T H A N K Y O U

I cannot believe how fast these 8 weeks went by. I believe that my communication and collaboration skills have greatly improved from our weekly discussions. Our group also was honored to have a facilitator who not only brought her professionalism, but allowed us to express our various opinions about the ways we communicate not only with our families  but with the precious lives we’ve been entrusted to teach as early childhood educators. As  we continue on with our various specializations, I wish you all the best and always remember to be an advocate for those children and their families who depend on us as early childhood professionals to communicate on their behalf.

ADJOURNING

            Thinking back to my volunteering days with the band, the part that made for the hardest goodbye was when I left after ten years, I had seen students come from the middle school band to our high school band and then on to graduate. I enjoyed seeing them mature over the years from scared freshmen to aspiring seniors with dreams and goals of going to college. The rapport I developed with the band director, parents and students was something I cherish to this day.  
            I believe the more involved a person is with a group, the harder it is to say good-bye. It was past practice for the band to have an end of the year party, as a way to thank the students and volunteers for all their sacrifice and hard work they put in during the year. It was also a ritual for the band, to line up or form a circle and say their ritual which was usually led by the drum major or a section leader in a loud voice drum major says...FEET band responded...TOGETHER,  drum major.. CHEST… band… OUT drum major  ...SHOULDERS... Band...BACK… drum major ELBOWS …band… FROZEN … drum major... EYES... band WITH PRIDE, drum major. EYES… band… WITH PRIDE …drum major EYES...band ….WITH PRIDE, then they would be dismissed, this gave all of us a sense of pride in our school and selves. Spectators would stopwatch in awe.
            As I near the end of my academic journey at Walden I will remember the many colleagues I have had the pleasure of working with in class, although we never met face to  face I feel as though we as online students have a special kind of bond .I really enjoyed signing into a classroom and seeing familiar names. As this is my last before starting my specialization, I hope that my colleagues and I will continue to be in touch through e-mails. I feel like adjourning is an essential stage of team work because once you’re a part of a team, there is an unexplainable bond /relationship that is formed and that is what makes adjourning from a group the hardest.

           

Conflict Management

     I am not the type of person to get into a conflict/disagreement, to me, which is not the way to solve a problem.  So this week’s blog was a challenge for me. I actually had to pick my brains to think of a person I actually had a disagreement with, and the only person that comes to mind is my sister. We disagree on time management. This may not seem like a problem to some people, but it is with us. I can see where there are times it can escalate to a more intense conflict.  She believes that I waste time and I disagreed, because I feel like I make the best use of my time, she feels like  there are things I could combined and get done in a timely manner. The two strategies from the conflict resolution network that I feel might help us manage or resolve our disagreement more productively are: Co-operative power-When faced with a statement hat has potential to create conflict,ask open questions to reframe resistance.Explore the difficulties and then re-direct discussion to focus on positive possibilities , and appropriate assertiveness-When you want to state your point of view helpfully,the "I" statement says how it is on my side,how I see it. I cannot see us compromising, because we are both head strong on this issue. We definitely can at least apply the 3 R’s, respect reciprocal and responsiveness. When I asked my sister why she feels I waste time, she goes on a breaks my day down, hoping that I will eventually come around, but that never happens. Time management is just something that she and I are not going to see eye to eye on.


Reference
Conflict Resolution Network. (n.d.). CR kit. Retrieved from http://www.crnhq.org/pages.php?pID=12#skill_3

Who Am I as a Communicator?

      This week I had the opportunity of seeing if my sister and my friend of 30 years really know about me and how I communicate ,I scored very high as a communicator, which didn’t surprise me at all, because  I don’t like talking in any type of group setting. My sister and friend score were elevated, but not quite as high as I rated myself. When it comes to my listening skills, all three of our scores were similar, which wasn’t no big surprised. I’ve been told I am a very good listener, I am definitely someone you can confide in and Verbally, I rated myself a little higher, the score said that I am very respectful of others viewpoints, again this doesn’t surprise me. I am not the type of person to say or do anything  hurt people’s feelings, no matter how much they hurt mine.

I think the thing that surprised me the most was that although I have always known I was not a public speaking type of person,taking this questionnaire just solidifies it.

Effective Communication & Cultural Diversity

Do you find yourself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures? As I thought about culture diversity that I see in my colleagues, neighborhood, workplace and my family I would definitely have to say yes,  I do find myself communicating differently with the various groups and cultures.

If yes, in what ways do you communicate differently?Well, my family is culturally diverse in the following way: there’s Panamanian, Puerto Rican, Korean, Black, White, therefore communication between the various cultures tend to vary. My sister in law who is Puerto Rican and me(Panamanian)may speak Spanish to each other, I communicate with my niece’s son in sign language although he can talk, because his language was delayed, his first language was sign language. I communicate with the others in English.

Based on what you have learned this week, share at least three strategies you could use to help you communicate more effectively with the people or groups you have identified.

The three strategies that I could use to help me communicate more effectively with my family members are: 1) first and foremost would be an effective listener. When we all get together it can be quite chaotic ,with everyone talking ,yet no one is actually just sitting and listening to what is being said by the other family members .I have found out that listening is  something we as a family need to practice more. 2) Adaptibility-. I try to show respect to my other family members cultures. Our family get together usually involve a variety of foods from all  the cultures, we are encouraged to try the various foods and at times some family members tend to make negative comments about the food, not considering the person who made the food feelings The older family members are set in their ways and like their food cook a certain way with certain seasoning,.3) Flexibility- There is a time and place to talk about issues and concerns, family gatherings is not a time to air out family dirty laundry.