I want to thank all my Walden University colleagues for their support and guidance throughout this course. I have appreciated all of our discussions and realizations. I hope to share more classes with you all in the future. I also want to thank our instructor, Dr. Barbara Walker for an amazing course and for helping me gain new insights on effective communication. Best Wishes and Good luck in the future!

This week you read about the five stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Consider the adjourning phase for several of the groups in which you have been involved. Think about which aspects of the groups made for the hardest good-bye. Are high-performing groups hardest to leave? Groups with the clearest established norms? Which of the groups that you participated in was hardest to leave? Why? What sorts of closing rituals have you experienced or wish you had experienced? How do you imagine that you will adjourn from the group of colleagues you have formed while working on your master's degree in this program? Why is adjourning an essential stage of teamwork? Some of the hardest goodbyes was when I was a camp counselor and had to say goodbye to my campers on the last night of camp. Sometimes we would all be crying and listening to the song "Leaving on a jet plane." My campers and I would sit outside under the stars and stay up all night sitting in a circle and talked about our favorite memories from the summer. I can honestly say those times were some of the most memorable and emotional times of my life. I imagine that it will be difficult to say goodbye to the colleagues I have met during this Master's program. I feel like we are all growing together on this journey and having a meaningful dialogue has been my favorite part of this class.

Many years I ago I was working in Aspen Colorado as Assistant Director of Education at the Aspen Chapel teaching Hebrew School and Sunday School 45 minutes away from Aspen. At one point in the school year, I could see one of my students was very upset and did not want to participate in class. I made the decision to stop class and ask the boy what was going on and if he wanted to talk. He began by spilling his emotions, talking about his parents upcoming divorce and became very emotional. Suddenly, all the kids began spilling their emotions to me and each other, and it almost became like a group therapy session. In many ways it brought us closer together as a group and made this boy feel like he wasn't alone. Unfortunately, one boy told his mother what had happened and she became livid. She was angry because we had "Wasted the time talking when we should of have been learning." She insisted on sitting in on the classroom and even sent different board directors to "pop" in unannounced to make sure I was actually teaching. To be honest, I am not totally sure how I could have handled the situation differently because I did not believe I did anything wrong. I would like to hear what advice you would have given me in this situation.