Exploring ECE Roles

When I think about the early childhood world my passion has changed within the last year or so. Of course, the children are always number one but recently I have enjoyed exploring the coaching realm within early childhood. The job opportunities and communities of practice I chose for this post revolve around coaching for educators. 

The three communities of practice/organizations I feel relate to me are; the coaches within my current program, Colorado Shines, and Colorado Coaching Consortium. The coaches at my current workplace will help me to guide my way through the coaching process. The Colorado Shines and Colorado Coaching Consortium appeal to me because they are platforms to professional development and networking opportunities. I feel that the more focused and informative professional development one can become involved in will really help better themselves and those they are working with. Colorado Coaching Consortium offers Relationship Based Professional Development trainings around adult learners, coaching competencies, reflective practice, and coaching implementation tools, which will offer current/future coaches the tools for success. 

I have recently accepted a coaching position at Head Start, which is the job opportunity of interest to me and one that I have been working towards for almost two years!! This position will be a coach/supervisor to a select number of teachers within our Head Start program. I am not sure the exact experience needed but I know they wanted the candidate to have Head Start teaching experience with some knowledge of the policies/procedures. 

Adjourning

There have been many groups that I have been apart of that were hard for me to leave - my college roommates (who were my friends since elementary school), high school friends, and past co-workers. I feel that all of these relationships have helped me grow in various ways and we were apart of each others success and failures. There was a sense of trust among all of the individuals, which gave us the courage to try new things. 

Saying good-bye to my colleagues at Walden will be difficult - we have been able to open up to each other and grow through each of our mistakes/life experiences. I never thought I would be a "blogger" and was a little nervous to start this process but I have learned to love it. This is an informal method of sharing our success stories, and even some failures. I truly believe in the power of learning from others experiences and love to hear about everyone's life journeys.

This past week I was at a training out of state and we did not have time in the "forming" stage to get to know each other - we spent the first 5 minutes on Monday introducing ourselves and saying one thing about us that nobody would guess by looking at us. This was a good ice breaker and conversation starter for later in the week. We all became close and really connected with each other (going to lunch and out to dinner after the training), so saying good-bye on Friday was hard - we all want to stay connected but living in separate states makes that hard. Learning about team building and trust this week was helpful especially being apart of such an amazing group of individuals. 

Conflict Resolution

After thinking back to a conflict I have had recently I decided to focus on one from my personal life – between my brother and I. There was a comment made to my sister in law as we were all leaving a family birthday party - instead of confronting the situation right then she had my brother text message us an hour or so later. Text messaging is the worst way, in my opinion, to discuss a situation where feelings were hurt. 

The strategies I learned this week that could have helped me in this situation are:

1. The Third Side has been an important tool so far in this class and my life. In this particular conflict situation I could have listened from the Third Side. I did not learn or listen to all of the perspectives (sister in law and brother). I become annoyed and defensive because the wording my brother used became an attack on my husband. 

2. I am going to start focusing my communication skills around the NVC model. I feel that I am a compassionate communicator with individuals outside of my family structure but tend to be a little more blunt with my family members. This approach could have helped with my conflict because I could have addressed his text message and her concern with more compassion and from the heart. 

There have been multiple instances where my brother and sister in law have verbally attacked all members of my family, which makes it difficult to want to communicate with them in a compassionate manner. But as we all know, two wrongs don't make a right.

Communication Evaluation

The one thing that surprised me the most was how my friends evaluated my nerves while public speaking. They felt that I was more comfortable than I really am - inside I want to run and hide. When I am in small groups I tend to have less nerves than in a large group setting. 

What insights about communication did I gain this week?

1) I need to work on not being as sarcastic because not everybody understands it and they could become offended. I was discussing this assignment with one of the managers at work and told her that not using sarcasm is one of the communication goals I have for myself - she said she does not like sarcasm because it is angers ugly cousin. This statement stuck with me and is in the back of my mind every time I say something sarcastic. 

2) Communication is more than engaging in verbal conversations with each other, it is about listening to the other person as well. Listening to others will help build a better relationship. 

Strategies for Effective Communication

1: Active listening: I feel that through the last few weeks I have slowly started practicing this skill but know that I have not mastered it. It will definitely take some time to learn how to tune out your own thoughts and focus 100% on the other person involved in the conversation.

2. Body Language/Facial Expressions: I tend to cross my arms or play with my hands while talking with others, which is considered by most as disrespectful or that I am not listening. My facial expressions have also been mentioned, by others, as being "hard to read." There are times that I squint or scrunch my face when I am trying to understand what is being said - this does not come across to others though.

3. Slowing down: I have been working on slowing down while communicating with others and focusing on what I am trying to say. Sometimes I talk too fast and don't explain myself, so the communication between others breaks down.

Communication

While watching this show without volume I found it very difficult to keep my attention. All of the characters seemed to have a close relationship with each other and were able to use their facial expressions to communicate with each other. There was a particular scene that stood out to me...one character (woman) seemed to have a stern look on her face while talking and looking towards another character (male). This scene was the only one where the characters did not seem to have a positive interaction.

My assumption of that specific scene was off - the woman was not upset at the man at all, in fact she was interested in him. Being able to listen to the interactions helped with my understanding of the characters. The dark haired girl is very sarcastic and seems to take everything as a joke, whereas, the blonde girl was more practical. Her sarcastic jokes might hinder some of the relationships in the long run.

Competent Communicator

There is a particular supervisor in my school that, to me, has mastered effective communication skills/style - mostly while working with families. She is one that I look up to and tend to send my upset family members too. Her voice is calm and has a low-tone to it which tends to relax the energy in the room. This individual can tell you the worst news in the sweetest and most respectful way - which is something I have yet learned how to do. The body language she shows is one of respect and authority (in a good way), she has positive control and facilitation over meetings/conversations.

When those awkward/hard conversations need to happen I try to lighten the mood by making a joke, which I learned this week goes against an ethical communication principle - striving to understand and respect other communicators (O'Hair, Wiemann, Mullin, & Teven, 2015). By joking it might upset or confuse whoever is on the receiving end of my message. Of course, this is not a typical communication style I use and is a professional goal of mine. I am hoping this course will help give me other tools to use when the conversations become difficult.

Reference

O’Hair, D., Wiemann, M., Mullin, D. I., & Teven, J. (2015). Real communication (3^rd. ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s