A special thanks to my colleagues

This class has been a great learning source on communication and how important it is in our lives.  I have never thought about communication in-depth as much as we have in this course but I must say it was very valuable.  The amount of communication we will endure throughout not only our social lives but our professional lives will cause for us to be as effective as we can be to ensure our colleagues, students and their parents can understand our thoughts.  We will be collaborating a lot and this course has brought us several communication skills to help us in our future sessions.  Thanks for all who commented on my posts and allowed me to do the same.  We will help each other grow strong which will allow Education in general to be just as effective in the long run.

Teamwork and Communication

The group I felt was hardest to say good-bye to was my collaborating student-teaching group.  High-performing groups to me are hardest to leave because of hw well the communication is among the group.  We bonded so well together, establishing great communication in getting to know each other during our first group session.  I think we did a wonderful job forming our identity, establishing who the group leader would be and setting reachable goals.  As professional educators we understood how important group communication is because in this profession there will be tons of collaboration moments among other educators as well as board members and families.  For groups whose project or task come to an end, there is an adjourning stage (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012, pp. 257).  The groups I have encountered with in my master’s program adjourned by simply saying thank you and good-bye as well as complimenting from great ideas.  A simple thank you goes a long way for people and establishes great partnership down the line.

Adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because it establishes whether or not a team wants to reassemble.  The group members reflect on their accomplishments and failures as well as determine whether the group will disassemble or take on another project (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012, pp. 258).  Depending on the distance between the group members will determine how they can adjourn.  A nice barbeque or sit down dinner would be nice to reflect on how well the group communicated, which can lead to bonding friendships and encores for the future.  If I feel the group was a disaster, this is the time period to let it be known that this team should not come together for another project.

                                                                         

Reference

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012).  Real Communication.  New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

             Chapter 9, "Communication in Groups" (pp. 251-279).

Dealing with Conflicts

In life we will some time or another engage in conflict with others.  The key is to manage the situation productively.  Conflict that is managed effectively is called productive conflict (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012, pp.221).  It is perfectly fine to disagree with another person because we all have our own thought process so at times there will be some conflicts of issues.  At my current job one of the counselors seem to always bump heads with me.  We can never seem to agree with each other on any subject matter.   Something I have learned from this week that my co-worker and I can work on is to compromise with each other in conflictive situations.  With most compromises, both sides give up a little to gain a little (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012, pp.241).  We have to be willing to trade some of our needs to gain interest from our counterpart.  Another great strategy to use is probing, asking questions that encourage specific and precise answers (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012, pp.240).  In order for me to obtain information from another individual, I must ask for it.  Whenever we make requests for information, we are using the skill of Probing.  Probing can help parties explore the pros and cons of an issue, encouraging either side to consider both the positive and the negative aspects of it (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012, pp.240).  This is how great feedback and constructive criticism can be properly used.

Reference

O’Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012).  Real Communication.  New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

            Chapter 8, “Managing Conflict in Relationships” (pp. 219-246).