Lemon Play-dough

During the first part of April to celebrate spring, I made this lemon scented play-dough!
It smelled so good!


Here is the recipe that I used.

• 2 cups flour,

 

• 1 cup salt,

 

• 2 table spoons vegetable oil,

 

• 2 table spoons cream of tartar,

 

• 1.5 cups boiling water

 

• A few drops of lemon extract,

 

• A couple drops of red food coloring.

 

• A few drops glycerin.

 

• 1. Mix dry ingredients.

 

• 2. Stir in oil.

 

• 3. Add water and mix until lumps are gone and it comes together.

 

• 4. Then kneed. Add scent, food coloring and or glycerin for shininess at kneading stage.

Store in an air tight container.

Assignment: Thank You

We are finally at the end of our communications course. I want to thank my classmates and professor for their feedback, encouragement and for sharing their knowledge and experiences. I have enjoyed learning and working with all of you. There are a couple of you who have been in classes with me basically since the beginning. Others I have met recently.



Now as we move on to our specializations, some of us will be taking different paths, but we all are passionate about and are dedicated to making a difference in the lives of children. I want to wish everyone luck and success at work and in life! For those who are specializing in administration, management and leadership, I look forward to learning with you. For anyone who would like to keep in touch, you can reach me at play2grow@sent.com or on twitter @play2grow. I will also keep this blog open to share projects and activities in the future.

Assignment: Adjournment

This week, we learned how groups develop through five stages. For our blog entry, we were asked to focus on the adjourning phase. “During the adjourning stage, group members reflect on their accomplishments and failures as well as determine whether the group will disassemble or take on another project. To mark this stage, some groups hold a celebratory dinner or simply say thank you and good-bye. Alternatively, some groups may decide to continue to work together on new tasks” (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2009, p. 235).
The most recent groups that I have been apart of were either through school or work. I participated in an internship in 2009 where I worked in the younger preschool classroom at a small childcare center. I had a lot of negative interactions with the members of that group, but there were positive experiences as well. Mainly they were with the children. On the second day of my internship, a new little girl came in. She was sad to see her mom leave and the head teacher thought it would be nice if I bonded with her since we were both new to the program. She was really shy at first and would only talk to me, but eventually started participating with the rest of the group. She was funny and extremely bright. Late in my internship, I was sad to learn that she was moving away. My internship was supposed to end the week before she left, but I wanted to stay with her until the end because she had so many changes going on. So I decided to volunteer for that extra week. On our last day, we celebrated! We had cupcakes and exchanged gifts.


The last time I heard from her was when I received a Christmas card from her family back in 2009 announcing that she would have a new brother or sister.

That last day represented success! I had completed my classes, the internship and would now be graduating. I was also proud because I had taken on professional responsibilities that I hadn’t been able to in my previous jobs. I had reached some of my goals.


It was bitter sweet because I was glad it was over, but I was sad to be leaving some of the children. Later that summer, they hired me as a substitute which started a whole new phase to this group. Our interactions did not get any better and I decided to quit in January of 2011.
The end of that experience meant that a new door was about to open. That’s when I started working with infants and toddlers which I really enjoy.

When I think about adjourning from the group of classmates from Walden, I don’t think it will be as hard as other groups because we’ve never met face to face. I also took a break around the holidays last year so when I came back, I had mostly new classmates. This will happen again because I am taking a break over the summer because I will be switching to another specialization. I’m sure there are a few classmates who I will keep in touch with. It has been interesting getting perspectives from people from many different places and walks of life. The other part of adjourning will be the uncertainty. A new door will open, but the question is to what? I will have to wait and see what the future brings.



O’Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication: An introduction.
New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s .

Assignment: Conflict Resolution

This week we were asked to discuss a recent conflict in our professional or personal lives and the strategies we used or could use to resolve it. I remembered a recent ongoing conflict between a coworker and I. When I started working in the classroom, this person did some things that made my job very difficult. I felt that these things made me look bad to our supervisors. This conflict was more about actions than verbal communication. One example was that when I was changing a child on the diapering table, this person would walk out of the room and leave the door open. She was only leaving for a minute to bring a child to another classroom or bring the snack cart back, but this left enough time for several children to leave the room. Since the children were not used to me, they didn’t listen when I told them to stay and this person would get frustrated with me for allowing them to leave. I told her several times that I could not leave the changing table with a child there. I would have to stop the diapering, pick up the child and then run to the door which just wasn’t practical. That just wasn’t going to work and even though I kept telling her this, she continued to leave the door open.

Finally one day during planning, she told me that if I had any problems that she hoped I would tell her. This provided a supportive climate for me to voice my concerns. I told her that one of my problems was when she left the door open when I was unable to stop children from leaving. I told her that I was worried about the children’s safety and I didn’t want to get into trouble for a child leaving the room. She said that she understood and that she didn’t realize she was doing that so often. She said that she would make sure that she closed the door if she had to leave while I was changing the children. After our talk, I noticed that she left the door open less. There were other issues involved in this conflict, but I am focusing on this one for the purpose of this entry because it was the only part of it that was resolved.




At first, I used escapist strategies for several reasons. People may use escapist strategies if they want to avoid the conflict, they do not feel it is the right time or place to discuss the issue or they are waiting for the other person to raise the issue (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2009). I was new to the class so I was reluctant to bring up concerns. I didn’t want to be viewed as a complainer or disruptive. Also, there were limited opportunities to discuss issues since we were so busy with the children. So when she asked if I had any issues, I thought it was a good time to discuss it. During our conversation, we both listened to each other. Many conflicts can be avoided if we just stop and listen.


Next, we used a cooperative strategy to come up with something that works for us and the children. It benefited both of us because I didn’t have to worry so much about children leaving the room and she realized that she was doing something unsafe that she was willing to change.

It’s interesting how we want to teach children to share, to show empathy, to be good listeners, to be caring friends, but as adults we often forget about those things. Those are all important skills no matter how old we get.



References
O’Hair, D., Wiemann, M. (2009).
Real Communication: An Introduction.
New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s .

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