Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

The three community of practice organizations that I have found interesting are:
Interagency Coordinating Council for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities and their families (ICC)
Vernal Moms group
Vernal Home School Resources

I chose the ICC because it links to all the different agencies in Utah that work with Early intervention. They get all these different agencies and work of the issues facing early intervention in the state of Utah. They bring parents into the group for participation. They also have a direct link to the Governor or Utah. I find what they work on interesting and helpful. I chose the Vernal Moms group because they are moms that are located around the area with young children and they have activities for families and moms. They interests are to keep children active and explore the Unitah Basin. I chose the Vernal Home School Resources because so many children are home schooled in our area and I am interested in their view point of early education and why they chose home schooling. They do activities and meet regular to group teach the children.

Jobs that I am interested in the area really is not what i am doing with my life. I have a 2 month old, 5 year old, 7 year old and a 10 year old. I volunteer and work at their school. If I could I would have a teaching position at their school. The requirements that I need are a degree of any sort. They are a private school and do not need teaching certification. They do hire ex-educators so I would qualify to teach the lower grades with the education I have received from Walden.

Encourage and Support

Hello,
I would like to thank everyone for all that they have shared over the past 8 weeks. I have gained so much information with you. You all have given me many things to move forward with in my career. I have relished all the experience and information you have shared. I would like to continue having the ability to stay in contact so we can be there to support each other.
Charissa Merrell
jcmerrell@stratanet.com

Team Development

Are high-performing groups hardest to leave?
High preforming groups are harder to leave because they build a stronger relationship. They can work together without relying on the leader to be the go between or the monitor.
Groups with the clearest established norms? When a group has a clear idea of their goal they seem to work harder. I know that the groups that I have worked with that have had distinct goals for a specific reason they seem to give it all till the end. I have worked with individuals that give more then their share because they know what the results can bring.
Which of the groups that you participated in was hardest to leave? Why? The groups that were hardest for me to leave were the high preforming groups because we build a relationship beyond the project. I learned much about my team members.
What sorts of closing rituals have you experienced or wish you had experienced? The experience that I have had with closing rituals as been any where from a luncheon to a small gift. The luncheon was the most effective because we got to talk about future and past.
How do you imagine that you will adjourn from the group of colleagues you have formed while working on your master's degree in this program? I hope I adjourn from the groups with individuals I can contact in the future. I want to gain friendships and acquaintance with individuals I can lean on for information and support. I want to say talk to you later instead of good luck and never talk to them again.
Why is adjourning an essential stage of teamwork? It helps with closer and to help you see what you accomplished. To me it helps me know I did a good job and what I could improve on.

NON-Violent Communication

The biggest disagreement that I have that has effected my life for more then hours is one argument I had with my husbands brother. He lives in Tennessee and we live in Utah. 6 months before the argument we went down to his wedding. It was a fun time but his marriage did not last. 6 months later they were divorce. He came home to his parents house for a weekend to deal with all that he went through. He was into drugs and alcohol. When he did these things he was violent and this is what caused the marriage to end. He also does not have a high regard for women due to his relationship with his mom and other women in his family. We were living with his parents at the time. This was five years ago and we had a 4 year-old and a 1 year-old. The whole time he was here he was rude to his mother and father. My husband had an accident and he and grandpa watch our kids. Anyways so when it was time for him to leave the girls and I were in the house and so was he. My oldest keep asking him if he could do things with her and he would make up a story as to why he could not. The he preceded to tell her lies about when he would see her again. By this time I was done with his lies. I asked him to stop lying to her and tell her the truth. He said that he was not going to do that because it was not fair to the child. I said well your lie will create false hope in her. Then he got mad and we started to have a screaming match. He mom walked in and told us to stop he called her all kinds of  awful names. By this time his dad came in and he tried to break it up but we just continued. Honestly to this day is was stupid but many things caused his reaction to my question. We are still not speaking even now. What I have learned from our resources is that I should have let it go because he was not in the right frame of mind to receive my asking appropriately. He say me as an object and same with my daughter. He was selfish then and still is. When he was home two weeks ago he say he did not need family and all he wanted was acquaintance out of his family. He only sees his side on everything. What I have also realized is why I have be upset with him all these years. I am looking at my self-deception of the situation. My issue with him is the way he disrespects his parents and all women in general. These are my issues not his. I have begun to write a letter to apologize for picking the wrong time to talk about lying to a child. I also am apologizing for my issue with how he was in the past. His parents have told me he has changed and his fiance acts like he has changed. I am still judging him on his past actions. This argument bothers his parents because they want family to get along and spend time together. The problem is that many things have not happen in the past with this family to make forgiveness easy for the boys. I am working on forgiveness toward him but it will take time. I could not apologize until I knew what I had to apologize for. This argument was not about being right or wrong it was about how one person mistreats people who love him. He does not like women who stand up for themselves and many other things. He sees his family and other individuals as objects. I have to look at him as an individual who is struggling to understand his world is not perfect and he cannot control everyone. I as a person need to learn to argue with individuals with a calm more collective way so that the environment can be productive. His dad has wanted me to write him an apology letter since that day but I could not until I understood why. He called me many names and said hurtful things because he was hurting and not in a could frame of mind. This is more about healing things that never should have been. It will take time because he will never admit he was wrong or in the wrong. He parents are pushing and they just need to let it go. We will work it out or not.

communicator and others who evaluated me.

What is the one thing that surprised you the most?
What surprised me the most was how similar the scores came out. I found this survey difficult because the individuals who I asked to complete it did not understand the questions. They also did it on themselves first. I had to ask them to redo the survey. When they did the results were similar to my personal results. The way I communicate with individuals I do not know does not always make a good impression. This is what I have gained that because of my anxieties I do not come across as a friendly person or someone you can talk to.

What other insights about communication did you gain this week?
Communication is not an easy task. Communication is very complicated and if you do not look at individuals as human beings instead of object you really are not communication with them. How we perceive ourselves also effects how we communicate. Being comfortable communicating with others in large crowds is what many individuals have to learn how to do. I have seen individuals who are natural at it and some that have had to work at it because of their career path. I also see how many people view individuals differently when it comes to communication styles.

So from the survey I have that I have some people oriented skills, action oriented skills, content-oriented skills and time-oriented. I really do not understand the results though. For my listening skills I focus on details and scheduled in important to me. I have communication anxiety which I already knew. I feel uncomfortable in many communication situations. It also says that my high anxiety might stop me from accepting influences from others. These results might cause my communication with other professionals to be not very success full. I may not be able to accept influences form others and my family members. My middle child has anxieties when it comes to communicating as well. She will not say good bye to anyone as fear they will not return. So I need to evaluate myself to see where I can improve.

Communicating differently

Strategies that I have gained from this week have just helped me reinforce what I already do. When I am communication with someone I try to see the as a person who is important and needs my full attention. Their cultural background does not influence my judge meant. When it comes to working with families and children it is very important to me to understand. So, many times children are misunderstood by adults because they do not listen. This is why it is important to me to see all sides of the conversation. I am their to help and not hinder a child's learning and development. Examining the actions and the child's cultural background is what I have learning from the resources. I must observer the whole context of a situation. When I was in junior high we had a foster child come live with us. she was of Hispanic culture. She had been through several homes before ours. When she arrived she expected us to be prejudiced against her. She found out quickly we did not care and we were there to help her. Before she left our home she told my mom that she realized that she was prejudiced because she always expected white people to treat her a certain way. Our family opened her eyes to the fact that you need to see a person or family with open eyes.

Episode of a Televison

For this assignment I chose to watch a episode of Thunderbirds which is a cartoon. I watched it first with out sound and found very interesting hand gestures and I watched more of their eye movements. Watching with out sound helped me actually watch the episode instead of just listening. One of my ah moments was that because I have children I do not really watch shows I more listen. i am doing many things at once so I listen more then I watch. While watching the episode with out sound I realist how much our face tells things about us or about the situation. I saw frustration, excitement and anger. It was very interesting what I got to see. When I watched it again with sound I was not at all accurate on many things that were going on. With the sound on I realized that the characters involved had a very good relationship and they were very antagonizing to each other. They worked together to solve a problem even though they had strong personalities. It was very interesting looking at a episode with and without sound. Many gestures do not tell you all the story. It was nice to be able to hear what i did not understand.