Personal Reflection on Working in Teams

Date:  (Term 2  Week 3 Class 14)
Venue: BFEI | Room 108
Class: WDM
Topic: Exercise 12: Personal Reflection on Working in Teams

Personal Reflection

In my personal experience since the start of the course, I have had ample opportunities to work as part of a team through my participation in class exercises.  It has helped me to develop interpersonal skills beneficial to working in team with shared goal. Also, working in team has provided me with opportunity as a team member to express my thoughts, feelings and opinions about a shared experience.

Communication 

In team environment I have learnt how to communicate effectively in a respectful manner. There are times when clarity on topics or theories are necessary, asking questions or asking for further clarification has help gained understanding and improved my communication in a group setting. I have found that when working as a team, you must be willing to ask for help and also to provide it, should anything be unclear to anyone in the team.


Team Building & Building Trust in the Team

The Marshmallow Challenge, Lunar Challenge, Park Challenge etc has taught me how to  collaborate in team work. Group activities has also helped me in building trust in team. I have had opportunities to demonstrate my problem solving skills.

Interpersonal Dynamics

By getting involved in group activities, I have improved on my interpersonal skills through communication and interacting with colleagues in class. I am now better able to understand and manage my own and others' emotion through understanding emotional intelligence.

Forming, Storming, Norming Performing

In most of the exercises that we did in class and also with the one that we did in the Park and the Marshmallow Challenge and the Lunar Challenge,  we went through a forming stage where we worked through a transition process involving mission analysis and planning. We discussed the project requirements and how to effectively complete the task based on each other's strengths, weaknesses and abilities.

Then the team began to research and investigate ideas to include in the report. There was a short storming stage that was short and quickly progressed into the norming and performing stages
of team development, this is normal when you work in group.

It is great to allow interdependence in team where all members contributed, interacted and collaborated together.

Leadership Skills

I realised that I do have a lot to offer in a team, and going forward  I will allow myself to take charge more,  I feel I would be a good leader.  I have a lot to offer and must do my best to ensure that I give everything I can. I feel my skills and ability to work with a team are very good, I communicate very well, I am a good decision maker and can lead people very well because I can always see where I need to go.

Review of Our Blackrock Park Exercise

Date:  (Term 2  Week 2  Class 13)
Venue: BFEI | Room 108
Class: WDM
Topic: Review of Our Blackrock Park Exercise

9-10am

This morning, the team returned to finish our work and we posted our contents for the proposed website and the images into Padlet.  Afterwards we did a presentation of our concept. 

Group Presentation

We did a presentation on the whole idea on Blackrock Park Proposed website.

First, Gavin started by presenting the idea behind the website wireframe, this is a page showing the blueprint for the proposed website design, it's more or less a visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website. This was created for the purpose of arranging elements to best accomplish the design purpose which to promote the park.

Protect Natural Ecosystems

The Blackrock Park has its own ecosystem, it provides natural habitats for few different animals and birds to grow. Parks provide a safe place for many of this birds and animals. This Park protect these animals and preserve local ecosystems.

Secondly, I presented the idea behind the history and background to the back which will be featured under the 'About Us' section of the website.

Most visitors to the website will be curious about the history of the site and historical background to  the development of the Park, this is captured on this page, everything anyone needs to know about the park is there.

Centre of Community

Thirdly, Tetyanah present the idea behind the Park as Centre of Community Playground, parks provide space for health and recreation for neighbourhood residents to interact with each other and meet new people. They’re also great spaces for events and for people to engage in recreational activities. This allows people to develop a sense of community. The park is perfect for a picnic, a concert, jogging, yoga, reading and getting close to nature - whatever  community feels it needs.

A Place for Physical Activity

Daniel was next, he presented the idea behind Park as a place for Physical Activities. You’ve probably heard about the many problems caused by a lack of physical activity. The Park will make a good place for the neighbourhood to enjoy a walk in the Park. 

We also discussed benefits of the location and how visitors can find their way there and also how they can navigate through the Park, this is captured in 'Contact us'.

That ends the review of the project for this week.

Team Field Trip to Blackrock Park

Date:  (Term 2  Week 1  Class 12)
Venue: BFEI | Room 108
Class: WDM
Topic: Team Field Trip to Blackrock Park

Team Challenge in Blackrock Park

Project Brief: Blackrock Residents Association want to protect their amenity of Blackrock Park. They want to create a website / other online promotional resource detailing the features of the park as a community resource and showcase it with suitable images available online.

8.50am: Class met in the classroom at 8.50am. Briefs was distributed.  

9am: Class left for meeting at the bandstand in the Park with the lecturer.

9-10am:

At the bandstand, myself along with Gavin, Daniel, Tetyana and ...formed a team of 4 to explore the park, taking images from different angle to detail the feature amenities that are in the Park.

10-11am: 

Team returned back to college to have a team meeting at the cafeteria area to decide on the format of the website. Between ourselves we discussed how we go about researching the content for the website and we also discussed the various aspects of the project and we assigned to each other all the various tasks around the project.

We agreed between ourselves how to coordinate our assignments and store our images and content on OneDrive, link shared with the team and the lecturer.