Teresa Herbert

High-performing groups can be tough to leave.   It could be that no one wants to leave from a position which all team members get along with each other, and that camaraderie produced productive and positive performances.   This in turn, can spoil a person when he or she goes to a new job, and that same individual who expected a similar situation to occur is disappointed because team success do not equal and/or surpass what he or she is accustomed to experiencing.   For this reason, it could be suggested that groups with the clearest norms can be cumbersome to detach from because of the relationships that were established throughout the duration of one’s tenure at the job.   Furthermore, one of the most heartwarming closing rituals that I have experienced occurred when I left my job as a home visitor.   Because many of the parents knew when my last visits were to their homes, they thanked me by cooking for me and buying gifts to wish me well.   It made me ...

The two strategies that would help me manage conflict more productively comes from the three “R’s” from The Center for Nonviolent Communication, and they are reciprocation and responsiveness.  These strategies could better help resolve conflict because when people are listening to each other they are respecting each other, and they can come to a mutual understanding for a revolution.  Also, from a responsiveness aspect, if both parties are calm when expressing their emotions throughout the conflict, then it will be easy to solve problems.  For example, I have a co-worker at one of my previous jobs, who was the director of the school.  She overheard the owner of the school saying that she was not doing a great job handling her school.  The owner ridiculed her and said other inappropriate things about her that hurt her feelings until she started crying. Later, when the coworker stayed at work that day and when she got home, she wrote the letter, and the next da...

I believe that I am an effective communicator.  I communicate well with my co-workers and with the young children. Also, when I am talking to my students’ parents, I communicate well with them when interacting during parent-teacher conferences.  I make my parents fill comfortable in my classroom.  Furthermore, others view me as a fun-loving conversationalist.  For instance, when I am communicating with co-workers, I have good conversations with them, and we love to talk about what we improve on when teaching our students.  Having great conversations with co-workers is similar to dialogues that I have with my family.  I treat all interactions as if the person I am speaking to is a friend or relative who I have known for a long time.  I want the individual I am speaking with to be comfortable while we are engaged in conversations.             Moreover, what surprises me sometimes is when I am comm...

I do find myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures.  For example, my class is comprised of students who are African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian.  When I am communicating with the Hispanic and Caucasian parents, I find myself speaking more in a formal and direct manner.  However, when I am speaking to the parents of my African American students, I find myself speaking more informally to them.  I adjust my communication based upon who I am talking to, especially when it comes to interacting with people from different cultures and backgrounds, but there are some strategies I could utilize to assist me with communicating with people from various cultural backgrounds.             Furthermore, some of the strategies I employ is using direct eye contact, using hand gestures to explain what message I am conveying, and using formal language.  This way, it will assist me...

In the series “Gimmie A Break,” as I watched it with the sound off, I noticed that based upon what I saw, it looked as if there is a mother-daughter relationship.  The mother was African American, and the daughter is Caucasian.  The mother looked as if she was caring for her daughter because the daughter came home with a black eye from a fight at school.  The feeling is that the mother is upset and angry about her daughter being hit in the eye, and she wants her daughter to fight back.  The feeling of the daughter is one of being nonchalant in her attitude, for her face had an expression of indifference as if she was nonchalant from sustaining a black eye.  When the daughter was given the initiative from her mother to fight back, the girl began to ball up her fists and make an aggressive face to show her mother that she is ready for battle. However, when I watched the show with the sound turned on, the assumptions that I had was that the mother was the girl’s...

The person who demonstrates competent communication is my mother.  For instance, my mother is my emotional support and my foundation.  I can come to her for advice, and she continues to guide me whenever I am facing life’s circumstances.  What makes my mother effective is that she is a great communicator, and she is a great listener.  I am extremely close to my mother, and we have extensive conversations on a consistent basis.  My mother is sensitive to my needs and wants, for whatever I am concerned with, she is concerned also.  My mother always display empathy towards my siblings and me because she understands what we are experiencing throughout life.  She is also aware of who she is as a woman and as a mother.  I would like to fashion some of my own communication behaviors after my mother because she is my role model.  I have already expressed some of my mother’s competent communication tendencies because I am empathetic and caring as wel...

There are many outcomes that I gleaned from learning about the early childhood field from an international perspective.  For instance, according to Hale (2014), there are three consequences that early childhood practitioners learn about how the field is enduring overseas.  She writes, The first consequence of learning about the international early childhood field is that as early childhood educators, we live in a world that calls for continuous change, and therefore, information on best practices and best policies can be utilized throughout the world.  The second consequence of learning about the international childhood field is that having an awareness has to be developed.  When early childhood practitioners are unaware of their students, the students’ families, and of themselves, then the opportunity for discussion and growth cannot be established so that all parties understand the willingness to be invested in children’s development and children’s education....