Week 6 - Blog Assignment

To be quite honest, I have not been in many group situations that paid much attention to the adjourning stage.  It didn’t seem to matter whether or not the group was high-performing or if the group had the clearest established norms.  In my opinion, once the task was completed, the group members have just seemed to drift off on their separate ways. 

However, I have had one group that experienced a very memorable adjourning stage.  I had a wonderful student teaching supervisor.  She is an extraordinary mentor and a fascinating person.  Aside from being a college professor and student teaching supervisor, she also gave tours at the North Caroling Museum of Art.  At the end of our student teaching experience, she gave her ten student teachers a tour of the museum.  She singled out specific pieces of art from different periods and would relate them to how being an elementary teacher we would be able to influence the lives of children.  We then went to her house for a dinner and to share our final units.  It was hard to leave this group because we had been through so many courses together as well as shared our student teaching experience together.  All of us had been paired to experience a “dual” teaching experience in which we spent six weeks in one lower elementary grade and six weeks in an upper elementary grade.  Each pair was assigned to the same teachers, so that we could trade off grade levels at the halfway point.  In this way, we could share ideas and strategies about what worked and didn’t work well in the different classrooms and help each other design our final units.  It was a very close-knit group.  This final gathering was very memorable. 

As we are getting closer to obtaining our master’s degree in this program, I have given some thought as to how this group might adjourn.  At the end of our courses, I enjoy how we use our blogs to express our gratitude for each other and to wish each other good luck as we continue our studies.  This is a great way to adjourn since we are a part of an online community of learners.  However, as we near graduation, I look forward to meeting my classmates face-to-face at the graduation ceremony.  We have all shared so much of ourselves in our discussion posts and blogs that it would be nice to gather together to formally meet and to celebrate our accomplishments.

I think adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because it gives the group time to celebrate their accomplishments, to acknowledge each other’s role in the team effort, and to reach closure before going separate ways.