We are approaching the end of the semester and the deadline of this project. Here we assess our weekly achievements, our individual project satisfaction, and our hopes and objectives for not only a successful and productive week, but a successful project as well.
WEEKLY ACHIEVEMENTS
- From the list we made the previous week, we e-mailed many more churches inquiring about community kitchens.
- We realized that constraining our search to churches was somewhat limited.
- We expanded our list to include private schools, religious, retirement communities, local stores, and cultural centers
- We adjusted our definition of a “community kitchen” to be less confusing for potential partners.
- We noticed that many of the kitchens we contacted responded negatively to having a community kitchen, possibly because this term has certain connotations that the kitchen has to be fully equipped and available to the public.
- We started asking potential community kitchens if they had any sort of kitchen facilities, and if these facilities were available to their specific community. For example, when contacting a church, we asked if they had any kitchen facilities and if these were available at any time to the members of the church.
- We edited Blog Post 2 to have better organization and specific content.
MOMENT OF SIGNIFICANT CHANGE
Our group has faced many challenges in the project. We made a list of some of the landmark challenges we’ve faced:
- Project introduction
- Specific project assignment
- Work division for blog post 1
- Feedback for blog post 1
- Reassessment of quality and type of work expected for this class
- Finding kitchens
- Proposal draft construction and feedback
- Beginning of group scheduling issues
- Editing proposal and blog post 1
- Crafting blog post 2
- Return from time off (Reading Week)
In addition, we added some landmarks we hope to see in the future:
- Contact with community kitchen(s)
- Work together as a group to finish a quality project presentation and report in a timely manner
We each rated on a scale from -10 to +10 how happy we were with this CBEL project at each landmark. This is represented in the graph below.
All five of us had similar degree of happiness for most of the points on the graph. However, we had different opinions about a few of them. Three of us were excited on the first day of class about the many options we had for our projects, and we became very disappointed when we didn’t get any of the projects we wanted. The other two members liked the project that was assigned to us, and their degree of happiness increased compared to the first day of classes. Also, three of us were not happy about the feedback we got for blog post #1, while the other two members were content with it. This shows that there is no one way of looking at things. We should always keep an open mind, remember that other people might see things differently from us, and that we have to respect each other. Our group’s mutual lowest point of happiness has been because of group scheduling conflicts.
We have tried to look at our project with a Asset based Community Development lens. We’ve done this by planning to focus on a community kitchen’s assets and strengths rather than what they are missing, and work with what they do have (Calabash Trust, 2014). Perhaps we could apply the same theory to improving our group dynamics and happiness with the project. According to the graph, most of us are struggling to enjoy the project. We have narrowed in on the negative experiences we’ve had, such as a lack of teamwork, lower grades than expected, and time and effort required. We have not focused much on the positive experiences we’ve had and the strengths we have as a group.
Yet, based on the last two points of the graph, we are all very excited about successfully completing this project.
STRATEGIES FOR A SUCCESSFUL DISMOUNT
- We want to successfully contact and partner with a few kitchens.
- We will try calling kitchens instead of e-mailing to make it more personal.
- To bring that a step further, we will visit the community.
- We will also go and visit the kitchens that didn’t want to participate, knock on the door and explain to them what we are doing and why we are doing it. We are hoping they will change their minds and decide to participate when they talk to us face-to-face and get an idea of what exactly the purpose of the survey is.
- We will ensure efficient and professional interactions with any potential kitchens to increase their likelihood of participating in our survey.
- We want to work together as a group to finish a quality project presentation and report in a timely manner
- We will try to find times and places that best accommodate all of our group members to ensure full participation.
- We will work together more, instead of dividing up sections, which can lead to a somewhat disconnected final paper.
- We will make personal deadlines that allow us enough time to make changes and discuss the project as it comes to a close.
- We will practice our presentation before the day of.
WEEKLY OBJECTIVES
- Call potential kitchens and other organizations who could connect us to them, such as the neighborhood houses and community centres.
- Visit the community as a group on Monday for the flexible learning hours.
- Walk around and knock on church doors and cultural centres.
- Ask around at the library about community kitchens.
- Get a feel for what the community is like
- Interview a community kitchen
- Depends on if we can find one
- Schedule the next group meeting to allow for enough time for all group members to adjust schedules to it
- Improve communication skills within the group.
- Learn how to exchange more information about what is expected from each of us to be done
- Faster and more clear Facebook communications
- Discuss quality and quantity of work expected from each group member
- Learn how to exchange more information about what is expected from each of us to be done
- Start writing blog post 4
- Review the instructions and rubric for the final report and presentation
We are getting very close to the deadline and haven’t achieved what we hoped we would have by now. But we are all excited to finish this project well. Hopefully this gives us all the motivation to get ‘er done!
REFERENCES
Calabash Trust. (2014, October 16). ABCD Animation [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_muFMCLebZ4
