Until we meet again

Irish Blessing

May the road rise to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

And the rains fall soft upon your fields.

Until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His Hand.

What an amazing journey this has been so far.  This journey has been such a wonderful learning opportunity. It could not have been possible without the connections we have made along the way. I have connected with several classmates, and have an immense respect for each and every one of my colleagues I engaged with along this journey. The connections I have made and relationships formed with many of you will never be forgotten.  It's hard to imagine that we are nearing the end of this journey.  We all have a driven passion to work with families, children, communities, and colleagues in the field to make a difference and make a change in the future.    All of the work put into this degree has been well worth the effort and I have learned more about the early childhood education field in the United States and abroad than I ever thought I would have I have become a better, stronger professional in the early childhood field and have no doubt this is where I can make a difference.

I would like to take this time to graciously thank each of you for your contributions both on the blog and discussion boards. You have help to provide much insight into the field of early childhood for me. I really appreciated each of your comments, as they were an inspiration to me. I wish each of you the best in your future endeavors and look forward to working with you all again.  I look forward to walking across that stage with you on graduation day.

Until we meet again,

Keli

Team Development

One of the most reading experiences in my life was my first International Tour of Porgy and Bess.  I will never forget the day I found out that I had been chosen for the European tour.  One of my first thoughts was who else is doing this, do I know any of them, what are they like.  I had a little over a year to learn music and make arrangements to be gone from home for 8 months.  The day I arrived in Paris, I had 3 hrs to move into my apartment before going to the first music rehearsal.  We made introductions and then dove into the music.  During the first break, I spoke to several of my colleagues and I remember feeling like I was speaking to people I had known for years. The chemistry amongst us was instant and we carried that onto the stage with us.  
When staging began we hit a few rough patches with the stage director.  Her background was in dance and she had not done any research on what the opera was about.  Usually when Porgy and Bess is being performed it is done the traditional way.  Our director gave it a more urban setting and wanted absolutely no props.  She had spent a great deal of time in parts of Africa observing the people and wanted to use those images throughout the opera.  It took some time for everyone to get used to this new view of the opera, but eventually we all grew to love it and it turned out to be an AMAZING production.  

After a few weeks of rehearsing everything was running smoothly.  During our off days we spent a lot of time together exploring Paris.  The  orchestra was from Miami, Fl and the opera chorus was from Atlanta.  The entire cast was American and besides our love for music that was another commonality we shared.  Opening night comes and we are off and running!  Each performance was always better than the previous and we were all riding high!  We performed a total of 30 operas in Paris before heading to our next location.  2 weeks before the tour was over I remember waking up in the middle of the night crying.  It took me awhile for me to understand why I was upset, but then I realized it was because my time with this incredible group of people was coming to an end.  Yes, I was excited to reunite with my husband and family, but the thought of not being with my other family was stressful.  On the night of our final performance we were having out traditional prayer circle and we all felt a shift in the atmosphere.  We prayed like never before and the music we created that night was the most beautiful music I have ever heard.  I honestly don't know the words to describe what happened that night.  It truly was an emotional closing night and it was hard to believe that it was over.

I chose this particular group experience because it covers the five stages of team development.  I think that high-perfoming groups are harder to leave because you all work so hard to reach that final goal.  And you are proud of all the work that everyone has done to complete the project.  In this case it was getting to opening night.  The first three week we had 12 hr rehearsal days with one day off during the week,  I was jet lagged for almost a month because I never had a chance to just rest.  We all experienced difficult times, but when we came together we all had one goal in mind and that was the production.

As we get closer to completing this master's program, I will be sad not to have our weekly communication.  More than anything I will be proud because we did it!  Balancing work, family, home, and school had been hard and yet we stuck through to the end.  Adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because you are able to reflect on all that you have done to get the end result.  If the experience wasn't good then you can see what changes can be made to make the next experience better.

Personal Conflict

For this week's blog, our assignment was to think about any disagreements, or conflicts we have experienced and share the strategies we learned that might be helpful and effective in managing and resolving conflict more productively.

I work really hard to have as little conflict in my life as possible.  My husband and I have small spats every now and then.  At work I have a wonderful co-teacher and we get along well and when there are issues we are able to talk it out.

The past few months it seems as if my life has been full of conflict.  I have a alcoholic brother that has been living with me for almost a year and I had to ask him to leave my home.  This has to be one of the hardest things I have ever done.  Personally I could not continue to watch him kill himself and emotionally I am drained.  I have never argued with my husband as much as I did when my brother was living with me.  On July 1 reached my boiling point.  My brother had a heart attack and his organs were beginning to decline.  The doctor spoke to us and said that if he doesn’t stop drinking he will die.  I literally snapped and I exploded on my brother.  Looking back on that day I was completely out of line and I should not have spoken to him like that.  My emotions replace all my logical thinking and I did not like the person that I was looking at in the mirror.  I have realized that I can’t make my brother be sober and right now I am choosing to love him from a distance. 

I wish that I had known about NVC and the 3R’s that day.  I am big on respect and I did not show my brother respect, I did not give him a chance to talk and the truth is I was rude to him and had a nasty attitude.  I use to have a wonderful relationship with my brother and when I was younger I idolized him.  The next time I have a conversation with my brother I will remember the good memories and focus on how I can support him if he chooses recovery.  When we spoke about The Platinum Rule a few weeks ago I vowed to always have that in my mind and that is something that I plan on doing.

For me the most important thing that I can do when dealing with my brother is to remember that he is sick and that alcoholism is a disease. 

Effective communication is such an important part of life.  It impacts every relationship, personal or professional.  I am so glad I have this class as a reminder of the proper and effective ways to communicate. Learning about conflict resolution in communication has helped me understand mistakes I have made in the past that led to negative outcomes. I will apply the skills I have learned in the future in attempt to avoid conflicts in communication.