Farewell EDUC 6165

After an interesting 8 weeks, I wish you all best of luck in the remainder of your program. Thank you Dr. Hampshire for the course, and for continuously challenging us to learn more about this important aspect of our work.

In the spirit of communication and collaboration, I would be thrilled to stay in touch with all my classmates, so feel free to email me on zeina.matar-ghantous@waldenu.edu

Thank you all for the comments, questions, and posts.

Farewell until our paths meet again.

Zeina 

EDUC 6165 - week 6

Adjourning is a fabulous process that a group goes through in order to achieve closure, upon completion of their goal. This stage of team development is a celebration, a mourning and a farewell between the members of the team.

My sons play baseball with the little league and so each season we form teams for each of my two sons and train and play together for four months. Then the All-star teams are formed and we train, travel and play together as well. All those teams go through the forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning stages. The players go through the stages, as well as the volunteer coaches and the parents. After each season and each All-Star tournament, the adjourning includes meals together, awards, pictures, gift exchanges and lots of hugs and farewells. If I were to choose the aspect that makes the goodbye hardest I would say that yes a team that performs well by having lots of wins, is always adjourning as a celebration and it is somewhat harder to end that unity. In addition, a team that has a lot in common, which to me is the norming stage optimized, is harder to leave than a team with little in common that hardly goes through any norming.

I find the baseball teams are a perfect example of team work, and all that we have learnt this week. If we finished our season without the closure of adjourning, the children would feel a sense of loss instead of a sense of victory. The season's closing ceremony is a perfect example of adjourning, with the rituals that represent everyone's commitment and unity.

I think the same applies to our Master's program. We all come together, trusting the path set by our leaders for our goals, with the respect and commitment needed to complete the task. After the storming, norming and performing, there certainly needs to be a finale that celebrates the efforts, the relationships, the accomplishments and even the lessons with each failure, along the way. I look forward to congratulating the classmates, and thanking the professors who are sharing this journey with me. The adjourning rituals are surely to take on the culture of the leadership and I trust that it will bring closure and a sense of victory.

EDUC 6165 - week 5

I have to face conflict very often because of my responsibilities at the nursery as director. Sometimes the conflicts are very intense and frustrating, and other times they are a reminder to improve communication and clarifications.

Most of the conflicts are sensitive to share on my blog, but I will share with you a common scenario. I usually have one staff member a year who is insensitive to the fact that taking time off outside the calendar holidays can be very stressful to the nursery. We follow a school calendar and so staff have very frequent breaks and a long summer off; all of which is paid leave. When a staff member asks for time off while the nursery is open, it burdens the nursery with staffing concerns and continuity in the classrooms.

I have such a conflict this year with one of our teachers, who has already taken lots of time off. We have had to organize a substitute teacher to cover her class on several occasions, and all for non-urgent matters. When she requested more time off to travel with her family in May, it became a conflict between us.

I most certainly knew that I would remain respectful while disputing her request, which remains an unresolved dispute. Although my instinct is to become non-responsive, because of the repeated requests, I probably need to remain responsive while debating the need for more leave. The reciprocity is what I find missing from her side, so that she needs to reciprocate our efforts of being flexible and accommodating, by being considerate herself.

Of course we will not reach a violent communication, but the concepts of NVC are applicable here: empathetically listening and honestly expressing. I can see now that if I adopt these two concepts, then I am likely to resolve the dispute effectively. The observation of her repeated requests is obvious to me, and the feeling of being frustrated with it is evident from my part and from the part of the parents and colleagues at the nursery. The needs of the nursery and her needs, must come to a balance in order to continue working together, and I think I will request a commitment to the job as soon as possible in order to continue working together.

This conversation was going to happen in order to reach a solution, but it is interesting to see it in this breakdown of steps.