group projects

Today my observations went right along with class today. In my observations, they were in put in groups and had to work on a poster. I was talking to my teacher and she put a couple kids together that don't like each other because you may have that situation in real life. Also, she made sure she put certain students in certain groups because she knew they would be group leaders and help to push the project along. It was really obvious to pick out the group leader in most of the groups. They took charge and started organizing what needed to be done. I noticed that most of the time they were girls. I don't want to say it always was because they weren't but most of them were. It was that "mother" instinct that came out and I would imagine that is what happened. Even at a young age, the girls are the ones who learn how to organize and be able to be in charge, where as the guys learned that it was ok if they were off task because someone would get it done. I saw the frustration in some of the students and I knew exactly what they were feeling. It sucks to be that student that gets paired up with the trouble kids because you don't want to do it all but you also don't want to get a bad grade. I am not a big fan of group projects. It very rarely actually works out. Few groups involve a group kids that all do an equal amount. I was able to see that today which just backed up my personal experience. Group projects are always interesting.