Project Post-Mortem reflection

The assignment for this post is to remember a project that failed, and to look at the “post-mortem reflection” to consider some of the reasons.

I worked with a group of teachers when we were implementing a new math book.  The new math book was rolled out and it was very different from what was used the previous year.  I was new to the team that year, transferring in from a different school.  We were tasked with looking at the new materials and creating lessons that would fit within our objectives and creating engaging projects.

The team jumped right in and looking back, we should have created a timeline and assigned roles for each member.  There were 7 team members, each with very different views.  Three of the teachers wanted to use the same materials that they used the previous year.  We did not have “buy-in” from these teachers and they were not interested in using the new book.

With the 4 remaining team members, we went through each standard and found the materials that related to that standard and came up with an engaging presentation.  It took us about 3 weeks to come up with ideas for the lessons for the 1^st quarter of the school year.  Looking back, I feel that if we would have assigned roles, we could have each taken a section to work with individually and created the project faster.