All right, so in my World History class, we got an assignment to take an aspect of World War II (D-Day, the Axis leaders, the Holocaust, etc.) and make a short, entertaining video about that aspect of the War. Now, the group I got put in (which wasn't my first choice; my original group got split apart by my teacher), while they are nice girls, aren't exactly the most funny or creative people in the world, so I was easily the most qualified to come up with the ideas for the video. However, I got no say in the subject, and so they chose the Holocaust, which in and of itself presented a problem, as it's hard to be both funny and sensitive when it comes to the events of the Holocaust.

This didn't stop me from being put in charge of writing the script for the video. After struggling for a while, I managed to come up with an idea that would allow us to present lots of information (which was what my group wanted the video to include, even though that's not entertaining at all) in a fun way: a mini-musical of the Holocaust. So, I wrote up a couple of funny yet informative songs (including a Hitler rap, Jews singing and dancing, and the Allies singing a modified version of "Don't Stop Believing") and pitched the ideas to various classmates. Everyone I pitched it to loved the idea, saying that it was extremely funny, and so i confidently gave it to my group members so they could familiarize themselves with it.

However, they - without giving me any indication of what they were doing - made changes to the script, cutting out some off the funniest parts, adding entirely new sections and interpreting the overall script in ways totally contrary to my original intentions, in addition to making plans about when to film the video without telling me. I learned about the filming plans later that day, but the other four girls had already made their plans, and so being the odd man out, I was forced to cancel my own plans so I wouldn't fail the project.

However, I didn't learn about the script changes until today during our History class. I didn't get to play any of the parts I had written specifically for myself, and the new sections just weren't that funny. I tried to tell them how I had meant the script to be interpreted, explained that I had written certain parts for myself, and even offered to rewrite their new section of the script in order to make it more funny. However, they ignored my wishes - despite the script being MY work - and forced me into going along with their changes. We filmed this afternoon, and my original plans for the script were all but mutilated. I'm not too happy about it, as it had so much potential to be greater than it turned out being, which it could have avoided if my opinions had just been listened to.

The group acted like I was being unreasonable for thinking that I deserved some say in how the script that I wrote was used, while I thought I deserved to get some amount of say in it. What do you guys think?

you're not wrong to want your opinions acknowledged, but don't let a group of girls get to you. hey if you even go with their ideas and make them think they are smart you might get a date. :hubbahubba:

Welcome to teenagers and group projects.

I'd just be assertive and refuse to cooperate until my demands were met. Usually got it done.

That is part of what it means to work in a group, developing people skills to be able to get consensus for your ideas and end up with a finished project that you are happy with.

these kinds of school projects are helpful for figuring out how to navigate office politics if you get a corporate job in the future.

What, it's not funny when an ethnic group is deported, have their possesions stolen, and are nearly exterminated by a political regime?
Maybe that's why there was such a shortage of standup comedians at Auschwitz?

Seems the other members of the group didn't find your ideas amusing. Not a whole lot is amusing about people being systematically eradicated while earning a political machine massive profits. There are some times when humor has it's place, and some times when seriousness takes precedence, because the message it sends is that important.

The whole story never mentioned anywhere of you working with the girls first and foremost. It is not a team worker's attitude. If you wish to be acknowledged, first you have to acknowledge your teammates, respects are two ways.

Sometimes I found modern education emphasis too much on expressing, but lack the aspect of listening. Just because you got the bright idea, does not mean you always get the call. Such is the way of society. It's a world of cooperation, not a world of I am your hero.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_Beautiful

In any case it sounded more like you wanted to be the leader rather than just having your opinions heard

"so I was easily the most qualified to come up with the ideas for the video"

"This didn't stop me from being put in charge of writing the script for the video"

"However, they ignored my wishes - despite the script being MY work - and forced me into going along with their changes"

I don't really know these girls or you but you sound a bit arrogant IMO. Rather than trying to take control of the group it would probably be better to work as a group. That's typically the objective of group work (other than to torture students) is to get them to work in a group and get more than just one persons view on a subject.

I didn't make light of the whole Holocaust, if that's what your implying. Trust me, I made sure that I was funny while maintaining sensitivty to the ordeal the Jewish people went through. If I had crossed the line, one of the multitude of people I showed the skit to would have objected, and that part would have been eliminated.

Group projects were invented by Satan to ruin the scores of students who actually try hard.


He wrote the entire script for them and came up with every relevant idea. That's enough team work in my eyes.

The way I usually work in a team is division of labor and very, VERY small amounts of input from others. Its best if people get their work and don't get messed with. I notice a lot that others interfering often makes things worse.

Question list:

1. When the group decided what to do the video on, did you actively volunteer and argue for your idea? It kinda sounds like you didn't talk. In group settings, you need to be both early in proposing your idea and a vigourous defender of it.

2. Walk us through the conversation where you showd the group your script, please. (Kinda hard to give reccomendations about how to handle that stuff in the future without a better understanding of your, shall we say, technique) When proposing a script or rough draft, you need to have a conversation about it and air out complaints immediately so you can defend it. If you didn't do this, then it's not surprising they went to editing, since there was no one to advocate for your work.

3. You should propose things like when to film yourself if you want control over those decisions.

4. Was this group of girls a clique that teamed up and you were just assigned to the group? If so, cliques like that in high school team projects tend to be less receptive to input from those outside the clique. Without a reputation that would afford you leadership in a group setting, you gotta work extra hard to stay in the loop. Did you exchange phone numbers and email with each member immediately after getting in a group? Getting contact info is important to command and control in these situations.

No, that's solo work, not teamwork. Teamwork means discussion with teammates, extract ideas from EVERYONE involved. Not yourself. You have to learn what is teamwork. I learnt it the hard way from my previous boss.

nvm

That's all very well and good, but if they're not being paid to do that, often they won't bother to contribute, so you are forced to do it all yourself. We were always taught that the work must be completed first and foremost, it does not really matter who does it.

Obviously your teammates did not feel the same way, they changed dialouge and rewrote parts of the musical. I am also going to agree with Tiny Howie and Jileon. Communication, including input, critisicm, and creation of the report should have been a team project, and discussed and shown to the team, not external people unaffiliated with the project.


I've done plenty of team projects, and so have the kids, and they involved lots of kids over, or dragging kids elsewhere, so EVERYONE could have input. The one time the son had a team project where they had one guy domintate it, the entire group flunked because Mr Control Freak ended up missing the day from school and didn't turn the project in. Because ironically, MCF distrusted team members, and wanted to put the data they collected together himself. My son was UBERPISSED, Days spent gathering, compliing, file sharing... No one wants, btw, to work with MCF.

Thanks for all of the opinions! You guys have helped me see this in a new light. I guess it was kind of my own fault for not being as much of a team player as I should have been.

While that is true (to a certain extent) I don't see how it's relevant to the OP.

These girls weren't slacking off they were contributing to the group work so that's not the question. The question is whether or not they were overbearing and taking charge of the project or was the OP being a tyrant. From what he's described it sounded more like he was trying to dictate responsibilities and what they were going to do.

He's already claimed that these girls weren't funny so he decided that he would be in charge of the project. It sounded like he's full of himself and decided what the abilities of these girls were before they could even demonstrate what they were capable of.

Oh no, I interact with most of these girls almost every day in a (usually) friendly manner. Most of them are some of the nicest people I've ever met, and they're good friends. However, their senses of humor don't exactly meld with the humor of the rest of the class, and I'm much better than them at the kind of humor my class enjoys. And I didn't dictate the parts. The whole group decided I should be the one to write the project. However, the thing I was mainly asking about was whether or not it was okay for me to be kind of upset about changes being made to the script I wrote with no advice from me.

yes, It's okay to be upset about that, but to me it does sound like you failed to prevent changes when you had the chance.

1: This is a GROUP project, not a everybody agrees to do what you want project; group projects involve compromise. though the changing of things without informing you does seem pretty rude.
2: Take it from me, man. I was the class clown in my day, and you dont know when youve crossed the line until youve crossed it, and when you do, your going to get in trouble for it. I understand your want to pour your creativity and humor into this, but seeing as this is about the holocaust, I would just play this one safe so you dont end up getting embarrassed. Remember also that there are victims of that era that are still alive.

Wow, you've been more reasonable than I would have been.

As soon as the topic became the Holocaust, I would have walked. I just would have stayed away from there completely

Demanded off the team with the teacher and done my own personal project if needs be. Do a USO-style comedian making jokes about foxholes or something.

Are you wrong? One thing that irritated me immensely in high school was when someone would tell me a story and ask my opinion on it, as if they hadn't already made up their mind beforehand.

Why even ask us? Do you want to hear a dozen people say "yeah that's okay, bro"? Come on. :rolleyes:

Truer words have never been spoken.

Group assignments are always, ALWAYS enourmous pains in the [censored]. Every group either has one person who has to do all the work themselves or one person who does bugger-all but still tries to claim credit. Sadly as you also got shoved into a group of teenage girls, you have to deal with the fact that they're incredibly cliquey so you, as the outsider, get zero say.

Frankly if you're worried about a poor mark you can always speak privately to your teacher about it, but I'd be careful to not make it seem as though you're simply unhappy they didnt do everything you wanted.