Thank You!!!

Just want to say thank you to everyone for sharing their knowledge, experiences, and insights throughout this course.  I have learned some new skills that I will be putting to work in the classroom and in my own life.  I am facing new challenges in communication and this course has been very helpful.  I hope you all have success as you continue to pursue your degree and look forward to communicating with many of you in future courses.  Good luck to you all!

Team Building and Collaboration

One of the first groups I think of when I think of adjourning is graduating high school.  This was a group of people that I spent a lot of time with.  I formed many close friendships with these people and graduation was a celebration of our accomplishments.  We were setting out into a whole new world with new expectations and unknown adventures.  Some of the people I still talk to and some I rarely, if ever see.  It was a sad and happy time.  I have been a part of several classroom teams that did not stay together and some were hard to leave while others were easy.  The harder ones were the ones where we were high-performing and there was trust, exceptance, and support for everyone.  I am still friends with a couple of the teachers I worked with through the years because of the bonds we made in the classroom.  I also remember being part of an Early Reading First grant and how we had a celebratory dinner when the grant ended.  It was sad because I had to find new employment and because I was going to miss doing what I had done and working with the people I had worked with.  It was also wonderful because so many of the teachers had learned so much and had come so far with the support of the Early Reading First team.  It was good to know that they had the skills they needed to continue what they had learned. 

The hardest group to leave was my current employer.  I was part of an amazing organization and after having a seizure I could no longer do one of my job functions and was forced to look elsewhere for work.  I loved the organization and hated to leave.  One good thing was my determination to go back.  I began working on getting my degree in child development and I am happy to say that I am back with that organization only to find that things are about to change dramatically. 

As far as closing rituals, I have experienced many dinners and a few graduations.  I imagine that I will adjourn from the group of colleagues in my Master's degree program with some sad goodbyes, but also knowing that we all still have our blogs and we can communicate with one another if we need to.  I think adjourning is essential because we need to look back on our accomplishments and celebrate those and even look at our failures and what we may have overcome.  By taking time, we can see how we will move forward and perhaps how we will stay in touch with members of the group. 

Conflict Resolution

I am currently having difficulty with my assistant teacher.  She comes across quite harsh and each time I feel like I've done something good, she always points out something wrong.  We have to have families fill out new child information cards when they have a change of address and move to another center and we have a new child that will be starting this week whose parents stopped into the classroom.  While they were there I had them fill out those new cards and was feeling good about having completed this task!  When my assistant came in and saw the card, she immediately asked me who she could release the child to and why there were not more names listed.  I also have another problem with the bus driver as he gets gas almost every day during class time.  According to our policies and procedures manual, drivers are suppose to get gas before they start their day or at the end of the day.

This week, I am going to have to address these issues and I am very nervous.  I have learned this week that conflict does not have to be negative and I am hopeful that by addressing my concerns, it will open lines of communication and make us a stronger team.  I also know that I do not want to make my assistant or driver feel like I am attacking them, so I will be as empathetic as I can and make use of I statements.  We also have to be mindful of the needs of the children in the classroom. 

Something that stuck out this week in my reading was from The Third Side; "people want to be recognized and respected for who they are".  I know that I want to be recognized and given positive feedback and I do my best to let my staff know how much I appreciate what they do each day and especially when they put forth extra effort.  Our bus driver is new to our program and is still learning every day.  He is starting to interact more with the children and even attempted to do an assessment on a very challenging child the other day.  I have to give him kudos for all he is doing!  I need my staff to also understand that I need to have some of this same kind of positive recognition as well.  I love how the children let me know they love me, but I am struggling to get any positive interactions with my assistant which could make for a very long year. 

I hope that I have the skills to approach this conflict and have a good outcome.  Cross your fingers for me please! 

I have a colleague that has worked in early childhood for a long time and she shared with me that it took her awhile to be able to approach conflict well.  It is still not something that she enjoys, but with her new role as a center supervisor, she may find herself dealing with conflict even more.  In this new role, she sees herself more as a mediator and sometimes arbitrator.