Team Reporting Activities

Journals

A requirement of the course is that each team member keeps a journal of the team's interpersonal and outside relationships. Entries should be made when meetings have been held, laboratory tasks are done and when personal interactions have gone well or there are problems. The journal entries describe your reactions to the team process. At the end of each journal section you are to write four paragraphs integrating the team concepts in the manual with your reactions.

Your journal is due e-mail to _________________________
The first journal is due on __________________
The second journal is due on _______________________
The third journal is due _____________________________

1. Your journal is confidential. Your grade is dependent upon timely submission of the journal entries and the extent to which you wrote about the team process, not on the contents.
2. The purpose of the journal is to be truthful. It is a free write, i.e., record your thoughts about something without interpreting your thoughts. Grammar doesn't matter. What matters is that you truthfully write down your feelings. Put your feelings in the context of team processes and integrate team concepts. This is not about the task. Those activities are communicated in the weekly progress reports. The journal is your assessment of how your team is functioning while doing the task.
3. Document your personal feelings about the team experience. The account should be an analysis of yours and the team's actions and effects that relate to your team’s ability to function. Include a discussion about obstacles, outside influences i.e. faculty, missing equipment, TA’s impact, etc.
4. The journal should have weekly entries about your reactions to being on the team. Then a summary integrating team concepts with your feelings and reactions should be added. The third journal entries should be a 3-page report on what team leadership skills you developed in the course and answer all the following questions.

Questions to be answered in Journal #3 Summary:

1. While you were leader what stages of team development did your team pass through?
2. As leader how did you handle difficult problems and obstacles while doing the task?
3. As team leader how did you organize your team so that meetings were run efficiently?
4. As team leader, how did you implement your ground rules?
5. As team leader what brainstorming techniques did your team utilize?
6. What competencies in interpersonal communication and leadership did you develop while being (pick one) a team member, recorder, or team leader?
7. As recorder, were you able to do your duties in a timely manner and did your minutes reflect what was actually happening within the team?
8. As team leader, were you able to successfully implement your team's action plans? If so why and if not why.
9. During conflict, what styles did you use to deal with the conflict?
10. What have you learned about principled negotiation?
11. When problem solving how did your team member's thinking styles'(using the thinking style interaction model) interactions impact upon the process?
12. What did you learn about supporting the team when a member's weaknesses, lack of commitment, or motivation became a problem?
13. What did you learn about collaborating with others on written assignments?
14. Did your mission statement change during the term?
15. Were you able to execute your team's oral presentation action plan during each rotation? What changes were made to this plan during the semester?