1. John Maguire
Mrs. Laliberte
11/8/13
Reflection on American Identities Project (Family History “FAM”)
To start off, our group worked very well on our project about American Identities.
All of the work in our group was spilt up pretty well. Stone came over my house the day
before the project was due to make sure everything on the actual presentation was
working right and smooth. Michael Pickins missed a couple of days but we caught him
up and ended up pulling his weight in the end. Max Threlkeld also worked diligently on
the project and came through on his slides in the end. This being said, all of the members
in our group, including myself, completed their own individual task that we were
responsible for. I did a very adequate job in my opinion. I ended up finishing all of my
slides as well as designing all of the original slides three days before the rough draft was
due. One of the areas where my group struggled was using time in class with efficiency.
To be honest, we really did not do anything for the first four class periods. In the end
though this really did not matter. Since we did not work well during class we had to
compensate for the lost work time by bringing our work home. Surprisingly, we
communicated very well in and out of school. When Michael was absent Stone contacted
him and made sure he knew what he was responsible for doing at home. Also, Stone and
I communicated very well and met on Saturday to work out the problems with our
project. During class I made it very apparent what each of us should work on at home so
that we did not fall off track. I think that the reason that we worked so well in and out of
class is because all of us got along very well and had a lot to talk about other than the
project since we all participate in sports. Since we all got a long so well we did not have
to use the warning or firing method. There were times where a group member was not
pulling his weight and we addressed him and made sure that he was doing work at home.
We had a few complications during our practice run of the presentation and I’m very glad
that they got worked out then and not during the final presentation. We had our
presentation in the wrong format and did not have succinct bullet points. If we were to
have not fixed these problems before the actual presentation it could have been
disastrous! We knew what we did wrong and fixed and so we did not feel that if was
necessary to attend any workshops. I am actually really thrilled with how my group did
during this project. We had an excellent final product and presentation while I was also
able to learn a lot about each of my group members during work time. I did not know
about Michael Pickins’ Italian ancestry and it fascinated me the kind of customs the
Italian side of his family has. I also learned that Max is Irish, so him and me had a lot we
could relate to. All in all, my group worked really well and came through when it really
mattered during this project.

2. John Maguire
Mrs. Laliberte
11/8/13
The final product that my group created was all I could really ask for. It was not
perfect of course, but we did the best with the topic that we chose. Something that we
could have improved on was our Prezi. I really did not like how if looked and I did not
think it showed the work each of us individually put into the project. On the other hand, I
loved the fact that Stone made transitions for each of us while presenting as well as
having a guiding question that the whole project revolved around. Overall, the quality of
our project was adequate; we succeeded in providing the information for the rest of the
class in an organized way. This was only possible because each of us was responsible for
a certain section of the project. I was assigned immigration, which I found really
interesting and learned a lot. Stone was assigned the introduction as well and doing the
transitions for each of us during our presentation. He, in my opinion, did a really great
job during the final presentation by adding the element of professionalism to our project.
I think that this alone made us stand out from some of the other projects in our class. Max
Threlkeld was responsible for culture and did a very good job in his portion. He
presented everything in a very “matter-of-fact” way. His presentation was basic and clear
which was perfect for his topic. Lastly, Michael Pickins was responsible for food. At
first, he did not really know the best way he could talk about his project but we helped
him and it finally clicked. I was really glad that he was able to give his presentation in a
simple, casual, and funny way. This broke up the factual and boring parts of our project,
which was perfect. We had a problem with the format of our presentation and Stone
stepped up and transferred our project from a Powerpoint to a Prezi and made it look
pretty good! Overall, our project turned out a lot better than I expected and I’m really
happy with the final product.
Surprisingly the best part of our project was the presentation itself. All of my
group members went through and planned the procedure in which out presentation would
operate by but we really did not do much practicing. I kind of expected something to go
wrong with the slides or someone messing something up but we all worked together and
came out really strong and smooth. Everyone in my group talked for about 3-4 minutes
which was what we were required to do. I was not sure how much Stone would talk
since his part in the presentation was kind of complicated but it came out sounding very
natural and to the point. I really would not change anything about our presentation if I
could. I think we came off very strong and educated on our topic.
I was a very responsible and understanding group member during our project. I
did a good job on my own section as well as helping Stone out with the formatting of the
project. I also was organized and did the logs everyday and made sure that everyone
knew which part of his or her section they were responsible for working on at home each
class period. My weakness was in being too sociable during class. Stone and I talked
about sports a lot with Michael since he is a senior. My strength was definitely in
keeping people on course when the due date was growing close. I made sure that all of

3. John Maguire
Mrs. Laliberte
11/8/13
the sections were ready to present on Prezi and everyone knew what they were talking
about during the presentation. If I could change something I would have definitely not
have talked so much during class because I had to do a lot of work at home. Taking
everything into consideration, I could have not expected more out of my group and am
very satisfied with out project and how we all worked together.