"Parting is such sweet sorrow..." Shakespear. The end to our general courses:

It is hard to believe that we are at the end of time together and will now be moving into our specializations. Peer interaction and communication is valuable and an excellent resource. I have truly enjoyed reading everyone's blogs and discussion posts, as well the responses to mine. Good luck to all of you in your future courses and I hope through our blogs we will continue to stay in touch!

v/r
Sondi

Adjourning Groups

For me, hi-performing groups are the hardest to leave, but I also believe in order to be high performing, they must also have a clearly established norm. The excitement and thrill of the challenge, if orchestrated in a clearly established norm facilitates the hard work and dedication that creates the strongest bonds for me, bonds that are long term and last well past the purpose of a the group. The most influential adjourning I have participated in involved a celebration of accomplishments during a celebratory dinner. This allowed for reflection of challenges and things that could have been improved as well as acknowledgement of successes and provided a since of closure to the group.

I would imagine that adjourning of the group of colleagues that have worked together on our master’s degree will involve the graduation ceremony for some and a simple good bye and thank you for others, as our diverseness may not accommodate everyone attending one function. Regardless of the closing, we will share a bond long after we graduate, as we have struggled and achieved as the first group to complete this master’s program.

Nonverbal Communication

I am hearing impaired and use hearing aids to accommodate for my hearing loss. Hearing aid batteries are expensive, so I typically do not use them for things such as watching TV, and instead rely on Closed Captioning. For me, the sound is almost always “off” and although I have the dialogue in written form, I use the body language of the characters for assessing the emotion behind what is being said. However, I completed the assignment anyways,  turning the sound completely off, as well as the CC for an episode of Without a Trace,  and  I realized that my lip reading skills are improving dramatically, and the assignment was probably not designed for someone like me lol. My assumptions of what was happening in the show were the same regardless of the sound. However, I also realized that the beat of the music or background noise that indicates the transition of screens is what signals the emotional content behind the scene and is what I use to tell me to pay attention to the show something interesting is happening.

Conflict Resolution through Communication

I have only had one recent disagreement/conflict, which was resolved peacefully. During a recent Debrief of a classroom, I questioned the use of center signs indicating the number of children allowed in a any give interest center. The caregiver, kept returning to the reasoning of controlling the children, and I kept returning to the skills children learn when they decide how many children work best in an interest area to sustain play. Having recently completed a communication class provided by Air Force, I used several of the strategies for conflict resolution, which mirrored those from NVC for compassionate communication as we exchanged observations, feelings, and needs. Additionally, we looked at the situation from a 3^rd side, as I encouraged the caregiver to look at the use of center signs from the eyes of a child and to take the  signs down for  one month, a compromise to both our positions. Once she removed the signs for a week, she could see her children learning to negotiate and problem solve to sustain play in her interest areas and she could how a child might feel in a classroom where play was controlled by the teachers rather than self initiated, she immediately understood why I questioned her signs.

Communication Quizzes

The communication quizzes this week, while difficult to share with family and coworkers, were very insightful and focused on aggression, listening, and anxiety in communicating. I absolutely love public speaking, and will be the first one to volunteer at any given opportunity, which is probably why I am a Training & Curriculum Specialist, I get to speak to groups all day!!!  I believe myself to be a confident public speaker and a great listener, who can be aggressive if need be, and the quizzed indicated just that. I shared the quizzes with a couple coworkers and 3 family members, and all the results were within one or two points of my own results, with no changes in categories. This was not surprising, as what you see is what you get. I think being honest about who you and accepting others for who they are is important in communication and in any type of relationship. Two things I would share with others about communicating are speak honestly, so that your body language and facial expressions match your message, and take the time to listen intently so that you understand where others are coming from.