Super Single Mom Moments

Whether your going to school, college or working everyday you will find yourself doing something incredible because you are a single mom. I call those Super Single Mom Moments!



Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Group Projects, a continuous thorn in my side


As a college student and single mother one thing, besides the obvious money issues, has really been an obstacle throughout the years, group work outside of class. As a single mother dependent upon child care schedules the time to work on individual projects is very limited. Add to that a group project with other people's schedules and a project can be almost unmanageable.

As a senior I had group projects in this semester alone I have been involved with one small group project and two semester long projects that count for either all or over half of my grade.

According to the 2009 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) 58% of the seniors worked outside of class with classmates to prepare assignments and 23% participated in a community –based project as part of a regular course.

I realize that working in groups is a valuable tool to help students prepare for the work place.i. According to an article in the Journal of Education for Business, more than 80% of organizations employ multiple types of workplace teams. Also according to the Teaching Tips from the BGSU Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology, “groups are a resourceful way for students to share ideas, partner to solve problems and help one another.

Group projects in the classroom are a problem because of Time management
According to the 2009 NSSE 36% of BGSU graduating seniors spent between 11-20 hours preparing for class, 12% spent between 11-20 hours working off campus and 15% spent between 6-10 hours participating in co-curricular activities (NSSE, 2009).Additionally According to the 2009, BGSU Graduate Senior Questionnaire 71% of seniors reported working at a Job off campus while enrolled, 65% participated in volunteer/service work, 52% in social clubs, and 57% reported working in a co-op (BGSU Graduate Senior Questionnaire, 2009).

Because of this issue I believe group projects should be given more time during class and outside class time group projects should be optional. Another way to aid in this issue for single parents is to enact a program for watching children for at the most two hours while their parents meet with group project members on campus.

Super Single Mom Moment: Finding time to add something else in your day is hard, make sure you explain your predicament to your group. Your time with your kids are just as if not more important then a job.

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