Hello! All throughout my high school year, I was priviledged to be apart of an organization called Global Scholars. This was an organization that had diplomats from all around the world come to a fancy-schmancy dinner at a nearby hotel and speak as well as interact with students in the district. The food was good and the conversation with the diplomats was great but something I really appriciated was the time we were able to get to know other students from different high schools. These dinners happened twice or three times a season so we all utilized our times together and got to know each other the best we could. By the end of our four year, I made some good friends too!

Alright, you now have the background. Now let's get to the nitty-gritty: working with Tuckman's stages.

FORMING
In short, it's like the Disney princess version of ourselves at the begginning of meeting your team. We all want acceptance right? So we turn on our charm and share those pearly whites while trying to not be too talky or loud or quiet or bashful. Then high-ho high-ho it's off to work everyone goes trying to get to know one another and the situations at hand. Some important things to add is that with forming, your supervisor is key for getting the groups where they need. Also, this is not to time to start conflict (this is NOT Jersey Shore). Tying in Global Scholars, we did this by having a mixer at each dinner and then we were able to formulate what each group had to say to the diplomats and such. We knew each other so we were able to form together better by this point. 

                                          STORMING

It's not a piece of cake. This is the brainstorming part of the group time. Like with every group, there will be different viewpoints about where to go and how to get there. There's no set way to do things so everyone needs to be accepting of there different views. Some groups don't necessarily get out of this stage easy. In Global Scholars, the task was handed to us so we knew what to do (create questions for the diplomat) but we still had to work things out on what to ask and who to ask. All in all I was lucky and didn't have any issues.

NORMING

There's a goal ready and set. All the team has to do to go go go and put it into action. With my groups, we all just worked together and everything turned out great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNunS0JozR0
The PowerRangers knew how to Norm and Perform!
PERFORMING
This is a team that got to the norming stage but with a 110%. They know each other and what everyone brings to the table. They utilize these skills and work perfectly with one another. Not many groups can boast this but actually a lot of my Global Scholars groups did...again lucky I know.

So basically, if each group setting you were in was a book, the four topics I just talked about would be the chapters!

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

-Margaret Mead