Thank You

Dear Colleagues,

As this course comes to an end and we all start a new chapter, I would like to take this time to say thank you for all the contributions you made in our discussion board and blogs. Although I was not able to participate as much as I would have liked, I was able to rely on my colleague’s efforts to help me get through. Thanks for all the encouragement, valuable feedback and positive comments. All these contributions helped strengthen my communication skills. We all have challenges that we are dealing with and some we may face in the future but as we continue on our educational journey I wish you continued success beyond your dreams. I commend each of you for your willingness to continue your education in an effort to change the lives of young children. I would like to give a special Thanks to Professor Hampshire for support throughout the course. If it wasn’t for caring professors like yourself, those of us who face life challenges may not have an opportunity to accomplish our goals. Blessings to all of you.

 

Teresa Goodman

Team Building and Collaboration, Part 1

In 2011 I had to leave one of the best group of employees ever. I had been working with this group for almost four years. I was acting director of a child care facility with five other professionals on my team. As director I wanted to ensure we were always in compliance with our licensing agency and ensure that we were providing the best care possible for our children. I had no part in forming this group because we had a board that interviewed our applicants but I was very pleased with their decisions. Saying good-bye to this group was hard for a few reasons. First we establish positive professional and personal relationships. We never had to deal with issues of trust. We all knew and understood that all our opinions were valued and any issues we faced we dealt with as a team. If one member was faced with an issue we all worked together to come up with a solution that would be beneficial to everyone involved. Everything was not always perfect but we did not allow anything to keep us from accomplishing our goals. I have remained in close contact with a couple of the individuals. The others moved on to pursue other careers. We always had outings as a group and we did the same when someone was leaving. This is important because this is the time when we review the success or failure of what we were trying to accomplish.

Nonviolent Communication and Conflict Management

Conflict and disagreements will arise frequently in our lives. How we handle it will depend a great deal on our actions and our ability to deal with it. I recently experienced conflict in my personal life during the death of my husband. My children and I experienced some of the worst behaviors from in-laws during this time. They wanted and tried very hard to exclude us out of helping in planning the funeral arrangement of my husband and their father.  Because of the lack of one on one communication we were receiving communications through third parties. My only concern during this time was ensuring that my children were not hurt in this situation. This situation is definitely one that I could have benefitted from NVC.  I do believe that if I had known and understood more about the NVC I would have been more careful when I did communicate with them. It does not matter what the situation may be we have to always use effective communication strategies. This can eliminate a lot of stress and unnecessary conflict. The escapist strategy and cooperative strategy are two I could have used that may have help manage the conflict. As I look back at the situation there were times when I did use these strategies without realizing it. When I know how a person or even a situation makes me feel I will avoid them in an effort to eliminate and avoid conflict.