Adjourning Group

            In college I had the opportunity to participate in several group projects.  One of the groups that stands out the most was in my teaching licensure program. I was paired in a group with one other member.  We were both enrolled in the program in order to attain our teaching license in birth through kindergarten.  In this group I learned that Ms. Rhonda was a hard worker like myself and wanted to ensure we completed our task on time.  In this group I was the group leader.  My partner Ms. Rhonda was easy to reach and stayed on task with the completion of her portion of the project. She worked hard to find creative ways to meet our challenge of getting video taped segments for our group project.  We e-mailed the segments back and forth and then met to put the assignment together.  After our presentation we earned received an A.

            I enjoyed working with Ms. Rhonda and I felt that our group was a high performing group.  We both completing tasks in a timely manner while working closely with good communication.  We learned about each other during our group project.  We both worked in early childhood.  She worked in a child development home and wanted to work in the public school after she got her teaching license.  I had just started working in a pre-k program where I came in under lateral entry with the understanding that I had to complete my licensure program within three years.  After communicating with Rhonda I realized we were both were goal oriented and enjoyed working in our field.  At the end of the group project I maintained contact with Rhonda by phone and via social media.   I no longer live near Ms. Rhonda but we both stay up to date with one another and our journey in the early childhood profession.

                While completing my master’s program in my current group I imagine that I will try to maintain contact.  According to O’Hair, Wiemann, Mullin and Teven (2015) “cohesion is the degree to which group members bond, like each other, and consider themselves to be one entity” (p. 262).   I had the opportunity to get to know Rhonda while working with her in our group.  We were able to have weekly interactions in person and by phone.  In my current master’s program I have not had the opportunity to get to know my colleagues like I did with Ms. Rhonda.  I think this is because we only have contact via e-mail.   By reading their e-mails on our blog posts and class assignments I have gained a glimpse of who my group members are.  This has been a little challenging to build a relationship with my colleagues because I am used to working with group members in person.  According to Abudi (2010) “The adjourning stage is when the team is completing the current project. They will be joining other teams and moving on to other work in the near future” (para, 1).   My hope is to continue to try to build a relationship with my colleagues on our journey in the early childhood profession while using what I have learned from past group experiences and work toward making improvements in order to be a valuable and productive group member.

 

References:

Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html

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