Today, we met with our Sociology lecturer for a ‘post-mortem’
of our presentation last week.
Ms Wee already told us that she had a grade in mind to give
us and this was our chance to make it a better grade. In my mind, this was a
chance to defend our position-why we tackled the issue the way we did. Alas,
for at least a few mins, no one said anything until I commented that I thought
our presentation was too fast. (ie. Too little time, too much to say) – yes, I
should have just shut up but the silence was too much and it would seem to Ms
Wee that we were not even trying to improve on our grades, since knowing that
we probably did not score very well.
I may not be thinking along the same lines as everyone else
I guess, when I spoke up. To others, this opportunity provided by Ms Wee was a
hassle and a ‘oh shit’ moment (I am in agreement here) but, I also thought that
it would be silly for none of us to say something about our presentation. After
all, she was giving us a chance to say something. True, that if we just kept
quiet Ms Wee would just debrief and dismiss us early but then, it would have
really made the meeting a hassle to even sit through.
This was an especially tough presentation for us. Our group
spent 3-4 weeks coming up with “issues” that we thought Ms Wee wanted (even
though we were not sure). Drats, we even had a conference chat about it on MSN
and actually discussed loads of stuff from AIDS to KIDNEY problems and finally,
back to congenital defects.
Mel took the initiative to analyze it, form our areas of
focus and break it up into sections. All of us had to select the section we
wanted and come up with something. I thought this was progress, however some
others may not agree.
As I had the fortunate experience of heading our group the
last 2 semester, I totally agreed with this method of work delegation because,
I have learnt (from experience) that this was the ONLY way to get work done. I
had tried the “let’s all hash our brains together and come up with an idea that
is unique and creative and etc” method and it fell through because not everyone
would be in agreement with so and so idea and so forth. It did not get us
anywhere and we ended up wasting precious time. So delegating work (although
autocratic) works. The lesser complications and challenges, the better it
seemed.
As adults, I expect the team members to initiate their own
discussions about areas they were not clear about. They do not have to wait
till a group meeting to discuss such issues. What Mel did and Jun approved was
correct, in my opinion.
On a hindsight though, I guess all of us forgot the subject
matter when we were sharing our findings. This, I would admit was a mistake on
my part – not that I am an expert in the field of sociology.
Out of 6 members in the team, not one of us realized it. We
were each so engrossed in our own part and wanting to present our precious
points that we ended up forgetting the main thing. When I redid my whole slide
to a diagrammatic format, I had actually consciously told myself that I should
talk about the family and apply aid to them as a family. And I did. However,
when everyone was rehearsing their stuff, I should have caught on that we were
not fully there yet but I didn’t. I will admit that, half the time I could not
really understand what was being discussed but everyone looked like they knew
their part except me and, they looked like they knew what I was saying when I
was not fully sure if I was even on the right track because it seemed like I had
so many things to talk about, besides, I always appear to complicate things.
Alright, so let’s talk about timing. Ms Wee asked how we
could have done something about it. In actuality, we finished a few mins before
the stipulated 25 mins.
True, I agreed with Ben that maybe more than 1 person could have
covered the more important point instead of covering so many points per person.
However, it was an important point which our group wanted to present and, it
was being covered by 3 people. As Mel had pointed out during our earlier
rehearsals then that, the aspects of neonatal loss were the issues in our
anticipatory grieving. She had already tried to concise the points to the more
relevant ones when she presented it to us to select the parts we wanted to
cover. What Ms Wee was trying to tell us was that, the point was not wrong but
the emphasis was.
Similarly, I had felt that my part was pretty heavy because I
had lots to say. In fact, my initial speech was 3 pages long and I actually had
new points, theories and application examples in it too.
If anyone had the more important bit to cover then, I would
not be ashamed to say that it should be me. I mean-blardy hell, Application was
10 marks alone and I was covering conclusion as well! If I was wrong from the
first word out of my mouth then, I was wrong ALL the way and I would not even
have another person to salvage that section since there was only 1 person
covering it. I did not even realize how heavy it was till after I chose the
section and read the marking criteria. You don’t hear me telling everyone else
to cut short their time instead, I recognized the need to tailor my bits to
flow with the rest and not do a ‘KGian’ during my conclusion and, I still assumed
to have 3 mins as my base timing even though I had warned the others that I
might take more than that. If I had to
cut short my sentences, then so be it-as long as the point is out.
So, I do see Ms Wee’s point in that even with 20-25 mins, we
would have been able to get our message across as long as we had the right
emphasis.
What bugged me about the whole meeting was the fact that it
seemed like Ms Wee was highlighting the areas that she wanted clarifications
on-at me and Noras. It was unnerving how everyone just sat there and not try to
say something, anything then. I would have if she had said something other than
the fact that the application bit could have been further expanded on. Thankfully,
Noras and Elaine spoke up to clarify their position in answering the way they
did for their parts.
After the meeting, suddenly everyone had loads to say …
Funny isn’t it how in retrospect, all if us believed we
could have done better.
Today, I went to Suntec with Noras and the guys as well and,
I learnt that Kee How is truly a master of anything that moves-be it a
simulated helicopter or Cessna or even a old modeled manual car.
We spent about 4 hours at the IT fair and thankfully, I got
my ink cartridge and external HDD all below $130. Good!
<-Eh? Where’s Kee How??
<-Oh there he is…totally shagged
<-Tom Yam rejuvenation therapy….
