# Now break up into small groups. *gasp*



## Prodigal Son (Dec 11, 2005)

The moment I hear this in class when it has to do with activity the panic immediately kicks in. I have doing pretty good reacting to in-class acitivities this semester but it never fails to get my heart rate up or worse.


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## Christian (Oct 5, 2006)

Yeah I was like that in high school because everyone knew each other so I knew I wouldn't be with anyone. IN college it's been different because no one knows each other. 

But yeah I hated that. It's strange how the teacher probably thinks that you like doing it, when really it's the most painful thing. I used to always think of the teacher as lazy when they'd do that. Instead of teaching us, they want us to break into groups and waste our time.


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## SilentLoner (Jan 30, 2006)

Ah...the dreaded words.

Its a little easier in college, because its all been randomly assigned groups so far.


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## Zephyr (Nov 8, 2003)

Yeah, I hated that. Luckily it hardly happened in university, but in high school it seemed like a daily occurence. Blech...


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## cakesniffer (Nov 11, 2003)

Ahhh! The dreaded phrase! My heart would start going a mile a minute when a teacher said that. I don't even remember it happening in high school, but college, what a chore. I'd start looking around at the people next to me, mumble something about joining them, and move my seat.


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## Chrysalii (Jun 24, 2006)

In high school I got away with being my own group, most of the time.


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## pokey (Dec 18, 2005)

Helllll yeah I know what you mean. I'm a senior in college, and only now am just getting mostly ok with doing it; opposed to before where my heart would race immediately....


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## dez (Jun 25, 2005)

Prodigal Son said:


> The moment I hear this in class when it has to do with activity the panic immediately kicks in. I have doing pretty good reacting to in-class acitivities this semester but it never fails to get my heart rate up or worse.


 Heh, I f*ckin hated this in high school. The group work always seemed pointless too. It pissed me off that teachers never seemed to consider this may be especially hard for certain students. :wife


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## whiteclouds (Mar 18, 2004)

Christian said:



> But yeah I hated that. It's strange how the teacher probably thinks that you like doing it, when really it's the most painful thing. I used to always think of the teacher as lazy when they'd do that. Instead of teaching us, they want us to break into groups and waste our time.


 :ditto I hate it when each group has to memorize some facts, and then each group has to stand up and "teach" the other groups what facts they studied. The teacher either thinks this activity is a "fun" alternative to lecturing or that students will learn better when they teach each other. Personally, I think it's stupid, and if I, the student, have to teach a class, then I want to get paid just like the teacher, because she's forcing me to do her job.

Experiences like this make me want to become a teacher myself, just so I can exclude everything "fun" from my lesson plan and show everyone what a good teacher really is.


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## keem (Jun 23, 2006)

I hate group work so much. I always just sit there while everybody else gets into groups, and then the teacher notices that I'm alone and tells me which group to work with. And I always feel like I'm intruding on their group and they don't want me there. Then I sit there in silence, and if they ask me what I think about something I mumble "I dunno" and stare at the floor.

In my Intro Psych class last spring we took a personality test and then the TA put people together in groups according to how we scored on the test. I was in a group with 3 other people, and we were all extremely shy and barely said anything. Needless to say we didn't get any work done.


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## Shy One (May 21, 2005)

That happened to me in my Cultural Diversity class last night! She set us up in groups but my mind went completely blank. I was humiliated sitting there not contributing!



keem said:


> I hate group work so much. I always just sit there while everybody else gets into groups, and then the teacher notices that I'm alone and tells me which group to work with. And I always feel like I'm intruding on their group and they don't want me there. Then I sit there in silence, and if they ask me what I think about something I mumble "I dunno" and stare at the floor.


 That was so me in high school. It's easier in college to get in groups cause no one knows each other but still a nightmare.


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## Skroderider (Oct 4, 2006)

Sorry to hear about these problems. Personally, I _love_ working in groups now -- it's unavoidable so you can't subconsciously make excuses, and it's a good way to fight SA, to talk to people a bit without having to think of a topic, and to feel somewhat more confident about yourself. In fact, just today I have had to work in a group with four girls. Went fine and felt great .



whiteclouds said:


> I hate it when each group has to memorize some facts, and then each group has to stand up and "teach" the other groups what facts they studied. The teacher either thinks this activity is a "fun" alternative to lecturing or that students will learn better when they teach each other. Personally, I think it's stupid, and if I, the student, have to teach a class, then I want to get paid just like the teacher, because she's forcing me to do her job.


The way I see it, it's not because teachers are lazy, it's because telling somebody else about the facts you have just learned helps you memorize these facts much better. The only bad part, of course, is that it can really traumatize us SA sufferers.


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## Argo (May 1, 2005)

I hated that in high school, since it's so cliquish and it really is conceivable for someone to say, "No go away, we don't want you in our group." Back then I was usually the person the teacher had to find a group for.

College is much simpler. Then I just asked the nearest people and I never had any difficulties about it. In fact, I was a person apt to invite other people into the group; there were always three or four people who hung back and seemed uncertain, so I suppose it is and always was difficult for a lot of people beyond the "extreme cases" like ourselves.


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## Futures (Aug 27, 2005)

I used to just pull my chair over to a group and hope no douche bag tells me they "already got enough people." Then I'd sit there and listen to everyone else discuss it and hope that once again, no douche bag brings up the fact that I'm not contributing. I was quite the team player. :lol


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## lando_griffin (Aug 19, 2004)

futures that happened to me yesterday, exactly like that. Then, I started to think that i wouldn't be included when we had to present to the other group because i hadn't said anything, but i was. rest of the class i was kind of recovering


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## mismac (Oct 27, 2005)

My heart started racing from just reading the title of this thread!

I've been in school for a while now and only this semester have I gotten an instructor who loooves classroom interaction/participation. He'd randomly call on people in class to answer questions (I asked him to not call on me, so I'm safe from that), and he'd tell us to "discuss" a question with our neighbours before he showed us how to answer it. Many times he has called me out for not doing it.

Him: Stellar, discuss/compare your work with the people around you. Don't be shy!
Me (in my head): ****!

Ugh, so annoying.



whiteclouds said:


> Experiences like this make me want to become a teacher myself, just so I can exclude everything "fun" from my lesson plan and show everyone what a good teacher really is.


Do it! :banana I wish all teachers would focus on teaching the material instead of wasting class time with presentations/group work/etc. There should be a refund or at least a discount on classes where instructors make you do presentations and group work. I'm paying to learn from them, not other students!


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## shy_chick (Sep 27, 2006)

The only good point is I learn better from doing and wouldn't concentrate on the teacher just talking. If you're lucky other people in the group will carry the presentation for you. I feel a lot happier doing group presentations, although still nervous depending on who to.
I hate questions after a talk. I do a PhD and I get Drs/Professors asking me questions (in an academic pulling the work apart way) and I can't answer and can't know what they will ask.


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## Strength (Aug 12, 2006)

haha...I remember those words....i really disliked it when teachers forced that. I've always felt it should be optional.


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## inactive (Sep 27, 2005)

i had a magic moment happen in one of my "split up into groups classes" - the teacher asked what we preferred, and everyone put their hand up against it so shes not doing it again. wohoo!!!


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## mismac (Oct 27, 2005)

Haha. That goes to show you EVERYONE hates group work!


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## Message (Sep 20, 2006)

Oh, when I heard those words my heart would beat so fast I would get dizzy and nauseous. I feel sick just thinking about those days.


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## My_Shrink (Jun 27, 2006)

"Now break up into small groups so you can sit
around and chit-chat and not do anything meaningfull."


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## shygirlxx (Sep 7, 2006)

I dread those words.


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## Qolselanu (Feb 15, 2006)

In high school those words were not too bad. My high school was fairly small, and I usually had a friend or two to group with. So it really was not bad. There were a few times when I got a group with none of my friends so that really sucked. 

Ha, I even remember when working in groups was actually a good thing when I asked my crush if I could join her group in one class. And she said yes, awww.  *I feel a tangent coming on.* Haha, I remember my friend in another group behind me smiling (he knew I liked her) saying something like,"Louie, what are you doing? Who are with with?" He said it fairly audibly. I turned my head around and then gave him a smirk of sorts and turned back to the girl of my dreams. Ah good times.

*Edit* I was not done. Now, in college I don't know a soul, so it is not great. BUT. In my classes it seems that no one really knows anyone else in the class. So usually groups aren't too talkative and usually focused on whatever assignment we got. I dread the day we get a group assignment that is a presentation. :/


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## Dove (Mar 14, 2005)

Futures said:


> I used to just pull my chair over to a group and hope no douche bag tells me they "already got enough people." Then I'd sit there and listen to everyone else discuss it and hope that once again, no douche bag brings up the fact that I'm not contributing. I was quite the team player. :lol


:lol

I never contribute either. Once in a while, I'd offer to be the note-taking person so that I won't have to just sit there.

It seems like people usually just end up grouping with the people they're sitting by so that helps. I also hate hearing "work with a partner".


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## kimi1889 (May 11, 2005)

I know exactly how you feel. I always kinda stay where i'm sitting because I'm afraid that the groups don't want me. Even worse, when you have no close friends in a class and the teacher says to exchange papers to grade each other's tests. In these situations, I just always wait until everyone's taken


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## Caedmon (Dec 14, 2003)

I love groupwork. But, everyone in my classes is very motivated and on the same page mostly, and so we get good work done.


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## Oberyn (Feb 7, 2006)

Group Activities don't really bother me so much anymore. It's a good opportunity of actually talk to people in class in non-akward manner and I feel pressured to actually talk and contribute to the group in some way (so as to not be labeled as a slacker)

The last time I had a group activity was pretty funny. He had to discuss this short movie we just watched and it was me, this cute freshman girl I sit next too (you could consider us "class-friends"), her friend, and this other random guy. 

Now, I don't know if everyone else had SA but all of 4 of us are pretty quiet people. Our group discussion consisted of each of us saying a scentence or two about the movie and it just abruptly ended, we pretty much summed everything up in about 10 seconds. 

I found the following akwardness pretty funny. It felt good to not be the only one respsonsible for the silence; my own inhibitions were actually lowered. I even worked up enough nerve to ask how everbody's
weekend was. That conversation ended in about 10 seconds as well :lol


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## SusanStorm (Oct 27, 2006)

I hate that too..But I don't have that this semester.
I think it is ok when you have to go to the same group all the time,but when the teacher just ask us to find someone and get in a group I just sit there and then maybe someone says "do you want to be with us?".I just feel like a child then.
Or something else I also hate is when the teacher has lectured on something and then they say "talk to the person next to you about what I have been saying".I just sit there and feel that everyone is looking at me.
Luckily that hasn't happened for a long time.


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