Well, I don’t know about you, but “group work” sometimes rubs me the wrong way. It can be difficult to have a partner (or more than one partner) that simply does not do their share of the work. What do you do then? Do all the work on your own to save your grade? Let them find out what happens when you both don’t do the work (and subsequently fail the assignment)?

These are questions and feelings to which I was no stranger back in high school. I always had trouble with getting assigned groups because I felt that I would be the only one doing work. That is, unless my teacher let me pick my own group. If I was able to pick my own group-mates, I would always pick those with whom I worked best–my best friends.

Well, now I’m here at college, and my best friends have chosen other schools to attend. They aren’t here, so getting assigned to their group is impossible. However, I have found that, while it can be difficult to work in assigned groups, there are some groups of people that are utterly pleasant to work with.

What makes the difference between a good group and a not-so-good group? I believe that the only difference is the determination to do what is best.  Those in a good group don’t argue over semantics. In a good group, we divide up the work and get it done, usually having one or two people volunteering to do all the finishing touches. When all people in a group just want to get it done as soon as possible–with the best finished product–the project goes swimmingly.

We can apply this to the committee members deciding the IEP (Individualized Education Plan) for a student. The best way to work together is to desire the best outcome in the best amount of time (usually the shortest possible amount of time). If there is little argument over the small things and more discussion about the important things, the whole group will feel better coming out than they did going into the meeting.

Let’s all be peaceable. Let’s all be civil. This is for the children. It’s up to us to be the difference between group work and teamwork.

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