An Ending is Always a New Beginning

Preschool and childcare are at critical time and age in their young developing lives. It is very valuable for us all the learn everything we can about child development, and to gain the knowledge to provide a warm, nurturing environment and teach age appropriate curriculum. I applaud all of the students in the Walden University Child Development program for taking the first step in gaining the knowledge needed for helping all young children to develop. Never lose the passion and yearning to be a child advocate. “Keep on teaching”.

Adjourning Stage

   The final stage “adjourning”-means the project is coming to an end and the team members are starting to go their separate ways. They celebrate the teams efforts and learn from what they have accomplished (Abudi, 2010). The adjourning stage is a difficult, but important stage in the team process because it is the stage when everyone says their good-byes and move onto other projects. I have mixed feelings on this stage because it is quite a relief to accomplish what a group sets out to do and a relief when it is over. The group can go over things they have learned and what things they might do differently the next time. This is the celebrating stage. This is also the time when all involved will go their separate ways.

   In the past I have not had many opportunities to be part of a team that would demonstrate changes; the teams I have been a part of would be for arranging events, party’s’.  Nonetheless, we did go through the fives stages of team development, but I was not aware of the stages before this course.

1. The “forming” stage-this is when a team first meets each other and introductions are made. The members of the team share information about themselves and they are finding out information about others and how they feel they will work together (Abudi, 2010).
2. A the team works together they get into the “storming” stage-in this stage the team members compete for status and acceptance(Abudi, 2010). The team leader must guide the team so that conflict is solved together and introduce the win/win approach and try to change the conflict from adversarial attack and defense, to co-operation (www.crnhq.org).
3. In the third stage “norming”-the team begins to work together more efficiently as a team. They are focusing on goals together, not individual goals. This is where the trust takes place of the progress begins.
4. The “performing” stage-this is where the team focuses on the goal. The team knows each other, trusts each other, and they rely on each other. At this point the team works with no guidance, and the team works together as a group.
5. The final stage “adjourning”-means the project is coming to an end and the team members are starting to go their separate ways. They celebrate the teams efforts and learn from what they have accomplished (Abudi, 2010).

   When this course is over everyone will be missed. The bright sides of things are that we always run into familiar people in the next course and the course after that. When we are totally finished with the program, we will be so elated we are finished; this emotion will take over any other emotions.

  

References

Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from    http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html

Hand Washing, “To Do or Not To Do”

   About four weeks ago, when I was working in an early head start center we had a discussion about hand washing. We have a bathroom in the hall way and the director came from the bathroom in the hallway directly into the center. To get into the center you must open the door with your keys and enter the center. I was told on day one when you enter the center you are directly in the classroom and you must wash your hands again before you touch anything. This is what most of us did, and I actually thought everyone involved also did, but this was not the case. We are all trying to catch the director doing something out of protocol because it is fun when the tables have turned.

   This opened up a big discussion over “Do we wash our hands again, after we just did so in the bathroom. We all had our input and at times the discussion did get very serious because we all wanted to express our opinions.

   This discussion turned into a power struggle and what needed to be done is change the agenda to make it a win/win situation for everyone involved. The strategies of a win/win approach is to go back to the underlying needs, recognize the individual needs of the persons involved, remain open to adapt to the different positions, share information and attitudes, and attack the problem not the people involved (www.crnhq.org). We all wanted to be heard. The approach we should have taken was to come to a resolution by using the Third Side approach because it is a systematic approach to handling a conflict (www.thirdside.org). We should have listened all sides of the conflict, encourage the process of cooperative negotiation, and support a solution to fairly meet the needs of all sides involved. By taking the Third Side this will gives the opportunity to transform the conflict from being destructive into constructive change. When there is a situation such as this one, there is no need to take sides nor do you have to be neutral, what you want to do is seek to understand all sides and come to an amicable agreement that meets the needs of all sides involved. The goal in communication is transform a challenge or destructive conversation into a constructive or negotiable way to settle things peacefully.

  We all agreed, when in doubt, wash your hands. The director was going to look it up in the operations manual and get back to us in the next monthly meeting.

References

Conflict Resolution Network. (n.d.). CR kit. Retrieved from    http://www.crnhq.org/pages.php?pID=12#skill_3

The Third Side. (n.d.). The third side. Retrieved from http://www.thirdside.org/

Communication Evaluation

   I enjoyed learning about my self and what others think of me when it comes to communication. These assessments have made me very aware of the communication skills I need to work on and the areas I need to become more effective when communicating. I need to learn to be less aggressive in my verbal style of communication. I do not want to come across as being argumentative or attack anyone in the communication process. This is not good because I do not want nor intend to offend anyone and I need to improve on my verbal style of communication. I also need to improve on becoming comfortable when talking in meetings or conferences’. I have always had communication anxiety when having formal meetings with strangers. I become much more at ease when I get to know the people involved, so I need to learn how to get rid of this communication anxiety. Lastly, I need to improve on my listen style because I do not want people to take advantage of me because I have poor judgment. However, I do want to maintain relationships and be an empathetic listener because I do care. I do not want to come across as being intimidating and hurt the feelings of my sensitive listeners. Again, I am more comfortable in a classroom with children rather than a conference room with strangers so I do see the need to get to know the parents, stakeholders and all involved to become a good listener and verbal communicator and try and work on limiting the anxiety when it comes to all forms of communication.

Stop the Vicious Cycle

We as a family treat everyone the same. We have not taught our kids to discriminate against anyone. We focused on developing an awareness and commitment to stopping discrimination before they had a chance plague our family. We already know how important it is to foster values of diversity early on and create opportunities for children to interact in inclusive environments. It takes a village to raise a child, everyone in contact with a child leaves an impression on that child, and therefore, the whole is greater than the sum. Each child takes a little bit of the puzzle and puts it together for themselves. It’s our job as parents to furnish the pieces.

   The following is just an example of something we had to deal with at a family and friend gathering at our house:

We all get together on the weekends, everyone is welcome. We BBQ, shoot pool, swim and partake in many fun activities. One night one of our gay friends came over and one of the other guests let it be known that he did not want to associate with “gay people”. He said a few more choice words but I will not repeat them. I over heard him say, “I don’t want to get my glass mixed up with his because I might catch something”. I politely asked him to leave. Our house is a neutral zone and I intend to keep it as such. We all want to have fun and we have no time for ignorance and disrespect. Stop the vicious cycle.

An Effective Communicator

   In a past communication class I had taken to obtain my Bachelors Degree a certain woman stands out in my mind how entertaining she was when she told a story about a bug getting stuck in her ear. The assignment given was to write a personal story about you, and tell it out loud to the class. This girl stood in front of the class and from the start, she had everyone paying close attention the whole time she told the story. I remember she had us laughing from the start. It was the way she communicated to us verbally and her gestures along with her body movement is what kept us on the edge of our seats. I remember laughing from start to finish, as well as the rest of the class. This girl had the attention of the whole class.

   Laughter goes a long way and it could be the key to making people feel welcome. I don’t think this woman intentionally wrote her speech to be comical, but it is the way it turned out. What added to the enthusiasm of the class was they way she told the story, the contents and definitely her body gestures.

   I feel when laughter is involved it open the door to communication. Sometimes difficult issues are talked about during meetings or communication and all involved need to be open and comfortable so when you share positive humor it can become an effective means to achieve a common goal. A person that can show they have a good sense of humor can help establish an inviting atmosphere. With laughter you can turn a hostile situation into a positive situation. Humor can be a means of keeping tensions, frustration and upset from escalating if times just right.

To the Future

   My goals are simple and I would like to start by welcoming people from other countries, or even our own, especially if they do not know how to speak the local language of where they chose to live, they can become frustrated and do not even want to try. Students can suffer when their parents do not speak the language of the school. This sometimes intimidates the parent and they are not involved in their child’s school experience. Without the skills to communicate with each other, understanding diminishes between the parent and the teacher. We as educators must create a welcoming environment for parents, students and accommodate the entire family. We should want all to be involved in the education process.

   Teachers need to acquire the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to educate our diverse learners. There is a lot of resistance coming from the educators addressing issues like race and racism in their courses and even throughout the school (Cochran-Smith, 2004). Our children with diverse, cultural backgrounds will continue to not be served until our schools knowledge the need for culturally educated teachers. We all must be willing to value and celebrate diversity in developing curriculum and classroom practices. I think ways we can help diverse learners is to take a constructivist view of learning and remember all students are capable of learning.

   I would also like to that Pamela for being and excellent communicating and understanding instructor and all my colleagues for their patience excepting all my late papers. Through the course of this class it has been a difficult time and challenging time and I thank everyone involved for helping me to think and learn. I wish everyone the best in the future and i hope all of your goals happen!

References

Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). Walking the road: Race, diversity, and social justice in       

   Teacher education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.