Best Wishes 
I have really enjoyed these 8 inspiring weeks with all of you. Through your great discussions and thoughtful blog posts I have learned a lot. I always felt that you get your best lessons through your classmates and their personal stories. I truly appreciate working with a group of wonderful people who has a passion for making the lives of children better. Thank you all for sharing this journey with me and best of luck to all of your future endeavors.

Please feel free to keep in contact: bills_zeta@yahoo.com

ADJOURNING

Working in groups are rewarding, but working with a group of people for lengthy period of time builds bonds. I worked with the same group of females for a semester of college. We all had pretty much the same goals in life, some of us were married and most of us had at least one child or more. There were times when things became overwhelming and we wanted to quit but through the support and motivation of each other we made it through. We succeeded in our classes and learned about each other in the process. To this day we still meet at least once a month for lunch and play dates with our children. It is hard to let go when it is time for good things to come to an end, but the upside of that is everything we gained during our journey together. That is how I feel about this course. Even though we are at our end, I have gained so much knowledge from the readings and the online interactions of my colleagues.

When I think about my colleagues that I have met so far here at Walden University I feel as If our relationships could possibly have been even stronger if we would have met face to face. Anyone can sound good on paper, but it is something about meeting face to face that gives you that since of clarity and trust. I do hope that some of my classmates as I will stay in touch beyond this program. It has made nice to be able to relate with someone that is coming from the same state, but a different area. I feel that there has been a great deal of respect between each student as we have done discussions and blog post. A lot of people including myself have shared a lot of experiences that are personally, which have allowed us to open up to others and develop professional relationships. I feel that I have grown close to a lot of my colleagues especially the ones that have been in all of my classes since we have started the program.

The adjourning stage is such an important stage because it allows for self reflection. It allows you to see what went well and what things you’re yourself and the team could have approved on. It gives you the opportunity to work with others and see how their mind and thought process works. It gives you the chance to give praise to someone else for their accomplishments. It allows you to understand what it is to collaborate. It allows you to make personal and professional connections with others.

Conflict

Conflict is something that we face almost everyday in life, rather it's at work or at home. The key to conflict is being able to resolve it in a positive manor. I believe the text, and articles from this week have aloud me to better handle my communication in resolving conflict with someone in a positive manner. 

One recent conflict that I have experienced has been through my job with a parent. We have had a disagreement on the way of handling her child's misbehavior in the classroom. She feels as if her child is a perfect angle and never does anything wrong. I have explained to her the type of behaviors that he is displaying in the classroom such as, putting his hands on me and my TA, hitting other students, throwing chairs, falling out in the halls, sliding up and down the hallway etc...  Before things had escalated I began trying several different strategies with him such as: sitting him in his own area on the carpet, giving him something to hold while on the carpet, if and then charts, rewards system etc. This is all things that I had suggested to to the parent and used in the classroom, but it seemed not to be working. After that I asked for some assistance from the behavior therapist and this again brought up and issue with the parent, but with further discussion Both the parent and I had agreed for the school therapist to come in and observe just so that she could gain so more understanding of what I was trying to tell her.  Still the parent feels that everything that I was telling her was a lie. It got to the point where an emergency meeting was called and I literally had to get written documentation from other teachers that had assisted me with this student to present to the parent to show that hey everything that I am telling you is the truth. Once in the meeting the therapist Pretty much confirmed everything that I had been telling to the parent from the beginning to be true. From there I began to receive  help in the classroom to better handle this child behavior, but at the need of everything the parent and I relationship is not good. It's like she was offended because I was trying to get help for her child. At the present time the relationship between the parent and I is copacetic  and since the meeting there hasn't been anymore drama with the parent. The relationship between the child and I has grown stronger as well.

To help me continue to make this a positive relationship some of the strategies that have helped me are taking that of the Third Side. This will allow me to sit back and actually listen to everything the parent is trying to say, empathize and try to understand where she is coming from before I give any type of response. Also from the beginning of this situation I should have taken into account more of the three R's i would have been more considered and put my own feeling and judgments to the side so that I Would have been able to listening and empathise with the parent more so things would not have escalated as they did. Currently I think  using the WIn WIn approach will be a great way for both the parent and I to share ideas and communicate better with each other.Has anyone experienced a situation similar to this if so what strategies would you suggest to help resolve this situation?