Introduction
The group to which I previously belonged consisted of my classmates in High School. This experience helped me at the very beginning understand which role I should play in the community to which I belong. In other words, the team of my classmates along with me was indivisible and rather apt at facing numerous challenges. In fact, this group consisted of 15 people: 7 girls and 8 boys. During the hole process of studying at school there was no significant change in the content of our class. Thus, it served a great background for provision of quite friendly and respectful relationships. We were one team and until today we frequently meet and see each other at various places where we had fun. The thing is that our friendship grew on the basis of rather long and interesting communication. Each of the mates was eager to cooperate or help another one, so there was no problem in keeping our relationships firm and sustained.
Main Body
First of all, it is necessary to admit that the group had rather different behaviors and temperaments. However, it only favored the development of communication skills on each level of our studying at school. We had two leaders in class through whom we always tried to communicate with other groups of students and with adults as well. These were Bob Richards and Emily Watson. The rest of the students along with me differed not only in behaviors but also in hobbies. Hence, Ann Spoon was apt at learning languages and solving problems as of humanitarian sciences. Notwithstanding, she seemed always disgusted and nervous, but we liked her for her talents. Jeremy Todd was the strongest in the group and in some ways he behaved too aggressively, but with him we had no problems with “bad guys”. Moreover, along with Simon Crate he also organized the competitions in arm wrestling and athletics in the school’s gym, where guys were the best, as usual. Another significant person of the group was Nina Grace who actually was the still small voice for us. She always made us get away from wrong decisions and actions as well. The rest of the class was also successful at achievements in different fields. Thus, Lisa Flat, Chris Gibbs, and Phoebe Diddle participated in the cheerleading squad. Phil Powers and Cross Nettled were the football players. All in all, the behaviors of the group in their versatile nature did not interrupt internal communication, and each participant shared own hopes and troubles for the general discussion in terms of further decision. In this respect, cases of offences and conflicts which appeared were solved by means of general efforts, because we valued our friendship and wholeness, notwithstanding the behaviors we had.
Once, our group encountered with a very serious problem, which touched upon the humane and rational attitude. Nina Grace had a very serious disease which could make her great harms. We even thought that we would never be able to meet with her because of the cancer. In this respect the rest of the group considered to provide day by day visits to Nina’s ward. Sometimes it was performed in the form of ordinary discussions on the theme of school and current achievements. Once we even performed a presentation of our class song which was entitled Nina, we are with you! We tried our best to make her forget about the disease and show the way for the recovery. At least Nina had no problems with lack of our care. Soon, amazing as it may seem, after the course of therapeutic and surgery procedures Nina recovered. As for me, this result shows right decision which was generated at the correct moment.
The issue of leadership was debatable in the group for some time, but Bob Richards and Emily Watson showed their real destination in this field of participation with the rest of class. It is amazing, but during whole period of studying at school there were no conflicts between them. Moreover, they tried to make our class even firmer. Emily was the first to suggest visiting Nina at hard times for her. Bob tried his best in provision of cultural and sport activities at school. The rest of the class were also concerned in the leadership and tried to make everything for this participating in every single activity and organizing a definite piece of work for the whole arrangement or show. The leadership style of our main leaders and of the whole class in a less degree was rather transformational, because we tried to solve every problem which appeared in the group.
Gathering all facts and impressions about our group, I would like to definitely mention that in terms of real school life our class was effective and there are too many arguments for this. Moreover, students from other classes were willing to enter our group, but we did not want it, because all communicational and learning mechanisms which we used for successful life in the group were sharply organized. Using the motto of many schools, namely “Growing through Excellence”, we made our best on each grade at school (Pawlas, 2005, p. 16). Every member of the group, as was mentioned above, played his/her particular role, and this gave more strengths to the development of friendly relationships checked in general affairs in various fields of activities. Norms and principles of the group were subordinate to the collective discussion of different cases in behaviors of other people and in ours too. Thus, the ground rule was not to hide the problem but to represent it to someone in the group, so that make it at ease.
Cohesiveness of the group is based on the communication at each level of its provision. The thing is that when we had no opportunity to meet we tried to find every member of our group via Internet and such services as MSN, MySpace etc. In the other cases cell phones and SMS saved our communication. Summing up all those devices, it is significant to mention that they were too helpful for making such firm group as ours.
Conclusion
As I see, our group was the best and by means of destiny we were collected in one class. The roles and ground rules which we followed addressed the norms of morality and rationality. I see the extra-ordinary place of such predetermined features for the effectiveness of our group. Due to the ability to respond on the request of classmates in each member of our group we grew into the most successful team at school. The effectiveness was proved in terms of inner motivation practical implementation for actions in our group.
Reference
Pawlas, G. (2005). The administrator’s guide to school-community relations (2nd ed.). Cranbury, NJ: Eye on Education.