My Journey

I am very excited to finish yet another course towards my journey to completing a mater's degree in Early Childhood Studies. I can not believe how time has past. I remember when I first started and now I am down to four classes left which are my specialization courses. I feel taking this class has taught me how to become an effective communicator and how to hold an effective conversation with others. I love when we get to the end of each course because we are able to reflect on what we have learn. My colleagues I have met through out my journey have been great resources, sharing ideas/opinions, and expressing encouragement. I know I have been the same back to them on the student lounge,discussion board,and blog assignments. I feel this class has really helped me because one day I want to come out the classroom and move up to being a coach for all teachers. I am confident that I am ready to speak in front of a large group as an effective leader in early childhood.I feel this course has helped me personally and professionally. My confidence in having effective communication skills has made me collaborate within groups and help me to really realize that early childhood is for me. I am passionate and motivated about early childhood and I know the closer I get to obtaining my master's degree will increase my knowledge in early childhood.

Adjourning Reflection

I have been working with Head Start/ Pre-K for over seven years and I must say I have met so many people along the way. I have never worked in the classroom with someone that I could not get along with because I can work with anyone. We are both their to do a job and teach to the best of our ability the children that walk in our classroom daily. I have always had a great relationship with coworkers because we all work as a team. When I started working at another center my coworkers were even better. We all knew what the definition of team work was and we strived to help each other when there was a problem. I was so lucky to have coworkers like them. When we would have staff meetings or trainings they were never boring because we made it fun and talked about different issues that went on during the day. We all voiced our opinions about different things and what we could do as a center to solve issues and make it better for staff, children, and families. The discussion this week I talked about being in groups which I do not like to be in because I love working by myself and sometimes I just feel like all the work is thrown on me. Even though we had group problems they still were some nice people to work with. We always liked working as a team, but group things we froze up sometimes.

Unfortunately, at the end of the school year the agency made a lot of changes and moved teachers around to different locations including some of my coworkers. I was so upset because we were a great center who did not cause any problems. Of course we had disagreements, but we never did anything that would make administration come over and check our center out. I guess other centers were having a lot of issues and they just made a big change moving everyone around. In this week's lesson we discussed the adjourning stage which is the fifth stage of the five stages of group development. Psychologist Bruce Tuckman proposed this model and suggests that groups and teams move through a series of stages in order to achieve their peak level of performance. This stage is very important to achieve closure for the group on a positive note. This stage was actually difficult for me because half of my coworkers are gone from the center headed to another center and we go back to work on Monday which will be hard seeing them somewhere else. I feel a sense of loss and that our time together has come to an end. I also have a new center manager and office manager as well. I will have new coworkers, office manager, and boss which I hope will be great as well. I think about the good times we shared because at this stage that is important and also celebrating our success together, but we really did not have time to do this because these changes came at the last minute. Although I hate change it is a part of life. We may not want this to happen, but sometimes it has to be done. I guess the bright side is everybody still has a job working with children. I know that come Monday will be hard, but hopefully this school year is even better.

The closing rituals that I have experienced is the big changes that were made in the agency that I was not ready for. I hope to maintain communication with them and not let this affect our relationship that we have built over the years. I wish that we knew sooner that our center was breaking up that way we could have been already knowing the sudden changes. I imagine that I will adjourn from my colleagues who I have been communicating with while pursuing my master's degree will be bitter sweet. Even though I have never seen you guys the way we discuss on the discussion board and blog you would think that we have met face to face. I would thank them for their feedback, comments, and effective communication on the discussion board, student lounge, and blogs. I also will wish everyone good luck and would love to see them at the graduation. Time is getting close with four classes left to go I will feel sad because I do look to my colleagues as a sense of support by them responding to me and others by using our group discussions and blogs. It will also be a happy time because I have completed another goal and that is something to be glad about. I will truly miss you guys.

Adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because working with a group that is positive and is able to work together as a team, organization, and has goals set can adjourn with positive accomplishments and conclusions.

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