THANK YOU!

I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for your time and effort throughout this course. This last year has been a whirlwind for me and these course have helped me steady each week. Your experiences and comments have brought to light new ideas and insights to consider during my professional career. I wish the best for each one of your and I hope to hear from you soon.

Team Development

This week while discussing team development and working in groups I started to reminsce about my time as a group leader for an overnight summer camp. This was an interesting group of women (it was a girl scout camp) working together to provide fun experiences for girls 6 to 16 years old. This group of co-workers and myself began working in 2004. We lost some members the summer of 2005 but that group ended up being one of the best groups I have ever had the pleasure of being a participant.

We went through all the stages of team development and became and extremely productive group. After two summers and living together our training week turned into a week of fun and preparing, not learning new skills or teaching others. This group was particularly difficult to leave but we handled the stage of adjourning through communication during the year and reunions throughout the years. As graduate students the adjourning stage is graduation and commencement. This is how we come together and celebrate the success of our class.

Adjourning allows a team to reflect on the good and the bad.

Nonviolent Communication and the 3R's

In my professional career I am currently dealing with staffing problems. Conflicts between staff members and different programs. In my recent learning I have found several strategies to help me through these conflicts.
The first strategy that would help is connecting with other's needs and values. This will allow me to understand where my staff members are coming from and how to negotiate an understanding. Another strategy is about emphasizing compassion. This will motivate better than instilling fear, guilt or shame in a situation.
In my situation, the best thing is to look at the situation from their view and see how I can explain what needs to happen for the greater good.

Nonverbal Communication and Television

For this experience I chose to record and watch an episode of WWE Divas. My fiance normally watches the show and I am doing work so I never pay attention. After I recorded the show on Sunday evening, I watched it on Monday on mute. This was an interesting experience as I found myself trying to understand the basis of the "real life" reality show. It was difficult to understand the entire story. Especially because this is apparently reality television and I do not normally watch these shows. You can tell there is tension between some characters and that they are resistant of a new comer but not any real detail about their interactions.
One thing I learned from my horribly wrong assumptions is that it is not a good idea to pass judgement on a situation you no nothing about because it will come back full circle and teach you the lesson. I believe if I had been a regular viewer of the show it may have made more sense on why certain people were fighting but other than that I was a bit lost.
Just remember never assume you understand the situation without all sides of the story. You may be horribly mistaken. 

Communication Role Models

Working in the non-profit organization that I work within, I encounter many new faces and role models throughout my career. One of my more prevalent role models is my executive director, Pedro. I am fortunate that he understand the early childhood education field and supports us, but on top of that he is an excellent communicator. During the last month I have learn many new techniques, including how to receive information without asking a direct question. He is dedicated and articulate when speaking with others, showing me how to actively listen throughout a full conversation and take something away from the process.

I strive to hold that calm and collected method of communication with colleagues, employees and other agencies. Hoping to set a good example for my staff and colleagues on how communication can achieve goals you set for a program.

Communicating Differently?

The idea of culture, diversity, education and perception are all relatively “old” concepts for me as a educator. However, the in-depth look into each portion has shown me new light. I find myself constantly aware of who I am speaking with, but not because of their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or political affiliation. It’s because we speak about our differences and I am aware of how my words can hurt others without even thinking about it.

I find that I do not speak different with people of different cultures but I may be more inquisitive during communication with people of different cultures. For the last two weeks I have been focused on how I communicate with others and I noticed with the majority of older people I am using polite phrases more often. I am constantly aware that I do not want to disrespect anyone that is older than myself or that has more experience within my field or company.

Strategies to communicate more effectively are easy enough to come by. I believe that every person can work on themselves and how they communicate. I find that I need to be a more active listening and participant in communicating with colleagues within my association. Another strategy that I will use is to develop appropriate knowledge. I will spend time learning of different cultures and learning others communication codes. The third strategy I would use would be to develop motivation. “A competent communication wants to learn and improve.” 

Assumptions in Communication

The show I chose to view was Rookie Blue. I watched an episode a couple years ago when it first came on the air but I have not viewed one since.

I chose to view this past week’s episode. I recorded on the DVR and replayed without sound. I must say the communication used in this episode was more non-verbal than direct verbal communications. After viewing this episode I realized how much we as educators and people rely on non-verbal communication throughout our lives. There are a couple police officers who I believe to be in relationships because of their body language. There are a couple that are friends and a couple that do not like each other. There are two male police officers who seems to be having a tension between them.

The officer with the tension between him and other fellow officer seems to be having a rough time with addiction. He is seen speaking with a dealer (based on the materials this actor was given). He seems upset and anxious with his tense shoulders and jumpy behavior.

After I viewed the show with sound, I was incorrect on the relationship between a detective and one of the officers. It seems from their conversation they are no longer a couple. Although non-verbally the sexual tension is still their between them.

If you were to watch a show you knew well the assumption from non-verbal may have been much closer because you would know the relationships between the characters and the plot as the storyline grows.

My experience and insight from this exercise is that we as humans need to be more careful about how we make assumptions of situations without knowing all of the facts. This is especially helpful in early childhood education while dealing with different families with many different cultures.