Reflecting on Communication in the Early Childhood Field

As our journey begins to end, I feel sad as well as happy. I am glad that I met so many of you who were able to help me with my journey through the early childhood field. It was great to share my thoughts with you throughout the journey and gain more insights in all the different areas of early childhood education. I am sad to see many of you leave and move on to other classes. Yet, I think all of us are glad to be able to finish our journey and help others learn about the importance of early childhood education. I have learned many new insights from almost all of you by reading your Discussion Posts and Blog Assignments. I am proud to be a member of the Walden team and hope to see some of you move on in the same area as I am.
For those who I am not going to see again, I wish you best of luck in your journey and I hope all your wishes and dreams come true. Keep up the good work and help make the field of early childhood much more successful. Thanks for all your insights and helpful posts.

Team Building and Collaboration

In my opinion, the hardest groups to adjourn from are the groups that had shared a common goal. I had many group experiences and I find that I can leave most of them easily because my experiences were mixed. Some group members I worked fine with while other team members were unreliable. I was often glad when our groups had finished their assignment. However, some of the teams I work with, the adjournment stage was harder. It was with groups that in which all participants worked hard on a common goal. We had a vision and work collaboratively to achieve our goal. We often went out for lunch or dinner to celebrate our achievements and I am still in touch with some of them.

When I think about leaving my classmates from my Masters behind, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I am glad because I will have achieved my goal of earning a MA degree. On the other hand, it will be sad to see some of my colleagues go. I learned a lot from discussion questions and blog assignments and  think the collaboration was great.
I think the adjournment stage is important because everyone feels a sense of achievement. When you work hard on a common goal and vision and see it achieved, it gives you a sense of reward. Just as teamwork is important, adjourning and reviewing all that has been achieved is equally important.

Nonviolent Communication and Conflict Management

The conflict I want to describe is a personal one. First, I think I need to state a little of the background leading up to the conflict. I have recently accepted a new government job and have moved to Japan. I am a Civilian employee and my move has been everything but smooth. Usually I am a very calm person since I do not like conflict. However, because this move has been rather stressful, I have snap at people more often out of frustration. Therefore, this weeks assignment came at a good time. The problem I am currently struggling with is that my household goods who should already have arrived are missing. No-one can give me an answer to were or when my furniture will arrives. When I get someone on the phone, I want to yell at the person. Then, I remembered the 3 Rs we discussed this week. I realized that yelling and interrupting the other person on the phone is most likely not going to help my case. I tried to stay calm and listen to the other and ask questions rather than get agitated. In the end, the conversation went rather pleasant and the person was able to contact the shipping company. I am still unsure were exactly my household goods are but I felt a lot more relaxed than before. I think this week has shown me that it is possible to resolve conflicts in a civilized manner. It helps everyone to stay calm and relaxed which in the end leads to people trying to help each other rather than work against each other.

Who Am I as a Communicator?

This week was interesting for me because I had to judge myself as a communicator. I also had a family member judge me as well as a coworker. For the most part, I found that they judged me in similar ways as I judged myself. I see myself as a good communicator. I was glad that others feel similar about me. However, some of their answers surprised me. The biggest difference was the type of listener they thought I was. While my mother agreed with me and saw me as a empathetic listener, my coworker judged me as a more business-like communicator. This showed me I do communicate differently at work than I communicate at home.
In addition, I learned this week that it is important to read non-verbal sign to identify whether or not someone is pleased or displeased. Sometimes, when I talk with someone who is from a different culture, it can be difficult to judge if the person you are talking with is pleased or dissatisfied with the outcome of the conversation.
Another important factor I learned this week is time management. I learned that I sometimes do not want to interrupt others during a conversation. However, this can be a problem at my place of work since I have to balance conversations with the time I have at work.