Best Wishes and Warm Thank Yous

I have really enjoyed these 8 inspiring weeks with all of you. Through your great discussions and thoughtful blog posts I have learned a lot. I always felt that you get your best lessons through your classmates and their personal stories. I truly appreciate working with a group of wonderful people who has a passion for making the lives of children better. Thank you all for sharing this journey with me and best of luck to all of your future endeavors.

Adjourning

Adjourning

Working in groups are rewarding, but working with a group of people for lengthy period of time builds bonds. I worked with the same group of females for a semester of college. We all had pretty much the same goals in life, some of us were married and most of us had at least one child or more. There were times when things became overwhelming and we wanted to quit but through the support and motivation of each other we made it through. We succeeded in our classes and learned about each other in the process. To this day we still meet at least once a month for lunch and play dates with our children. It is hard to let go when it is time for good things to come to an end, but the upside of that is everything we gained during our journey together. That is how I feel about this course. Even though we are at our end, I have gained so much knowledge from the readings and the online interactions of my colleagues.

Conflicts

There was a disagreement that I had with one of my colleagues. We were collaborating about activities to do before we had spring break.  We meet as a team to discuss issues, concerns, plan, collaborate, etc.  Well, this particular time my colleague seem to fight everything that was brought to the table and coming up with an excuse of why not to do it with her class. In order for us to do something we all have to agree with it and she was the only one that acted nonchalant and had an attitude about what was being brought to the table. We decided to let the students have game day on Friday, where the students bring board games, cards, etc. She did not like the idea and she thought the kids should just watch a movie. I explained that we had a movie day and that it would be good to watch the students interact through board games and solve problems. I did not allow the argument to go back and forth because I realize that we would not get anywhere with that. My other colleague on the team agreed with the game day and we decided to do it. She realized that she was wrong to cut off every idea I brought to the table. I decided to use cooperative strategy. We came together and talked about everything and fixed the problem. She admitted to having a bad day and apologized for fighting everything we brought to the table, and after she thought about it the game day was a great idea. I am glad I did not go back and forth because that could lead up to an argument and it is important to pick and choose your battles and that was not one to pick.