Thank You

Thank You

 These eight weeks have been very informative and eye opening while learning the importance of effective communication and how to successful collaboration can lead to positive outcomes in the field of early childhood education.

I have always considered myself a good communicate but I have learned this happens when I am in the people in the same cultural group or background as I am. Through the pass weeks I have gain much knowledge a strategies to use that will help me effective communicate with people that are not in my circle.

Your blogs about the different ways of communicating and collaborating has also given me better insights on how we share some of the same imperfections and the strategies you plan to enhance them. We are representatives of an important line of work and we must work to build relationships with families from different cultural backgrounds and that may not share the same values, visions and goal as we do, but must provide them with respect, mutual trust and commitment to give them our best.  

I wish all of you the best in your future endeavors and much success when establishing effective communication and collaboration experiences with your families and friends.

Adjourning

Adjourning

Working with a group whose primary focus is to achieve an outcome is the type of group I appreciated being a part of. The team objective was to create a lesson plan for teachers to use when preparing goals and activities for children.  There were five members of the group: parent, teacher, education, disability, and nutrition manager. It was important for us to have a diverse group to be able to get different perspectives of what children need to be successful.

It took a few meetings before we got to the norming and performing stages of this project but once we started communication, listening and made adjustments we reach the ultimate goal creating a workable document. We first had to learn to trust the input of each member and the importance of having the tool encompass the wholistic approach teaching children.

Once we completed the creating the lesson plan we all realized we were in the adjourning stage of the process. Adjourning is the encounter is over and we are going back to our lives before the group began. We were very happy with the finished document and we were excited about sharing the tool with the teaching team for them to beginning using it when preparing lesson for the children.  Through the group accomplished the mission with success we agreed to meet after the lesson plan had be implemented to see if we needed to add or make changes. I truly enjoyed working in this group because we had important assignment that would help teachers’ better plan for each individual child.

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

Resolving Conflict

Resolving Conflict

I can remember a disagreement I had in a management meeting about the who is qualified to care for young children when their parent (s) were attending a training or workshop.  One of my colleagues’s stated that we could have high school students that volunteer in our program to care for the children, but as I shared according to Division of Child Development the persons’ have pass a TB skin test and approved through the division of child development. I think we were passionate about our opinions and the discussion became loud and out of order.  I think this approach of communication resulted in not addressing the initial concern and we both let the meeting feeling anger towards one another.

This situation was an example of inappropriately addressed conflict. Both of us had a concern and felt our resolutions were the right one. As early childhood educators we know the rules to follow when we are taking care of the children enrolled in our program. But my colleague felt the issue of caring for children not enrolled did not have to follow the same rules.

I took the time to reflect on what happen in this situation and how I could have handled the way I shared the rules of monitoring children. I noticed my colleague was frustrated about the issue and speaking before she had the opportunity to express her emotions was not the best choice. So to keep situation like this from occurring again I plan to implement some of the principles of nonviolent communication I have learned this week.

I know the communication between us about this situation should have been addressed using the NVC approach. In this week’s lesson we have learned different strategies to express our opinion in an effective nonviolent manner. I think the “Thirdside” strategy approach of learning to listen at the total concern before giving my opinion and advice. I wanted us to be able to collaborate to establish a solution that will ensure our program is following the required rules.  

The other strategy I think would help with better communication would be the 3 R’s theory of respecting and acknowledge my colleague’s opinion and responding in a less closed minded manner will lead to a mutual respect and empower our professional working relationship.