Team Development

One of my favorite places I've ever worked was an elementary school where I taught pre-k. Of course we had our ups and downs, but for the most part our team felt like a family...so much so that we still have strong relationships to this day. It was hard to leave this team because of the "family" feel. We all had each other's backs, supported one another (both professionally and personally), and laughed like no other. When I left this position there were a lot of tears and reminiscing, and soon after I left many people from the school moved on as well due to a change in leadership. A closing ritual we implemented was getting together for dinner to reflect on the good times, which served as a confirmation that we would all keep in touch. We turned this into a tradition, and at the end of each school year we still get together for dinner to catch up.

From this program, I would like it if all of us could adjourn by congratulating each other for completing the program and posting a photo of our degrees to some sort of photo thread. This would allow me to see that all of the colleagues I've met along the way completed this journey with me and that we were all successful.

Adjournment is so important because it gives everyone a sense of completion and accomplishment. Even though adjournment is celebrating the ending of something that was once good, it still serves as  time to reflect and celebrate accomplishments.

NVC & The Three R's

I recently had a conflict with one of my teachers regarding non-submission of lesson plans. This is a repeat offender whom always has issues with submitting things on time and fulfilling classroom responsibilities. She also has a tendency to be combative when addressed with feedback. While having the conversation (or any conversation with her) based on our history, I tend to enter the conversation already agitated and visibly frustrated. Through what I have learned, what I give people is what I will reciprocate...which is one element of the three R's. In order to have mutual respect between the two of us, I must also learn to listen for understanding, rather than just listening as a requirement or just to respond.

I asked one of my fellow EC's for advice on communicating with staff, and she explained that I should commit to going into conversations/feedback with a mindset of understanding rather than walking in with a plan as to how the conversation should go. When you go into a conversation with pre-conceived ideas and actions, you tend to not listen as effectively as you should.

Who Am I as a Communicator?

This week, I chose to have one of the teachers on my staff and my oldest sister to evaluate me through the assessments. My teacher's results were almost the same as my own, the only difference was she did not sense any of my communication anxiety. My sister, however, scored me higher on my verbal aggressiveness in the sense that she feels I get aggressive in conversation when I don't agree with someone. I have heard throughout life that we tend to give people different versions of ourselves, and that is what I believe these assessments mostly revealed.

Diversity in the Workplace

The staff at my current place of employment is quite diverse. We have a large mix of racial and religious backgrounds presented throughout our teaching and administrative staff. At times, I do find myself speaking to individual people in different ways, yet it is not because of their cultural background. I do however have an awareness of each person on staff and how they best receive information. Just as we cater to the children and their individual learning styles, I cater to each person whom I come into contact with and their communication styles. This takes a while to master, and it takes for one to get to know people on both a personal and professional level. Catering to communication styles and reception in each and every person can continue to foster healthy lines of communication and overall effectiveness.

Communication through "Friends"

I chose to evaluate communication cues through the show "Friends". I have never really watched the show, so I chose it due to the fact that I am unaware of the relationships amongst the characters.

In the episode I first viewed the opening scene in silence. The characters are all sitting around talking in a group setting. The conversation seems to be light hearted and genuine between friends. Everyone's non-verbal cues speak to their strong bond as friends. Each of the five characters in the scene seemed relaxed in nature and their body language signaled me to believe that they all got along within the group. Another character enters the room and seems sad. Many of the characters reach out to touch and comfort him, while the others seemed confused as to what was going on with him. One character in particular seemed unbothered with the other character's emotions, as he continued to read a magazine with his feet propped on the table throughout the encounter.

After watching the scene with sound, I now know that the scene does consist of a group of friends sitting in a coffee shop discussing topics such as relationships and past experiences. The group was grilling one of the female characters regarding a date with a new guy. The conversation was indeed light-hearted and consisted of light banter and jokes between friends. When the sad character walks into the coffee shop, he is visibly upset and only one friend in the group seems to know why. The uninterested friend attempts to lighten the mood by offering him a cookie. I learned that the character is sad due to someone named Carol (a former girlfriend) moved her things out of his home earlier that day and left him. The group continues to banter on and the uninterested friend makes jokes pertaining to how he should have known his girlfriend was a lesbian all along and he wouldn't be hurt.

It would be much easier to interpret the scene if i'd seen the show prior to this moment and knew the characters as well as their situations.

An Effective Communicator...

One person in my life that I have always viewed as an effective communicator was a previous director of mine. I was young and of course, bullheaded, when it came to receiving feedback and understanding the operations of a high quality childcare center. Back then I viewed this person as a nitpicker, as I thought she was targeting me out of the group. I can now look back and appreciate the ways she communicated feedback with me, and I now even utilize some of her methods with my own staff. First, she never belittled me in front of a group or even one-on-one. She also made it a point to always communicate what she liked to call "the why" behind everything she corrected me on. She also modeled a lot for me, demonstrating how things should be done instead of just telling me or expecting me to know. I always reach out to her and let her know how much of an influence she was on me, and we both laugh because we realize how unaware of all of this I was back then. I can now appreciate and even reflect what she taught me and how she communicated with me with others, which is such a benefit for me.

One Hope, One Goal, & a Note of Thanks

One Hope: The children and families that I come into contact with will feel that I am accepting, understanding, and welcoming to their individuality and cultural diversity. I also want to assist others with their own personal understanding of diversity in hopes of helping the world become more understanding and tolerant of one another.

One Goal: To continue to emulate the change I wish to see in the world, as well as implementing more opportunities and aspects of diverse cultures within my school/classrooms.

Thank you for all of the words of wisdom, shared stories and experiences, and open thoughts throughout this course. I hope that you all have learned something from me and all that we have learned through our time together. I wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors.