Post of Appreciation

I would like to say thank you to all of my colleagues for supporting me with your brilliant ideas, opinions, resources, and personal stories that I will help me in my career, the future, and my life journey. I hope that I have supported you all through my blogs and group discussions which can be useful to share with others what you have learned. I would like like to wish my colleagues a successful continuation on their professional path. We can stay in contact through my blogs. I post my writings on there which are very spiritual and I know that it will encourage and support you all on your move through this program. Feel free to read and give me some feedback which will help me as well. I have enjoyed my colleagues and this course. May God Bless You All!!!!

The Adjourning Phase

I was in this Christian group called Women of Faith (WOF). I feel like the adjourning aspect of this group was the hardest to say good-bye because we had established a spiritual connection and friendships amongst us and other colleagues. It allowed us to fellowship through bible study, extra-curricular activities, and programs on campus. Most of us stayed in the same dorms and others stayed in different ones, but we would meet in the lobby of the dorm in which I was living in. We stayed in touch with each other by cell phones and email addresses because we knew that this group would end when we all graduated. Our ritual was that we meet at church and have a banquet which involved dinner, preaching, socialization, and reminiscing about the good/bad times in which we all shared.

I think that high-performing groups and groups with the clearest established norms are the hardest to leave because it is about helping each other, learning from failure, sharing information, and trust. They are firm believers when it comes to their vision and being successful. I will adjourn from the group of colleagues in which I have formed while working on my master's degree in this program by wishing everyone the best in their education and life journey. The only communication that I would have with my colleagues is through a social network such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter or if they continue to respond to my blogs. Adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because the project is coming to an end and the team members are moving off into different directions (Abudi, G., 2010).

Disagreement or Conflicts Between Sisters

I recently experienced a disagreement through a message on a social network called Facebook. It was someone that I knew in my personal life in which we called each other sisters. This how the conversation began:
Me: Hello funny acting person lol
Her: Hello, no
Me: Yes, but anyways how are you doing?
Her: Acting funny
Me: Exactly
Her: Hey Casa! You ok now, but you was tripping last night
Me: Hey! I'm good and how was I tripping last night because I said you were funny acting
Her: Yes because that's not true
Me: Why that's not true
Her: Because how I am being funny with you and what reason would I have to be acting funny with you None what so ever
Me: So that is when I told her how I felt and how I don't get attached to people too quick, but I really do like her as a sister, but we don't talk like we use to and I know that she be busy with the kids, church, and her husband, but a text or phone call wouldn't hurt sometimes. It's like she had distant herself from me and I didn't know why.
Her: She told me how she felt and then said well you are going to have to get over that feeling because it is not like that at all.
Me: Oh, trust me I will get over it.
Her: You are making a big deal out of nothing and she is sorry if I feel that way and she hate that I am offended about her response.
Me: I'm not making a big deal out of it I just see it as expressing how I feel. Why you say that I'm offended by your response
Her: Because you said oh trust me I will get over it
Me: You said I need to get over that feeling so that's why I said oh trust me I will get over it
Her: Ok
Me: I'm about to leave it along and I don't want you to have a bad day or be in bad mood
Her: Ok
Me: K, well hopefully you will have a better day
Her: Ok
The End

I felt like I did make a compromise when I said that I would let it be and I told her to have a better day. The two strategies that I have learned about that might help to manage or resolve the conflict more productively would be to be carefully about the choice of words I choose to use and to stop being in my feelings so much. These strategies might be effective because it can stop me from having another disagreement over petite stuff as people would see it. I feel as though our disagreement was deeper than that because later on I found out that she was not only doing me like that, but other closer friends as well.

To my colleagues, I would like you all input and advice regarding my disagreement. How have you all learned to be more effective communicators as it relates to conflict resolution skills?

Evaluation

The similarities in how I evaluate myself as a communicator and how others evaluated me is that we both say that I am a good communicator, humble, and a God given talent to help children. I try to keep a creative mind to expand the growth of communicating with the youth. I take my own life experiences and incorporate it into the lives of others. I strive daily to better myself by improving my communication skills by not talking in slang which is a challenge and to stop texting in slang as well. The differences would be that I over think myself when it comes to situations as far as public speaking or being in a small group in which we have to stand in front of the class and give a summary of what we have learned. The one thing that surprised me the most was when they said that I am good communicator because I tend to underestimate how well I can communicate with others. I feel like sometimes when I be communicating with people that my eye contact be off because I have a tendency to look down or away. The new insight that I gained this week about communication is that sometimes we beat upon ourselves because we think that people see us in a negative perspective when in reality they might see us as being more positive.

Communicating Differently With Other Cultures

Yes, I find myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures. My communication with them would be on different levels because everyone do not communicate the same way. People express or show their communication through verbal and nonverbal skills and cues such as gestures, eye contact, facial expressions, blushing, body position, and tone of voice. I tend to communicate with my children and adolescents, colleagues, community members, co-workers family, friends, peers and etc. in a low language (slang) which is less formal when we are hanging out, but when it comes to a professional setting I try to communicate in a high language.

Based on what I have learned this week, the three strategies I could use to help me communicate more effectively with the people or groups that I have identified are: (1) Ask, (2) Listening,, and (3) The Platinum Rule. Ask, there is no better tool for effective communication. If something strikes you as funny or inappropriate, if you feel the other person is neglecting you or is offended, simply ask him what you can do to remedy the problem. Grievances are like silence- broken when they are spoken out. Listening can help your career, saves time and money, creates opportunities, and strengthens relationships. The Platinum Rule accommodates the feelings of others and you have to understand what drives people and recognize your options for dealing with them.

Television Show

The Brady Brunch

A television show that I do not normally watch was The Brady Brunch. At the beginning of the show I can see that the boy and two girls was excited about something because they came running in the house with their books in their hands screaming and yelling at this woman (mother) to tell her something that had happened at school and then they started singing. Their mother was happy for them, but the other boy had come into the house sad and she went over to see what was wrong with him and that is when the other three children started teasing him and making faces, then he yelled at them and the mother said something and then they stopped. The boy was still moping in bed when his parents came in the room. His parents was trying to see what was wrong with him. He was pouting with his hand on his face and frowning when he was talking to his parents, then his parents said something good to him and he got up and run out the room. His mother brought him a drum set and he was anxious to tell his football team about the news. The football team teased him and walked off.

When I watched it with the sound on, my assumptions was totally wrong because I had the characters mixed up when it came to playing football. It was Bobby that the parents encouraged to play an instrument and Peter was the one being teased by the football team and he was in the Glee Club (choir). Bobby's parents were regretting to buy him the drum set because of all the noise and he was distracting everyone. The daddy came up with a solution to put Bobby and his drum set in the garage in which he called it the studio. Deacon solved the problem about the boys teasing Peter for being in the choir when he told them that he sings and is he a sissy. He said matter of fact he has a group on their team and they perform when they not playing football. Peter didn't quit the choir and Bobby quit the drums and moved on to another instrument in which he didn't know how to play. My assumptions would have been more correct if I had been watching a show that I know well.

This experience was frustrating because I am not good with reading lips when the sound is off. It was very easy to comprehend when the sound was on. I learned that reading lips is hard and hearing and seeing is what make sense when it comes to gesture. 

Communication

I thought about a professor that I took several course under when I was attending Community College. She was on the Yearbook Committee in which she took pictures for it. Also, she was very involved in other organizations as well. She was serious when it came time for her to teach. For example, if she told us we had to take a test on this particular day, trust me, you do not have to remind her because she wrote down what she had told us. Most teacher would had forgotten about the test or reschedule it for another day. As far as extra credit was considered, she did not give it because she gave us two chances to take a test and pass it. You could fail every test that she had given, but if you did your homework and attended class like you were suppose too, then you could still pass. What makes her effective is that she spoke with confident and she knew the information for her classes without evening having her notes. I would model my own communication behaviors after her because she is an organized person who is involved with the community and is always willing to help people.