My boy is 12

I can't believe it, my middle child has turned 12 today... Where have all of those years gone? I think I lived in a blur when he was little which is why they seem to have gone so fast.
Oh well he went skipping off to school happy in the knowledge that he now has a nice new ipod dock and an i tunes card to buy games for his ipod. Then tonight his special request for dinner is a visit to sizzler!!! I can't wait until my kids hate going there as much as we do.
Anyway Happy Birthday Joel.

Post assignment traumatic stress syndrome

As a sufferer of Rheumatoid arthritis I thought I had the condition under control with appropriate medication. However, over the last few days this has been proven to be incorrect.
On Monday night I had no sleep due to intense pain in my joints caused by this condition. I was also unable to put any weight on my legs due to the intense pain. The only time I have experienced such pain was 12 months ago before I was diagnosed with this condition.
After having an emergency appointment with my specialist yesterday he asked if I had been under any stress lately??? My response was 'Is the Pope catholic???'
Obviously things like: starting a new job in a new school, group assignments, having a fight with your sons school which resulted in the teacher hanging up on you, witnessing a horrific bus crash full of your friends children, and the usual events that occur in a family with 3 children possibly could put me under a bit of stress.
He also pointed out the warning signs that my body had been giving me over the last few weeks and that I had chosen to ignore may also have contributed to the flaring up of the arthritis.
So today, I find myself at home instead of at work recovering and taking triple the amount of prednisone that I was taking in an effort to get it under control again.
I didn't realise just how stressful the group assignment was.....My group was really wonderful, but with two people used to completing assignments at a very high standard there were lots of last minute re-writes that I was not used to. I usually complete my assignments ahead of time and submit them early in case there are any unforeseen problems. they on the other hand work on them until the last minute, (which is probably why they do so well). Unfortunately I found that incredibly stressful.
Oh well, the doctor has said to reduce the stress in my life.......unfortunately I don't have any ideas how to do that, and it is too late to drop a subject so I guess I will plough on until the end of the year. In the meantime, I think I will go and watch Oprah!

It is finished

Well after many skype conference calls, some successful, others not so....the group assignment has come to an end.
It's a bit sad really. The other 3 group members have become part of the family, part of my daily routine.
I'm going to miss our frequent calls and all of the laughter we have shared. It will leave a bit of a hole in my life actually.
It has been a really positive experience for me, they might feel differently.
It has been great seeing all of the readings about group behaviour coming to life in our little group.
At one stage it got quite ugly, but we were able to deal with that and move on which was fabulous.
The other 3 members of my group usually do extremely well in assignments, my experience is that I am happy with a pass. A girl friend laughingly said that maybe if they keep up their record I could actually do really well for once....thanks for the vote of confidence!(Actually at least she was truthful).
Oh well on to part B now, yet another part that I have no clue about.......

Lack of focus

Well today was going to be a day of working on my assignment, but it didn't start out very well and now I am really unsettled.
It appears that a bus on its way to school has been involved in a fatal car crash.
The school involved was the school that my daughter attends. Although she was not on the bus some friends children were. As you can imagine we are all very anxious for them.
It appears that the children have been sent to many different hospitals in the Sydney area, mainly as a precaution and to treat many minor injuries.
The toll could have been so much worse and we are thanking God that the children are ok.
Anyway as a consequence it is after 12pm and I am still in my pj's having been on the phone for most of the morning.
Maybe after I have some lunch I will start on the reading that I have to do.

I also want to say that I just love my group I have been working with, we have so much fun on our skype calls and continue to laugh a lot. However, I still think that group assignments suck!

Group assignments should be banned.......

I SURVIVED ANOTHER SKYPE CONFERENCE CALL.......yay.
Well last night we had a marathon conference call on skype.
We are all getting the hang of calling each other, but last night our call was full of problems. Group members kept cutting in and out, we had to all hang up and start again at one stage. The sound was a major issue that in the end caused us to finally end our call because we were all so frustrated with the irregular sound.
We changed quite a few things last night, but Beryl kept us right on task having added speaker notes next to each of our slides. That was new to me I didn't even know what speaker notes were let alone how to add them.
This project really is a huge learning curve for me.
Mostly I have no idea what the rest of my group are talking about so I volunteered to take notes for the entry in the wiki, because at least that way I am forced to concentrate and clarify points thus helping me to understand. I also feel like I'm not contributing a huge amount so at least that way I am doing something. I just don't want to be remembered for being the group member who did nothing to contribute which caused the downfall of the group.
Collaborative learning sucks! All group assignments should be banned!!! Everyone I talk to also agrees with this, even people not in this course agree that group assignments are shocking.
I am not looking forward to part B of this assignment, actually I haven't really looked at it yet as I just want to get through this part first and I was really focused on getting through the assignment. Looking at the forum yesterday I was amazed to see people still asking questions about the assignment.....the day before it was due. In my opinion they really should have had all of that sorted by that stage...Oh well, who knows maybe it will be me asking all of those questions next time.

Fathers Day

Well today is Fathers Day.
Happy Fathers Day to all of the fathers who are busy completing assignments today instead of being out celebrating fatherhood.
After church we went out for lunch as I am hyperventilating because I have a group meeting tonight and I feel very under prepared. Oh well 6 hours to prepare.....I can do anything!
I found some fabulous articles yesterday that are just perfect for our group topic so at least I feel like I am on the right track.
Our group still doesn't have a lot in concrete which is disconcerting as I have been reading how other groups are practically finished their power points. Oh well we still have a week and a lot can happen in a week.

Latest meeting

We had another hilarious skype meeting last night. I think we actually managed to get a fair bit accomplished along the way as well, but who knows maybe we didn't.
Unfortunately one of our team has not been joining in with our meetings as her computer apparently has a virus. That is such bad timing for her. As if distance study isn't stressful enough she now has that to contend with.
Last night's meeting went for 1hour and 50minutes....We might even break the 2hour barrier next time. Wow what an achievement!!! Roy would be so proud.

We adjusted our outcomes and set a few different goals. Actually as I still have no clue what we are doing I was quite happy with what we already had. The other 2 members of the group were throwing around names and research results and lots of jargon that I had no clue about so I just agreed with whatever they said, because to me it all sounded great.
I am still a bit concerned that we are making it more difficult than it really is, but I guess time will tell and they are great at picking up the little details.
I feel extremely blessed to have been placed in this group as they really seem to know what they are doing as opposed to me who has no clue.
Today I am home sick as is my youngest so I think I will crawl back into bed and have a sleep, then maybe I will look at these assignments again when I am feeling more coherent.

reading 13

Cohen, S 2002, 'The seven pillars of negotiational wisdom', in Negotiating skills for managers, McGraw-Hill, New York, pp171-187.

Don't let the forest obscure the trees

Love that quote. It's just like one my husband quotes to me "if a man speaks in a forest and no woman hears him is he still wrong?"
Well duh, of course.

The 7 pillars of negotiational wisdom lists the process elements that merit consideration each time we negotiate. you need to prioritize them according to each negotiation you participate in.

The 7 pillars are:
1. relationship- treat each negotiation as an episode in an ongoing relationship. Understanding the value of the ongoing relationship can have a significant impact on how you pusue the negotiation process.
2. interests- each party undertakes negotiations in order to bring about the most favourable possible solution for their own interests.
3. BATNA- Your BATNA tells you wheter you have a better way to serve your interests.
4. creativity- think outside the box. Design your creativity to expand the possibilities available to the negotiating parties.
5. fairness- you should behave in a way you would consider fair if you were on the receiving end.
6. commitment- a negotiation can only be called successful when it yields an agreement to which the parties are committed.
7. communication- information is the fundamental asset in negotiation- and communication is how information moves from one party to others.

The 7 pillars are supported by one foundation: Preparation.

Now that I have read that reading I will spend the day preparing for our group assignment meeting tonight so that I don't appear to be the dead weight of the group.

First Day of Spring

Yay it's the first of September and the first day of spring.....Unfortunately it is also the month that a lot of my assignments are due and I am beginning to hyperventilate at the thought of getting them finished.
Anyway here is my latest reading.

Reading 12
Mackay, H 1998. 'resolving conflict through listening'. in The good listener: Better relationships through better communication. Pan Macmillan, Sydney, pp189-199
* Resolution demands rationality and a steady focus on an outcome......well duh!
* Good listening is required if communication is to be established.

Did you know that high self-esteem in children is more likely to be found in families where there is open dissent and disagreement???? Well my kids should have extremely high self esteems!

Two conditions which need to be met before there is any hope of resolving conflict.
1. both of us must want a resolution to our conflict.
2. Both of us must be prepared to compromise.

Active listening is the key to success in conflict resolution.