To all my classmates that have helped me through my journey. As we all go to our different directions to finish up our degree we may not talk to each other anymore. If you would like to stay in contact you may email me at cheryl.labonville@waldenu.edu. Good luck in the rest of your journey. 

Everyone has been part of a group at one point in their life. With every group there are multiple stages. The last stage is the adjourning stage. This is the stage where the group is leaving/dismissing. This can sometime be the hardest stage in a group. 

One of the hardest groups to leave that I was apart of was my high school band my sophomore year. Though I continued to be part of the group through out my whole high school career my sophomore year was the hardest year to leave for the summer. My sophomore year we were such a big family. We achieved so much by doing great at competitions, to helping a terminally ill classmate, to having the honor of representing the State of Michigan at the World War II memorial opening in Washington D.C. We also were invited to play at many other national events and also we were also invited to play in Ireland at their St. Patrick's Day Parade. Because of money we only were able to choose one and we decided to play in D.C. It was also hard to leave this group for the summer because our teacher was retiring. We were all very close and it was hard to say goodbye to her and all the seniors who were not coming back. To say goodbye we had a awards ceremony/good bye party. One last time to spend time together. It was hard at the end but we still stay in contact with each other. Especially when our classmate that was terminally ill past away the following December. We got back together and held each other through this hard time. We still stay in contact through Facebook till this day but we are not as close as we were. 

To be honest since this my program is all online I have not really gotten close to my classmates. I look forward to reading their post and see who will follow me into my advocacy program.

One conflict that I recently had was with the speech therapist that provides services to one of my students. I had bought it to her attention that I was worried about the child having Autism. She has the child's older brother and tells me that it is the mom that just wants more money for her children. When talking to my supervisor she said if I do not have the support of her I would not get anywhere. So with much regret I had to just work with the child on my own with what knowledge I had. At the last conference that I had with the parent, without me saying anything, she had a concern with her son. She has known someone with Autism and she sees many similarities. So I decided to talk to my supervisor and disabilities coordinator one more time. They said mom has to bring the concern to the speech therapist. If the speech therapist does not do anything then we will go from there. That is where we are standing on this conflict. Just by the comments that the speech therapist has made I do not think we will get very far with out a fight. We are hoping that we are able to get it figured out by the end of the year so the child does not fall behind in kindergarten. The conflict has still not be resolved but I will still stand strong on my opinion that this child needs help. I know you are suppose to compromise when their is a conflict but in my opinion I have to advocate for this child to succeed.

My co-teachers are being very supportive. They all think that something needs to be done. They are not sure what it is but they have stated that their are times that his response are not like a typical five year old.  

Communication Evaulation

This week I had a chance to take assignments to see where I am on communication. I feel I scored very well and agree with what the scores describe me as. I also had the opportunity to have two people take the same evaluations on me. The scores they came up with on me were very similar to what I can up with. I was surprised that they were very similar. People always have their own opinion so I figured they would think of me differently then I think of myself. 

The first insight that I have had this week is who I really am when it comes to communication. I am happy with who I am but I also learned what I can work on to become a better communicator. The second insight that I had was I need to communicate as I know what I am saying. If I show any signs of nervousness I will not be taken as serious as I would with confidence. 

I do feel like I communicate differently to people for different culture and groups. I feel I communicate in a way that they understand. Such as a work meeting I am going to communicate professionally but with my friends I communicate in a fun way. I also use to work with a agency that had a majority of African Americans. I feel I started talking as they do when I am around them.I also communicate differently to people that I do not know. I treat and talk to them the way I would want to be treated since I do not know them. Another group I talk to differently is my students. I use words they can understand and most of the time it is in a calm positive voice.  

I feel you have to talk to different people differently. As I said you are not going to talk to your friends as you would talk in a work meeting. You just have to use your best judgement on how to talk to who.

For this assignment I watched the show Secrets and Lies. It is a show that I had recorded because the previews looked good. I just did not have the chance to watch it yet.

The first time I watched it I had the sound on mute. The beginning of the show looked like he was running for help. He looked like he was in a hurry. The guy looked very scared. He runs into a house and the girl who opened the door look very confused. It then went too a different scene and the guys face looked like he was wondering why anyone would do this. We found out that he found a little boy that was killed. The guy then was walking back through his neighborhood and his neighbors looked concerned for him. From watching it mute there were a lot of different emotions that I saw. I was able to see how everyone is related. 

After I watched the show with the sound on. The emotions that I recognize were correct. I feel that it was not hard to recognize the feelings on mute.Especially since I saw the police and the body of the little boy. Who would not be sad, angry and concerned when there is a body of a little boy. 

I feel that if I watched the show prior to this assignment I would have been more bias in my write up. 

Communication

For this assignment I had to think of a person who has strong communication skills. For this assignment I picked my Priest. He has really strong communications skills for public speaking but also for one one one speaking. He is not forceful to get his point across but he gets his point across in a loving kind way. With being a Priest there are many people that will come to you and tell them their problems. He listens to them and does not judge them. He gives his honest opinion but not in a way to make the person feel stupid and embarrassed. I would want to get some of his communication skills because I have many parents that have to come to me with issues they are having in their home. I would want them to feel that I do not judge them and that I am here to help them get through their trouble time.