I really enjoy working with my group so far. We all have similar ideas and work methods, making it easy for us to get along. This really helps us because we are able to come up with quick compromises and solutions to problems that we face. I think that each of our ideas for the outcome of our assignment is similar, which also makes it easy to work with my group. We all seem to be on the same page with most of the assignments, and we're currently on track with everything we need to get done. If the rest of this assignment goes as smoothly as it has been going so far I think we will do better than we ever expected. 

I think that so far everything is going smoothly. My group and I are getting along great and everyone is working together to collect sources; however, our design plan is not as far along. I think that if we all pull together that should be pretty easy to get done so we can focus more of our attention towards our bibliography and our visual. The more I think about the assignment as a whole, the more excited I get because I really do love our topic and I think we can make a big impact. Overall, we're definitely not ahead, but we're not far behind either, in my opinion we're just working at our own pace, and that has been working well so far. 

I really enjoyed reading Chisholm's article, because it references the daily struggles a teacher goes through when having students collaborate. I feel that collaboration in general is a great experience and one that everyone can learn a lot from; however, we have all gone through bad experiences with this as well. I think that Chisholm does a good job of highlighting the positives and the negatives, and provides teachers with techniques that not only combat the negatives, but also prevent them from happening in the future. There are a lot of things that teachers and students alike can do to improve the experiences they have while collaborating with other people. 

Collaboration to me is the combining of ideas, thoughts, and experiences to create a joint union in which everyone is able to learn something from someone else. With that said, I feel that in order to fully collaborate one must be open with the people they are grouped with in order to get the full experience. I think that collaborating is similar to beginning a relationship. First is the official meeting, or the first date, in which everyone is nervous and hesitant. Next is opening up to one another and see if everyone's opinions mesh, and everyone accepts other peoples ideas even if they don't agree with them. Lastly, if everyone is feeling good they will move on and have an even better second date, in which they can learn more and help each other further. The problem is that some people will not be as open as others, and other people will be stuck on their "exes" or other friends, and won't be fully committed to the group. Therefore, it's good to set up boundaries and explain on the first meeting what the goals are, and what everyone is looking to get out of this experience.

I feel that to advocate for something is very important, because it shows that you deeply care about something that is meaningful to you in some way. Being an advocate for something can be very powerful, for example, those who are advocates against animal abuse. Advocacy to me, means to stand up for something that you believe in. It can also be something simple. I feel that the items I collected are successful because they talk about things that are meaningful to the people my age, or their targeted demographic. They understand that they are trying to reach college student; therefore, they pinpoint exactly what it is we want to read about.