Thank You!

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with all of you during this course!  I thought it was truly amazing to learn so much for all of your personal stories, and see all of us grow and change personally as well as professionally.  I feel like I was able to learn about the type of communicator I am, and the "why" behind what I do and say.  Last week I mentioned that I will be taking a little break and then starting back up in September.  That is due to changing my specialization to Administration and Leadership.  I hope that some of you are also in that specialization because I would love to continue to work with some of you again!  Enjoy your summers, and best of wishes in your future courses!

Teamwork

The stage of adjourning is very interesting.  I look back on a few meaningful groups I have been a part of and how the adjournment played out.  I have been involved in school district and corporation meetings or staff development days with groups.  In this type of situation, adjourning is usually easy.  You wish people luck, and you know you will most likely see and work with them again since we have the commonality of work.  You have most likely made decisions during these meetings that involved follow-up steps or hard work in order to get them.  I feel that sometimes when you have a goal to work forward to, you adjourn in “task mode”.  

I have been involved in group work with individuals that I did not know prior to and will most likely never see them again, such as jury duty or professional development seminars.  These types of group adjournments can be a little awkward.  You aren’t sure what to say, since you know you will probably never see them again.  Yet you feel like you really got to know them over the course of the day.  

I have also been involved in groups that have been long-lasting.  I worked for 6 years as an elementary teacher.  I formed long-lasting friendships with my co-workers.  When it turned in my letter of resignation, it was the hardest thing I had ever done.  I still keep in touch with many of these former co-workers, and even remain close friends with a few.  It seems as if the groups that are close-knit, and have traveled many ups and downs together have a hard time adjourning.

It will be difficult to say good-bye to the group that I have traveled through this Master’s Program with.  One classmate already said goodbye when she decided to take some time off to give birth and spend time with her new baby.  I will have to say good-bye to many after this course, because I am taking the next class off and starting back up in September with a new specialization.  You feel like you really get to know your classmates, especially those who are very open to share their own personal stories.  I will say goodbye, wish everyone luck, and hope to stay in contact with a few who I feel I have really gotten to know.  Although this stage can be difficult, but it is an essential part to teamwork because I think it brings closure. 

Nonviolent Communication in Action

I am currently working as a developmental therapist.  I have a 2 year old set of twins on my caseload, who will be turning 3 in two months.  At three years old, the children age out of the program and will transition into preschool.  In recent sessions, I voiced my concern about some specific skills that I do not see the children progressing in, and am very concerned due to them starting school soon.  One of those skills is transitions.  These two boys have meltdown and fits when I try to transition from one activity to another.  This would definitely be a problem in preschool in a classroom of 15-20 students.  Mom explained that they don’t have tantrums when the speech therapist is present because she allows the first toy to stay out while she starts engaging them in the second and then puts away the first one when they forget about it.  Mom said that our methods are contradicting each other.  

What would you do in this situation?

My solution to this problem was to first initiate contact with the speech therapist.  We talked some through email, and then scheduled a time when we could meet together for a session to co-treat.  We did that today!  We sat down and discussed what each of our goals were from our specialty, and then planned a strategy that we could use to meet all those goals together.  She admitted that she doesn’t actively think about things like imaginative play, cooperative play, sharing, turn-taking, and transitions because she is so focused on what is going on with the mouth.  It was a great way to learn more about each other’s viewpoints and make a plan to move on from here in the right direction!

Even though there were only two of us, we used group decision making to create goals and plans for these two children.  This is something I learned this week when reading an article from the NVC website.