Adjourning

In the five stages of team development, adjourning is the final stage.  This stage does not always occur, especially when the group was not cohesive, nor when it was a bad experience.  When a team adjourns, they say their good-byes.  The more cohesive the team - the harder the good-byes.  It is more difficult to leave these groups because of the feelings of adequacy, productivity, and camaraderie.  One group in which I participated that was hard to leave was a presenting group for a VAECE (Virginia Association for Early Childhood Educators) conference.  The group consisted of my co-teacher at the time,  Cindy, and two other co-workers who worked with a different age group – Jessie and Rachael.  We were presenting on documentation in the infant classroom, focusing mainly on photography.  We were productive, delivered a program that was gripping, and we just had fun!  One thing that came about from this time together, and was a closing ritual of sorts, was the naming of the “Overachievers’ Club.”  It was merely a name that we gave ourselves as part of an inside joke, but it was one more thing that bonded us.  After our presentation, we spent more time together as a group, and were able to “adjourn” without saying good-bye. 

Leaving my colleagues from my master’s degree in this program will prove to be a challenge.  I do not have the luxury of working with you all on a day-to-day basis, so the contact will be less than in my previous experiences.  I plan to follow the blogs of my colleagues.  There have been several with which I have made personal connections and I look forward to life-long professional connections with them.  It is important to me to properly adjourn because it brings closure to a long process.  It is essential to teamwork.