"" It came in like a wrecking ball ""

Whew! School is almost done, and it will be great to have some time to catch up on life for a couple of weeks. These past few weeks have been terribly busy and the next two will be even more so! All of these projects and final exams and tests came in so suddenly, and will be gone just as quickly I hope.

This past week, we were able to spend a lot of class time working on our final project for ICT. I was glad to have this class time to work with my partner and to discuss and become even closer to finishing it!

In some cases, group work can be a pain. Sometimes you are set up with people that do not share the same interests as you do, or they want to take the project in a different way. Being able to find a time where all group members can meet is also very challenging with each person's schedule being different but all being just as busy. There can also be issues with students not doing an equal share of the work and giving one student the majority of the project to do. (I have been here before and it is not a good position to be in) This can be one of the main frustrations with group projects.

This project however, I am lucky to work with a friend and roommate, so this makes it easy to meet up and go over what we need to work on, or what needs to get finished. We are both pretty excited about our project, and think that the class will enjoy it (given past conversations that we have heard throughout the semester).

Working with people can have its benefits too-- if one person does not understand the project or in this case, the technology, then the other can help them, or both can research it to find out how everything should look and work. Working with others can be fun too, and can help you to meet new people or students in your class that you may not have previously talked to.

I think that as a future music educator, I will take both advantages and disadvantages from group work, and put them towards my decision making on whether or not my class will participate in it, and if they do- how often.