Blog 8

As I prepare to move on into my specialization, I began to think about how my colleagues have supported me and how I have supported them. My colleagues have provided me with an opportunity to apply more than one perspective when communicating with my colleagues, friends, and family. I have learned to not be so aggressive in my tone when I am upset or challenged. I have learned that body language speaks volumes and that I need to pay closer attention to my gestures when interacting with others. In addition, I have learned of the importance of team work and that each player is just as important as the captain of the group/team.

I have supported my colleagues by sharing personal testimony’s regarding communication and by allowing myself to be approachable. This course has taught me of the importance of listening and I think I did just that and simply listened to my colleagues vent when they need to or to make them laugh or giggle when reading my blogs…I have learned it is important to laugh and smile and I hope my colleagues were able to do that on my blog.

I wish my colleagues continued success in their professional and personal lives/journey’s. I hope they continue to educate and inform the people of their community of the importance of effective communication and to listen to each other oppose to yelling so that children can mirror the positive aspects of communicating and problem solving instead of resorting to ineffective ways to communicate.

I’d also like to thank Mary for reaching out to me to offer additional support in my efforts towards opening up my own child care center and I will definitaly keep in touch.

I hope to "see" many of you in the next class/course.

Nicky

Week 6

The adjourning stage is the last of the five stages of team development. For the sake of this assignment, I thought about a time when I was involved with a group and had to say good-bye; for me I don’t like to say “good bye” but instead I like to say I’ll see you later…saying good-bye is so final but by me saying I’ll see you later leaves me with a glimmer of hope that our paths will cross again. The one time that comes to mind is when I worked on my towns annual dance for the youth. Our goal was to raise money to renovate the current teen center. I remember going through the forming stage where everyone was on board and determined to pull their own weight to make sure the event went off without any problems; my job was to set up and provide refreshments for a minor fee. I found working with this group to be therapeutic because it kept my mind off of work related issues and I was able to meet new people and form new relationships with people from walks of life I would not normally interact with. Once we got to the adjourning phase, I realized that although we were working for a good cause, I felt fulfilled because I was able to encourage some other ladies that I met that were facing tough times. As a result, we exchanged contact information….we did cry once the event was over because we felt but vowed to stay in touch. In terms of grad school, I met some interesting people along my travels and I am happy to say the I have formed relationships with colleagues from other course who encouraged me and who would take the time to edit my papers and in turn I would edit theirs.  However, once the course ended, I felt sad because I was “losing a pair of eyes”, but we vowed to stay in touch via e-mail…we did not say good bye but we vowed to “see each other later”. In the future, I would like to go sit and have a dinner and just chat with some of my colleagues should they visit my area or I visit there’s. 

Nicky