Breakfast Club in real life!

All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I was doing community service.  It was the day that we watched BreakFast Club in sociology class.  I help kids in and elementary school afterschool with homework and other activities.  At the beginning the kids line up at the gym door and take a seat wherever they like in four lunch tables.  Theres not many kids so you can easily how each one splits up in their own group.  It just seems like groups from a visual point of view but once you see talk to them you get a more in depth look at what each group "does".  I could easily say that I can describe at least three groups from there.  I saw the group of girls that just helped each other with their homework, the group of guys that did all their homework as fast as they could to be able to play basketball afterward, and the group of guys that made fun of each other and got half of their work done.  This reminded me of the breakfast club because each section of the tables had their own group and did not interact with each other.  I think that these group of kids are a part of a reference group because they form a large group and have a special purpose but I dont think that they even talk to each other outside of school.  They are also part of an interest group because they are held together by a common objective. These kids have so much of sociology and they show more of it when it has to do with groups and how they interact with each other.

Groups in Elementary School

All of a sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically when I was doing community service with children in an elementary school.  There was three long tables where the children sit in and they all choose where to sit so most of them sit with their friends or people they like being around.  I noticed that there was one girl sitting alone at the end of the table just doing her homework and eating her snack, but she did not look happy at all she looked kind of sad,down, and in a hurry to finish.  I thought maybe she just wanted to finish all her homework without distractions until one of the other kids asked me why she was sitting alone, I didn't know exactly why, so I sat in front of her and asked why she was sitting alone.  She told me that the girls sitting behind her used to sit with her but then they were being really mean to her and excluded her out of their group.  Knowing the types of groups that there is I realized that she became part of the out-group.  She went from being a member of the in-group to a member of the out-group that was viewed with hostility by the in-group members.  After they finished their snack and some homework I turned around and she was playing with the girls that were mean to her and so when I had the chance I asked her what she did so they will talk to her again and she responded that they told her if she "helped" them with their homework they will sit with her again she thought this was a pretty good deal because she would not have to sit alone anymore.  This was an example of out-group and social exchange.  The girl became part of the out-group and for her to become part of the in-group again she had to "help" the members of the in-group with their homework. 

Snow!!

All of a sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically when the huge blizzard hit chicago.  It was around ten pm on Tuesday and it snowed like crazy and our driveway was just too filled with snow that my family decided to go outside and clean it up before it got any worst the next day and we would end up cleaning more.  We each got a shovel, but did not know where to start and we all just began at the same place....well it didnt go so well because we kept hitting each other and the rest was just getting worst.  This reminded me of the puzzle activity we did in class where if everyone did the same thing at the same time there came a point where nothing was actually getting done.  At that point we decided to split up the work so we can get the most snow off.  This seemed to work very good because we all pitched in equally and got the most work done at a good amount of time, until the snow filled it up again. It was worth giving it a try because the next day we got a good amount of snow off compared to our neighbors who hadnt shoveled until the snow stopped. This compares with the puzzle activity because we just got out there without knowing exactly what we were going to do but once we figured it out we got the job done quickly and good and with a lot of group effort.