Thanks to All!

I would like to thank everyone that has posted on my discussion and blogs.  It is always great to get encouraging words or new insight from others viewpoint.  As we all continue our journey I hope to see future blogs of new information, ideas, or even advice from everyone.  I plan to continue posting blogs throughout my degree program and after I have finished my degree. Thanks too all and hope to see familiar names in the next class.

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Team Development - Adjourning

This week I read about the 5 stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.  I am considering my adjourning phase which is how we all went our separate ways when the group work was complete.  Therefore I was thinking did I have a hard time with saying good-bye to leave the group and move on.  Thinking back with all the groups I have been involved in, I can’t say any of the groups were hard to say good-bye. 

Most groups except one, I was not sad to see them go but with all my classes that we had to do group work we always had some type of end of the year celebration relating to what the group was working on.  I can think of a group of classmates that I was involved in during the last few classes to finish our Bachelor degree, that we did not say good-bye, we said see you around.  We did adjourn the group but we still meat up today for lunch or dinner to talk about old times, what is going on in everyone’s life now, and talk about all the changes that keep going on for preschool education. 

Understanding what adjourning means to a group and why it is part of team development, allowed me to understand that it is an essential stage of teamwork.  Moving on from a group and saying good-bye is a great thing because you may never want to work with those in your group again.  At the same time you may not want to say good-bye because you may in the future have to work with the same group again.  With any group that is a great group you may want to stay in contact because you built a friendship with that group and later down the road you may want to stay in touch to get new ideas for your work.  One person can come up with several ideas and every year especially a teacher wants to have new fresh ideas instead of using the same ones.  Therefore, developing a friendship out of your groups is a great way to brainstorm new ideas to teach. 

Conflict Resolution Skill...

Recently my 21 year old son has moved back into my home and we had a big disagreement over his money.  When I realized things were getting heated up and I did not want my son to feel he had to leave the house.  I told him calmly that we needed to talk about an issue that was bothering me and I only want to help; therefore, I told him after he was done running his errands we will talk.  While he was gone I evaluated the information I found out and was thinking how I was going to talk to him without yelling at him.  So when he came back I stated what the issue was, why I was upset, and how I wanted to help get him back on track.  I laid out some solutions that would help him manage his money and save some so he can get his own place to live.  We talked for an hour coming up with solutions to help him and he was willing to try one of the solutions.  The solution he decided to go with was leaving his bank card with me and I would lock it up. Then he would only keep $30 cash on him and the rest will go in the bank and he will not touch it.  He also was willing to give me his password so that I can check to make sure he was putting the money in his account. 

I thought about the NVC skills when I was decided to talk with my son about his spending habits.  I evaluated myself and how I would react to him by yelling at him for not saving money and blowing it on whatever he wanted to buy.  I also thought about my feelings on this issue and his feelings how he would take me yelling at him, which was never turned out good when he was younger either.  I try to understanding why he was not saving but was buying stuff he did not need and then realized he was buying some clothes along with other things he did not need.  Then when we talked, I clearly laid out the solutions to help him save money for his own place. 

For those that have children old enough to be on their own and are living at home with you again, can you see any other way I could have handle this issue that would help me become a better communicator.

Communication skills

After evaluating my communication, listening,  and verbal skills scale I was shocked with the scores I received.  My communication anxiety inventory test I scored a moderate level, which indicates that I feel somewhat concerned about a number of communication contexts,  but probably not all. The moderate level of communication anxiety is what they call "situational."  I know this is so true amount me, because I do have communication anxiety only during certain times and that usually is when I am in front of a group of people.   I realized that I had this issue when I took a public speaking course and during this course I learned how to calm my nerves when speaking in front of a group of people.   I still get nervous at times but when I am talking about children and their learning it is much easier.   My listening style profile showed I am a people-oriented person but never realized that this can also interfere with my relationships with family and friends.   This profile describes me as empathetic and concerned with the emotions of others.  It shows that this listening style helps me build relationships,  but can also interfere with proper judgment because I tend to be very trusting of others.   I thought this was a good trait about myself but realized that giving some judgement can help others make better decisions.   I do give some of my thoughts to others but would never say anything negative too anyone because I hated hurting others feeling.   Over the years I learned to trust but be wise when trusting other people. My verbal aggressiveness scale was the biggest shock to me because my level was significant.  I never saw myself as an argumentative person or a person that attacks someone thoughts or opinion.  I have always been that person to sit back and bite my tongue because I hate confrontation.  I know I have a lot too learn and the older I get I am getting a little bit more confident within myself to speak in public.

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WK 3 Helpful Communication Tips...

We all know that communicating with others can be a challenge too some but here are three strategies that have helped me to become an effective communicator….

1. Listen effectively when someone is talking with you or in a group so that you can take in what is being said and at the same time be open-minded.
2. Focus on others thoughts and perspectives and what others may be experiencing emotionally.
3. Take a step back and think outside the box in other words "step into their shoes."

Taking a step back and thinking outside the box would allow us to learn as much as we can about a person.  Listening to someone when they are talking would give you vital information about what they are feeling or thinking.  Focusing on other thoughts and perspectives along with what they may be experiencing, will show them that you care about their thoughts and emotions. 

TV Shows & Communication Skills

I decided to watch an episode of Gilmore Girls, which is a show about a young single mother and her teenage daughter building a relationship living in a small town called Stars Hollow.  Watching the show without sounds showed nonverbal communication through their facial expression and/or body language. The facial expressions were show through their smiles, laughing for happiness, and even crying for sadness.  Their body languages were shown through the mom and daughter hugging each other while the daughter was crying which showed me that mom was consoling her daughter.  Watching the show again with the sound on, the smiles and laughing were the signs of happiness.  The crying was sadness because her daughter had a boyfriend and he broke up with her and mom was consoling her and telling her that if it was meant to be then it will be.  This episode was a life lesson of a young girl who experienced her first break up from her first love and mom was there to help her daughter through it.  Watching this show without sound has taught me to be more open and watch for nonverbal communication cues.  I plan on watching more shows without sound to learn more about nonverbal communication cues and try to figure out what the characters are trying to convey and meaning. 

WK 1 Competent Communication

I can think of a time when I had to go to an early childhood conference for training hours.  The speaker was teaching about challenging behaviors and ways to working with challenging behaviors.  The speaker did keep eye contact and her tones during the sessions and I felt was a strong communication part.   What I did not think was effective communication was the examples she gave to exampling the challenging behaviors.  I am an early childhood professional and I know you should never use the child’s first and last names when giving examples at a conference.  The speaker even went on to talk about the parents and added comments of what these parents said on how they would punish their child.  The speaker had videos of these children to show us challenging behaviors and staff to show how to deal with them.  I knew the speaker personally and knew the child care center that was recorded to show these examples.  I felt confidentiality of the children and parents were broken.  I have seen a lot of videos that have children in them and know the adults used different names for the children or just use first names.  I would never model this type of communication if I was a speaker at conference.  Confidentiality should never be broken in any conversations.