Thank you!

It’s been my honor to be part of this class with supportive colleagues and professor! I learned about from each one of you from your perspective to your work experience and to your personal life. I know it is hard to share our personal experience sometimes, but we all are very respectful and make this class a safe place to share.

I would like to thank you Cynthia Mickens for sharing your personal and professional experience. I love your blog with clear and defined answer, especially with some pictures on it. (http://cynthia-mickens.blogspot.com/2015/02/five-stages-of-team-development.html)

I also would like to Marguerite for your sharing your blog. I especially like your blog’s pictures, they are on the point! (http://margueriteleigh.blogspot.com/2015/02/conflict-resolution.html)

Adjourning Expereicne

An adjourning phase I recalled happened in my first teaching job in a private school. Although we are a small team of 6 people including the director, we all have the same goal as for the children and families. We all know our routines and very self-efficient. I remembered I first started, the director asked me to assist the classroom and observe, then ask me to reflect on what I see and share with her. She always very encouraging and even she did not agree with something, she would ask the teachers to explain their beliefs and tell them her suggestions and expectation in a respectful manner. 
 

 

I resigned after 2 years because I want to work in a different population to gain different experience. It was really hard to say good-bye to this high-performing group! The team expectations were clearly established and explained clearly, when we are hired. Everyone know the norms and when there is a conflict, we will talk it out right away and being supportive to each other. It is an honor to be part of this high-performance team. We had a farewell dinner together at my last day of work and they made me a card with their best wishes. Thanks for the technology, we still keep in touch today via facebook.

           “Adjourning” happens when “the project is coming to the end and the team members are moving into different directions” (Abudi, 2010). Adjourning is an important stage of teamwork to celebrate on their hard work whether it is successful or not, working together as a team is always learning experience because the “group” member could be different every time. It also helps to strengthening the team. 

I cannot believe I am almost done with my master’s degree program in Walden University! It is truly a pleasure to meet the instructors and colleagues through online format. I think we could have a celebration party before or after the graduation to celebrate our success and share contact information to keep in touch. 

Reference

Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html.

Coping with Conflicts

      

A recent disagreement that I had at my work with my co-worker was about a child’s absence situation. Let’s name the child John. John has been missing school for a week and we were not about to contact the mother. Mother is taking care of 5 children and separated with the father. We finally got in touch with the Dad, he said Mom is working on the housing situation and has been leaving the children with him. He didn’t know where she is either. My co-worker suggested to call the Child Protective Services (CPS) for help as Mom is disappeared. But I strongly degree because I know this is a homeless family and they are on the right track to finding a stable home for the children and that Dad is a responsible person who I think is trustable to take care of his child. I am not sure if I am right but at this moment I do not want to call CPS to break the relationship between us and the family even though I know the purpose of CPS is to protect children, yet I don’t think this would be helpful.

            I use the 3Rs to solve this conflict by respecting her point of view by listening to her and validating the importance of ensure the child’s safety. Then I tell her that I wanted to express my point of view then we can decide what is good for the situation. My co-worker also did the reciprocal respectfulness to me when I am telling her about my concern about reporting. We both being responsive to each other. At the end, we decided to continue to call mother and call people down the emergency list to help us find mom . We also explain to them that we are worry about them and want to help them to save the slot at our school as the policies said any child miss school for a week and no respond will be terminated. Finally Mom called in in 3 days said they are still finding a house and now living in a homeless shelter. She would like her child to continue to our school but the commute from the shelter and our school is far. We then offered to help her finding school around the shelter. 

 

           

My co-worker and I were so delight to see Mom is working hard to support her family and that we are able to support them in the process. Using 3Rs is useful to solve conflict or disagreement, yet disagreement requires both mutual respect and open-mindedness to list to the different perspectives. To me, you don’t need to agree with the other point of view, yet we need to listen to the difference and try to find a common ground. In this case, both of our goal is to support the child and family’s well-being, but we have different perspectives.