing for the presentation and doing the actual presentation in class.

 

In the end, every group did an awesome job with different experiences to share like mine. I just hope this next theme presentation goes just as smoothly so that we can all succeed in this class together. Thank you very much for reading this post!