Hi Everyone!

I have known some of you longer than others. What I have appreciated most is the experiences you all have shared from you various places of work in early childhood. Thank you so much for sharing. As the week goes on, I hope to share my contact information with you all.
I am going into teaching adults. I am hoping to take a longer break before I start that.

Good Luck!

Liz Thomas

This week I was asked to consider the stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning and consider the adjourning phase for several of the groups in whichI have been involved. 

It is hardest to leave groups with which I have worked well. Since I have been married, I have moved many times. The last time I moved, I really didn't want to move. I had become familiar with many of the staff, parents, and children at the YMCA where I worked. Many people were happy I was there. Two of my own children worked there part time and my three youngest children had grown up there as swim demonstration babies.  The other lifeguards were like more older siblings for my three youngest children,  For my adjournment from this team, there was a cake to celebrate and a YMCA gift hoodie as a remembrance.

I think that it is hardest to leave a group if you are not sure who from the group you will see again. In my master's clsses, I have seen several familiar names throughout my time, but I took many breaks, and that makes teh adjournment easier. Lately, I have been wondering who will be going on to teaching adults in the early childhood field with me. I think it is important that we do share contact information, so that we can support each other in the early childhood field.  I plan to leave contact info in week eight. Adjourning is important to prevent a feeling of disconnectedness from the world in general.  It highlights the importance of relationships we have formed along the way. 

A Conflict - What to do?

I had a disagreement with the Spanish bilingual teacher about how to read to children She was ok the first year with the way I dialogued with children when I read stories, but after about a month my second year, she said I should just read the books straight through. I was not ok with this at all. It was hard to keep there attention to books I read in English because they didn't understand that much English. I talked with them to help them understand the story. If they weren't listening to the story, I would draw them in by asking questions about the story or pictures. I was already very stressed at the time so I didn't deal with it at all. There were other problems like my children were at daycare and school for 11 hours when I had bus duty, but the final reason I gave my two week notice was that the teacher was asking me to do something that I didn't really know how to do and I had always felt my way of reading books was very beneficial. Our text said that the answer is not to ignore the issue. The first strategy I should have used would have been to bring up the issue. The second strategy would have been to tell her what I needed in that situation like I needed her to trust my judgment in how I taught English. The third strategy would have been to compromise. For example, I could have only read books that repeat simple sentences or I could have had one toddler type book and then had singing time because the children really seemed to learn English better by singing.




I would love to hear some more suggestions.