Favorite Childhood Quote

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6

Friday, October 4, 2013

Conflict Resolution

When thinking about a conflict or a conflict I have experienced lately at work, I think of an incident with the Speech Language Pathologist. Here's what happens: We have children in Pre-K that walk to speech, some are Tuesdays and Thursdays at 930 some are Mondays and Wednesdays at 930. Some have different times that they must go. She sees our children 1 on 1 or 2 on 1. So before our children go to speech, there is no one in the room with her. So we are at recess last week and we send a child to speech, the speech teacher texts and says "I seen him running around on the sidewalk, but he never made it over here, he turned around and went back." Here's where the problem comes in: she has no children in her room, she seen the little boy running around on the sidewalk, but couldn't even go outside to yell at him or direct him in the right direction. They are expected to walk about a football field in length to the speech room, so we are expected to trust our 4 year olds to walk that far. The conflict is, she has no students in her room when we are supposed to send ours, we have 19 others to watch after. Apparently, she doesn't understand that it should be her responsibilitly to come get the children. At the same time, maybe there is something there that we don't understand on her part. After reading the 3 R's, I do beleive that what could be done is more communicating. Maybe she doesn't know it's a problem because we only gripe to eachother about it and don't let her know. So responsiveness could be a big help here. When she states she seen him running around on the sidewalk, she needs to know that she shouldve went and got him, because we have 19 other kids that we're watching over while she has none. It could be put in a very nice manner. We could give her the information respectfully in a manner that doesn't hurt anyones feelings. Instead of just going off and completely griping at her. And reciprocal could be used in viewing both sides, she needs to see it from our point of view and we need to learn her point of view because apparently neither knows why it is such a problem because we had the same problem last year. By the way this wasn't a child in my class, it was another Pre-K and the other Pre-K teacher text her and just told her she should've yelled at him and it caused quite the argument. I have one that goes to speech at 1:00 in the afternoon and he uses the same route everyday and I text her to let her know he's on his way and she texts me when he's on his way back so we know when to expect him. I don't have as much conflict with her as the others do. I do know that the other Speech Therapist comes to get her speech children, she doesn't expect us to send them that far. Maybe all the Pre-K teachers should get with both Speech Therapists and then we can all learn eachothers strategies!

3 comments:

  1. Shanda,
    That is a big responsibility for a four-year-old. I think you have the right idea by having all the teachers meet so everyone understands all perspectives. Perhaps a neutral party, such as a director or administrator, could attend to keep things going smoothly. It sounds like you have a great opportunity to use what we have been learning. Would you feel comfortable taking the lead on this discussion and use some of the resources we have been reviewing? I will be interested in what happens.
    Laurie

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  2. Shanda,

    I know we sometimes have the same concern in my building as well and it could be that the speech pathologist is used to that routine with K-5; I know that is the understanding in my building. I ask our speck therapist to please come and pick up our students and also let them know what our schedule is so she can walk them back to our classroom or outside. She has a busy schedule as well but puts the children's safety first.

    Thank you for your post!

    Nicolette

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  3. Shanda,
    Wow it is really a big responsibility to place on a four year old. I could not imagine my son being sent anywhere in the school without a adult escorting him. I agree that the 3 R's can be utilized greatly in helping this type of ongoing conflicts. In the end, some sort of compromise has to be reached before this continues and may even escalate to safety issues!

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