The Adjourning Phase

When I reflect back on the groups that I have participated with in the past, I am led back to when I was in high school, where I was a member of several of our school's choirs and the varsity cheerleading squad. All of these groups held high standards for how they performed. My high school choir was given the honor of performing at one of the top cathedrals in New York City. Also, our cheerleading squad competed in the Nationals competition at Walt Disney World  twice and ranked among the top five in our division both times. When it came to my senior year of high school, saying goodbye to both of these groups was very difficult because I enjoyed working with the members of each of the groups and was going to miss performing with them. With each group, we held an awards banquet at the end of the school year. The purpose of the banquet was to reflect on our journey and celebrate the accomplishments that we had made as a group and as individuals. Ten years later, I still miss performing with these groups and often reflect with some of my friends about the memories that were created.

When looking into the near future, I imagine some of the same feelings and events will surround the adjourning phase of working with my colleagues from Walden University. Even though I have not met any of my colleagues personally, I feel a strong connection with my classmates because of thoughts that we have shared and memories that have been formed. I am looking forward to completed my Master's degree program at the end of October and am hoping that I will be able to attend graduation in January, so I can finally meet some of my colleagues in person. I have enjoyed the many opportunities that I have been given to communicate and collaborate with my colleagues because it has enabled us to form professional bond that I believe will keep us connected even after graduation.

Communication Conflict

One source of disagreement that I am currently having at work is the idea of implementing the Family pages for our Teaching Strategies GOLD program. I currently feel like it is a resource that could be very beneficial for our families in helping them understand more about their child's progress and give them a tool to readily access information about their child's development while in our program. One of my colleagues, however, feels that by implementing the use of the Family pages, it would require our staff to input the same data into another database, resulting in wasting valuable time that could be used for planning and family advocacy.

One way that I can work to resolve this conflict in a nonviolent manner is to show respect for my colleague's opinion. She has been working with our program longer than I have and has a closer relationship with our home-based staff, which is the group of teachers that she is concerned about. By choosing to respect her opinion and listen more closely to her reasons for why she is opposed to adding the responsibility of using the Family pages, I can come to a better understanding of both her as a person and as a strong contributor to our program.

Another way that I can work to resolve this conflict is by responding to her reasoning in a positive manner. I can respond to her by restating her reasons in order to justify that I was listening to her. After restating her reasons, I can then state my point of view in a way that is reflective of her reasoning, but is still founded on my beliefs.

This particular colleague and I do have a positive relationship and generally work well together. Her opposition is simply based on the fact that our home-based staff already have many requirement that force them to prioritize which duties will get done first. However, after I review the Family pages application of the GOLD program, I may be able to find a way to compromise with her and ease the requirements of this portion of our staff by requiring them to do less than what she believes is required in this task.

Communication Evaluations

I really enjoyed reviewing the results of the surveys for this week's application assignment. In addition to my participation, my mother and a colleague also completed the surveys, basing their results on how they thought I would score myself based on my communication skills. I found it interesting that all three of us placed myself in group 1 for the listening styles survey. I would have to agree that I am very people-oriented. I really try to focus on the message that is being relayed and the person who is relaying the message. In a conversation, I would much rather listen than speak. I have always been a quiet person, even in a professional setting. One surprising revelation that came from the results of the verbal aggressiveness survey is that I tend to be moderately aggressive. I like to view myself as passionate, especially when it is something that I care deeply about. If there is something that I know should be said or heard, I relay that message, even if it means that the person receiving the message could possibly be hurt by it. There are times where I do regret what I say, but for the most part, I think long and hard before I say something. This survey, however, made me realize that I may want to use more caution and evaluate my level of aggression depending on the situation that I am in.

One thing that I found interesting in the readings for this week was the concept of cognition for one's self. I know that I have a low self-esteem, which often carries into my professional life. I try to be a perfectionist at work because I have a fear of making a mistake or not being good enough. Whenever I lower my standards for something, I feel as though I have let other people down. I know that this is an area that I need to improve because my low self-esteem can potentially be sensed by the children and families that I work with. I want to teach them to think highly of themselves and be proud of their accomplishments and abilities, but first, I need to believe in myself. The other topic that I found interesting this week is the reliance that we tend to have on technology in order to communicate with others. Again, I am guilty of relying too heavily on technology because I can hide my feelings behind the text. I use technology because I do not want others to see my fears about bringing up a touchy subject or discussing a concern with a parent who potentially may not handle the situation very well. But, as a leader, I need to be able to have the confidence to interact with all types of individuals on a face-to-face basis and accept the fact that everyone makes mistakes and people often are uncomfortable in one-on-one situations.

Cultural-Based Communication

This week, we have been discussing how culture influences our communication style and our views about how other individuals communicate. I will readily admit that I am generally a shy person, no matter who I am around. I view myself as a strong listener, speaking up only when I am truly passionate about something. However, my role as an education coordinator does not allow me to take the back seat in communication scenarios, so I have to be willing to step out of my comfort zone in order to address people in many different circumstances.

I do tend to communicate differently when I am around people who have a different cultural background than myself. For instance, if I notice that a person may not be a member of my community, I tend to weigh more heavily on my role as a listener than as a verbal communicator. I also tend to avoid eye contact during conversations with these people because I fear that I am being judged and may possibly offend them if I make eye contact and they are uncomfortable with it.

In order to communicate more effectively with people from all cultural backgrounds, I first need to stop judging and trying to decide whether or not a person comes from a particular background or not. It should not matter what that person's background is. If they are willing to have a conversation with me, then I should be willing to respect them. Another step that I can take to effectively communicate is to find something in common with the other participant. Common interests or communication styles enable all participants to be able to offer understanding to one another. I can also try to put myself in the other person's place and view things from their perspective. By viewing the conversation from their point of view, I show that I am willing to fully participate in the conversation and honor their opinion, even if I may not fully agree with it.

Observing Communication Without Sound

This week, I chose to watch an episode of Army Wives. I chose this television show because I have always been interested in watching it, but have never had a chance to do so. While viewing the show without sound, I noticed that I was really focusing on observing the characters' emotions and body language. Based on the body language of the characters, I noticed that there was a lot of jealousy between some of the groups of wives. I could also sense the tension in some of the relationships based eye movements and posture Once I turned on the sound of the show, I realized that many of my feelings about the characters were validated. By being able to listen to the sound, I was able to gain more information the nature of the relationships. If I had prior knowledge about the show, I would admit that my feelings toward the characters would persuade my observations and force me to focus on certain interactions among the characters instead of being able to take the objective approach that I did.

Competent Communication

When I think of competent communication, one person in particular comes to my mind. My supervisor, who is our Early Head Start Director, is a great communicator, both on a professional level and on a personal level. Whenever I am speaking with her, she takes the time to truly listen to me. She evaluates what I have said before she responds. She also makes eye contact with me when I am speaking, which also reassures me that she is listening. Even in emails, she always seems to take the time to stop and think about how she wants to say something before she actually does it. To me, that shows that she cares about her audience and how her audience views her. I feel important when I speak with her, even if it is simply sharing my frustrations that I experienced earlier that morning while trying to get my oldest daughter to preschool. Another key point that makes her a competent communicator is the fact that she holds an open door policy in her office. She is always willing to take the time to communicate with her staff, no matter what the topic may be. I have learned a lot about communication through my relationship with her and it has carried over to my interactions in my position in the program.

Professional Hopes and Goals

Over the course of the past eight weeks, I have learned several significant lessons about diversity and equity. One of the biggest lessons that I have learned is that it is not my place to judge others. This lesson may seem simple, but in reality, it is very difficult to put into practice. I have learned that bias and judgment about certain types of people or practices may actually be a part of family culture, which has been passed down through the generations with some possible minor adjustments. If I truly want to accept all people for who they are, I need to first learn about myself. What do people expect from me? How do others view me? How do I view myself? What are my own expectations for myself? How do I expect others to react? Which family members have influenced my beliefs and how? The answers to all of these questions and more are essential to taking a step toward supporting diversity and equity.

One hope that I have is that I am able to keep an open mind when I am working with the families and their children in our Early Head Start program. I am learning that when I think that I may know a family, something always seems to come about that changes my viewpoint. It is essential for me to remain neutral during any situation so that I can do what is best for the children.

One goal that I have for the early childhood field is that we can move toward implementing more anti-bias education activities and trainings into the classrooms. Children need to be exposed to diversity at an early age and learn that it is okay for people to be different. More trainings and resources need to be available for early childhood educators so that they too can learn about anti-bias education and the importance for teaching it to our children.

I just want to take the opportunity to thank everyone so far for all of your feedback to my blog. It truly means a lot to me that you all are taking the time to read my posts and provide comments regarding the content. Many of you have shared personal stories about how the content in my posts relates to your experiences in the early childhood field. By sharing our experiences, we are able to learn new ideas that we may not have thought of otherwise. Thank you!