End of Communication and Collaboration Course

The end has come for our communication and collaboration course at Walden University. These past eight weeks have brought us continued and deepened understanding of one another, our perspectives, opinions, and communication styles. We have strengthened our existing connections and forged new ones with classmates that were new to us this semester. Now we embark on the journey that could further strengthen our ties or break us apart. We move into the final courses of our programs- each with a different concentration. We will learn to teach adults in the ECE field, to be program administrators/managers, to be public policy advocates, and to teach with diversity and equity in mind. I want to take a moment to thank all of my colleagues for providing varying perspectives on how to approach the many different scenarios we encountered during this course. I learned the importance of listening to everyone's opinions, especially since others can have experience dealing with problems and that everyone's ideas deserve to be heard. Many times, collaboration can result in creative solutions that work, by incorporating many ideas into one. For those who wish to stay in touch, I have posted my contact information below.




Get in touch with me at celesteguinazu@gmail.com

Good luck to everyone in your future endeavors and I hope to see some familiar faces in our next course!

Team development and weathering the adjourning phase

Adjournment is an essential stage of teamwork because every project comes to an end, and each team member takes away new skills and ideas that will carry over to new projects. As I reflect on the many teams I have taken part in over the last several years, I think of which groups were hardest to leave and which I was happy to sever ties with. I notice that the groups with the most cohesiveness were much harder to leave than those where the group interacted awkwardly, regardless of the success or demise of the project. According to O'Hair and Wiemann (2012), cohesiveness is considered a contributor to the success of the project. Groups who identify themselves as one entity, rather than a group of individuals, work like a well oiled machine. Team members learn to interpret the verbal and nonverbal communication patterns of one another, to anticipate the needs of other team members, where the skills of each member of the team compliment the skills of the other members. Unfortunately I have yet to experience a closing ritual that brought true closure and fulfillment. I am not even sure what that would look like. All I know is that when working on a project within a strong team, that strength triumphs almost any challenge. And for these type of team relationships, it is never easy to say goodbye.

I wonder how I will react when the bonds we have formed as colleagues at Walden University come to an end as we finish up our master's degrees. Will we keep in touch? Or will we let those bonds dissipate like the fog in the morning sunshine?  Only time will tell...

 

Reference

 

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Conflict Resolution

One conflict I have recently experienced and solved in the workplace with a colleague stems from differences of opinion regarding realistic expectations and goals for a particular student. This student is someone who receives myriad special education services, and generally functions at a level approximately 2-3 years below that of her peers across all developmental domains. Here's the conflict: my colleague feels that this student should be expected to participate in grade level reading and mathematics activities, while I do not. The data clearly shows that this student is not developmentally ready to engage in learning these particular concepts. One strategy I used to help solve this problem and support my opinion was to present my colleague with clear student data collected over time. I presented several samples of the student's work, with careful notes of what was completed independently, what was completed with assistance and what the student was unable to complete because it was too difficult even with modification and resulted in a temper tantrum. I was careful to listen to her perspective, while keeping an open mind. She contended that this student needed to be exposed to grade level material regardless of whether or not she was able to understand it fully. By engaging in this type of communication, we were both respectful of each other, responsive to each other's opinion, and engaged in a reciprocal conversation (a strategy developed by Magda Gerber to promote effective, respectful communication). The principles of nonviolent communication (www.cnvc.org) that we discussed in class this week also apply to this situation. We honestly expressed our observations, feelings and needs while making a request of the other person, and each emphatically listened to the observations, feelings, needs and requests of the other. As a result, we were able to reach a compromise. The student would spend half of the allotted time in the classroom being exposed to grade level curriculum for each subject in question and would spend the other half of the allotted time for each subject learning concepts and skills that would assist her in coming closer to completing grade level work.

Reference

The Center for Nonviolent Communication (n.d.) The center for nonviolent

     communication. Retrieved from http://www.cnvc.org.