Collaborative Learning Community and Effective Communication

The introduction to this communication and collaboration, shared a quote from an unknown author “We cannot “not communicate. We do it by our presence and by our absence, by our silences as well as our words, by our choices, gestures and attitudes. We may not always do it well but we always do it”- Unknown.

The video clip “Change your words change your world retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?, is a typical example of how we can use our choice of words usage to make a positive change in our lives and the lives of people around us.

This past eight weeks has been a fruitful one. My world view and way of communicating has changed drastically. I might not be where I want to be as an effective communicator right now, but I know I am a work in progress.

I will like to ask my colleagues some questions about communication.

How do you see yourselves when it comes to communication?

Does your world view influence the way you communicate?

Does your personal experience in life cloud the perception of other people’s reality?

Are you myopic when it comes to communication?

I have come to the realization that respect, reciprocating and being responsive are the three big tools we need to become effective communicators and collaborators.

I am grateful for having been in this wonderful class with each and every one of you, it wouldn’t have been easy without you all. Thanks for all your comments and responses in my discussion post and blog forum. I will definitely want to keep in touch with whoever is ready to keep in touch, because we learn every day and collaboration is the key to being an effective early childhood professional. I wish you all good luck in your future endeavor and God bless us all.

Below is my personal email address

Ediri.obi@gmail.com

                                                Adjourning

Going through the five stages of team development helps to strengthen and enrich all team members for the tough work and challenges ahead of them in order to accomplish their said goals. Forming which is the first stage is like an introduction period which introduces all the team members. The storming part is the competing part for positions and acceptance of ideas by various team members. Norming is one of the stages I like because to me it’s like a stage that introduces them to being “others “ oriented, because this part makes them understand the “all for one” whereby they  are stripped of the individual goal and are more focused on developing a way of working together for the purpose of achieving their overall goal collectively.

The fourth one which is the performing stage has an atmosphere in which there is trust and team members are working effectively as a group, and they rely on each other’s ability. The last stage which is the adjourning stage reminds me of the end of different grades as a child growing up where I have to move on to a new class, friends moving to another state and a new teacher having to come and teach in my new class.

What I have learnt in life about different groups that I have come across is that, everybody makes an impact no matter who or what the person is. It might not be a positive impact but surely every impact is a learning point in life. I might not be able to identify that immediately but eventually when I reminisce I realize the amount of impact that was made. It is always hard to say good bye irrespective of the group weather high –performing group or not.

The sort of closing rituals that I have experienced recently and I really appreciate is the one I get from my early childhood colleagues at the end of each course which comes up every eight week.  I don’t have an idea of how I will adjourn from this group because every group has its unique way. I think adjourning is an essential stage of team work because we all realize at the end that the job wouldn’t have been easy without a team work. Even though we all write our individual discussion posts and blogs, we still need our colleagues to read and make comments on what they think about our posts. That alone encourages and keeps us going and looking forward to each week. It has always been a team work from week one up to the eight week. So adjourning is an essential stage because we show appreciation, emotions through our writings and we wish each other well in our future endeavors

 

Reference:

Article: Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from http://wwwprojectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html

 

 

 

 

                          Conflicts/Disagreements

There are certain things that are unavoidable in life due to our differences in culture, our personal world view and also our perceptions regarding who we think we are or what we think we can offer as individuals in various contexts.

Five years ago I had a disagreement with a colleague at my work place. This colleague of mine thinks he is better than every other person in the school and feels the “others” have little or nothing to offer. It was obvious that most of us did not get along with him because of his work attitude and ethics. I made him understand that his attitude towards us his colleagues was not an acceptable one through my body gestures and facial expressions I give to him because I don’t engage in verbal aggression.

Going through this week’s readings, I have discovered that there are more appropriate ways to resolve conflicts/ disagreements in work places and even personal ones. So one of  the styles of resolving conflicts that resonates with me is the escapists style. I like the style because Personally I live my life trying to avoid things that can result into problems, and I feel this will be a better approach. Obliging is also part of the escapist style, this involves agreeing to whatever someone says in order for peace to reign.

This might not be a more appropriate way because it is all about giving in to whatever someone wants and reducing us to not having a say  and also leads to exploitation. I will definitely will use some of the principles of nonviolent communication because it is all about respect for individual differences, cultural believes and being responsive towards different needs and acceptance.

Reference:

O’Hair, D., Wiemann, Mullin, D. I., & Teven, J. (2015).  Real Communication (3^rd. ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s