Debriefing

**We are to "debrief" online as a team about our experiences in producing the PSA. We might use the 5 questions that comprise our final as a guide for topics. I think it will help us to focus our answers, as well as where each of us felt competent and where we feel we could grow.**

//**(Betsy)**// //I learned quite a bit about myself and working with others during this course. I knew that we would create a professional looking and sounding public service announcement. After all, we are all in a course of study working towards our Masters degrees. I admit though, that when we started, my attitude had a large portion of, "If the others don't come through, I will do what it takes to make sure what we turn in is a professional product." And then we began to work together. I'm not sure when, but it wasn't very long before I realized that each one of us had the same goal in mind: to create, produce, and turn in a professional PSA. And each of us, in moving toward that goal was going to give 100%. Our group experienced interruptions and difficulties as as any group or professional learning community might -- summer vacations planned before beginning our masters programs, the death of a close friend, Bible studies, church, and family obligations, etc. Yet the members of our group maintained a seamless dance toward our goal. Without a word or complaint, when necessary, each member took an extra turn on the floor, keeping the dance flowing ever forward. As each member finished their outside duties, the others opened a space for their re-entry. All the while, the dance continued without a misstep. It has truly been an awesome, eye-opening experience. Both into group dynamics and into my own misconceptions of group membership.//


 * (Billye "Darlene")** Betsy, Cathy, and Michael, I consider myself very fortunate to have worked on your team. For years I have heard the term, "It takes a village..." and during this project I found that to be the case. It takes the whole team to create, produce, and complete a product that we are all proud of. I am not used to working in teams other than the Professional Learning Communities at school so I was **not** looking forward to that aspect of this course. I was, however, pleasantly surprised at how well our team all pulled together to reach our goal. Betsy, you put it so beautifully in your reflection! I love the imagry! Yes, we produced a top notch Public Service Announcement while still tending to our daily lives. Betsy and Cathy, I really appreciate the support you gave me as I dealt with the loss of my best friend. That was a hard time for me. I hope we get to work together again.


 * (Cathy) WOW! Betsy, what a wonderful way to describe working together. I never thought of decribing what we did as a "seamless dance toward our goal" but will agree that I think we made a terrific team. I have never worked in a group project that worked so well together, but you are absolutely right, none of us would have made it this far (working toward the masters) if we were not professional and able to share responsiblity. I was once told that group projects are to help train you to work with others, because in life, you never get to choose your own coworkers. I would like to comment that I would be proud to have anyone on this team as my coworker and have learned so much from this course. I am sure that your coworkers are really lucky to have each of you on their team. As Darlene said in her email regarding giving me some tips on the narration, it just "takes practice." I am really glad that we did not have to practice with this group. Everyone went above and beyond to make sure that we had a great PSA, and that we all did our best to make the others look good. Thanks to all of you for all of your hard work, maybe we can work together again in the future.**

(Michael) First of all I want to say that it was a pleasure working with all of you. Like I have said before I feel very lucky for being on the web conference on that day. I did not have a group and I do not think that I could have picked a better group. I am not a very good dancer so I am glad I held up my part of the dance. I hope every body’s feet are okay. I, like all of you, was very apprehensive about working in a group with people I did not know. I sometimes can be difficult to work with because I do not always do things in a conventional way. I will have to say that having everything broken down into strengths and weaknesses helped me to feel more comfortable in working in this group because I knew I was going to do things I felt I was good at and not slow the group down. I think everyone was able to do things they enjoyed and knew they were good at so that I am sure eased the apprehension of doing group work. I believe strong leadership and the willingness of everyone to share ideas and be open to suggestions made this a very painless group project that I think ended with an excellent result. Again, thanks for the teamwork and good luck with the rest of your courses. 