Communication Week 4

·         Blog Assignment: Week 4<p>

 

 

This week our job was to observe ourselves as communicators and also have others evaluate us as a communicator. I will be the first to admit that it can be hard to be truly honest when self evaluating. We are either too hard on ourselves or make things up to look better in other people’s eyes. The people I had evaluate me were my daughter and a co-worker.My daughter was very honest with how I communicate and I like that she didn't hold anything back from me. She helped me to see that as I have gotten older I have become more outspoken and this tends to get me in trouble sometimes. I definitely noticed that I was harder on myself than they were on me by the scores I received. While I was taking the tests I was really surprised at how I was scoring myself because I didn’t think I was aggressive in any way towards others when talking to them. I do admit that as I have gotten older I have become more vocal and not always in a good way. This class is making me take a closer look at how I communicate with people I know well and people I have more casual interactions with. After going through these tests I can see how imperative it is that I build better communication skills in my professional interactions. I do see that I have differences with communicating with adults and children. Most of the time I am pretty good with children but not with adults when it comes to communicating effectively. One area that I would like to share is how I communicate with people from different cultures, I have noticed that I get impatient when I don’t understand something and try to change the topic to something that is easier for me. This is not fair to them and I have tried to overcome it and work towards really listening to what they have to say and learning from what they have to tell me. The other thing that I found is my interactions between professionals and family-I know these two are very different types of communicating but I need to be cognizant of being empathetic with both groups and not getting frustrated and become an aggressive communicator. I know if I continue to learn from my mistakes I will become a better communicator.

Week 3: Communication

I believe I do communicate differently with the various cultures that I come into contact with everyday. I feel I use more non-verbal’s such as hand actions and body language in these situations. I work with many people that speak with either Spanish or Pilipino and sometimes it is hard to communicate only verbally. I try to learn the basic phrases for the languages that are used in my classroom, but I find it difficult to learn and understand some languages.

Every time we moved while in the military, I wanted to learn the new language but have found that I am better at understanding and playing the translator than speaking the language. By learning to read body language and other non-verbal cues I can become a better communicator over time or at least this is my hope.

Week Two-Communicating

Blog Week 2

What do you think the characters' relationships are based on the ways in which they are communicating?

For this episode of “The Office”, the members of the office are at their desks working while Andy and David are in the conference room having what seems to be a heated conversation. It seems like everyone else is trying to look busy, but they keep looking at the closed door. The facial expressions that I see make me believe that nobody really agrees with each other about whatever is going on. The body language and expressions throughout suggest that most of the staff is uncomfortable about the argument that is going on. Andy then brings in former friends of Erin and Pete’s and this seems to make the whole office uncomfortable. What are they feeling and expressing based on the nonverbal behavior you are observing?

It seems that everyone is pretending and hiding things from each other the whole episode and do not like what Andy is doing.

What assumptions did you make about the characters and plot based on the ways in which you interpreted the communication you observed?

I assumed that Andy was over reacting to something in the office, but didn’t know what or why. Andy is the office manager and I assumed he should be acting in a more professional way when it came to dealing with a personal situation at work. He should have set down in the beginning and asked questions and not played the jealous boyfriend. Would your assumptions have been more correct if you had been watching a show you know well?

I think if I were watching a familiar show my assumptions would have been correct because I know what to expect from each member of the cast. I can anticipate their reactions and understand their body movements most of the time.

Learning to Communicate with Others! Step One

Blog week 1

The person that I feel is competent with his communication skills would be my husband because of the job he does. Being a government contractor he has to be able to be diplomatic but also get the job done. I have listened to him have conversations with both managers and people that work under him. He always listens to what the person has to say, and asks questions for clarification when needed. I have also had the opportunity to read papers and emails for him before being sent and again he is always very tactful and to the point. I would like to become more confident in communicating with others in this way because I know I need to be able to talk with many people in order to fully care for my families. I think that if I just let my husband help me along with this class I can master my communication skills over the course of this class and beyond.

It is so important for us to be able to communicate in our job because we have so many people we need to communicate with daily. My hope is to learn from my husband, co-workers, friends, classmates and instructors as much as possible about the correct way to communicate. It is so important to think before we speak and I have found that the older I get the more I forget this simple rule!

Week 8: Final Post for EDUC-6164

Blog: Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that you have when you think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds (any format and any length)

My hope when it comes to working with children and families are that I can know understand their cultures better and truly honor and respect their feelings while caring for the children. I also hope that I continue to make my families feel safe and secure in my care. I want my families to feel that they can come to me about anything and that I will do whatever I can to meet their needs.

One goal you would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice (any format and any length)

My main goal that I am striving for through my education is to make my families feel comfortable no matter where they come from, what makes my classroom great is that I have children that come from many cultures and their diversity adds to the class because we can all learn at the same time so many unique aspects that others might not know. We can then share our knowledge with other classrooms by being class buddies and I will continue to share the same information at staff meetings and other functions. By involving the children in the sharing part, I am showing them that I respect their diversity and want them to feel welcome at all times. I have a collection of books, pictures, toys and instruments that I use from around the world in my classroom. By learning their languages and including resources from their cultures I am better able to show how much they mean to my classroom.

A brief note of thanks to your colleagues

I would like to say thank you to all the great professionals I have had the opportunity to interact with since starting my Masters Program here at Walden. I have truly enjoyed reading your posts and gaining new insights from everyone. I wish everyone the best on the continuing journey and hope to work with many of you until the end. I could never put into words my appreciation for your help and support from the beginning.

Week 7 Blog

Blog week 7: Welcoming Families From Around the World

The name of “your” family’s country of origin: Africa

At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family

I will first and foremost want to learn some key information about the area in Africa that they are from so that I am familiar with their customs. It is very important to know background information before the child arrives so that you are able to help them feel comfortable even on the first day.

I would learn some basic phrases in their language so they again will feel more at home in a strange new place. It is also important that I know about their holidays and I should have books and pictures in the room of familiar activities.

I would have information in my classroom for the family that is in their home language and English. This information would be for our school’s handbook and what is happening in the classroom.

I would also want to have toys and other familiar items in the classroom to help the child feel comfortable. I could have ethnic foods, clothing and dolls in the dramatic play area to help them see familiar materials at school.

It is important to make the whole family feel welcome so inviting them to school activities and meetings is another great way to help them feel welcome in the new school and community. New families need to know their opinion counts and that we are there to help them acclimate to their new home.

A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you and the family

It is my hope that by making these preparations I will be better equipped to successfully embrace my new child and their family. I hope to be able to show that I want to learn as much from them as I want to teach them by becoming a part of my school. If I can show that I want us to be a team and share our knowledge with each other-I think we can do beautiful things together and help the children learn more in this way.

Blog: The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

Blog: The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

What memory do you have of an incident when your experienced bias, prejudice, and /or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of these things? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, TV shows, and the like.

This is something we do see all around us daily-even if we don’t want to admit it to ourselves. The time that stands out for me is shortly after I met my husband and we wanted one of his college friends to be the best man and his father was totally against it because the friend was African American. This was a friend that had been there for my husband over the course of their college years and after and we decided that we would stick to our choice and keep him as best man. In the end it did work out and my father in law was okay-but he had been raised in a time when it was normal for whites to treat others this way. My father in law did come around and start interacting with the friend and we still today have him as a close family friend.

In what ways did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

The way that he was treated diminished equity because he was not treated as an equal, he was made to feel that even though he was a college graduate he didn’t know anything because of his color. He was a very knowledgeable person but made to feel the opposite.

What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

Being there to hear my father in law talk to someone this way was very difficult because I had been treated this way by others throughout my time in foster homes and girls homes, when you are the only one that is different-it seems like you stand out and people want to make you feel inferior to them. This was a very important friend of ours and it was not right for anyone to treat him this way.

What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

This is a simple case of coming to terms with the age we live in and realizing that it’s not okay to treat another person differently just because they are from a different race or sex. I can remember having many talks with my father in law after this happened and over time he came to understand why we felt it wasn’t okay and that our friend would remain our friend no matter what. He never totally got over being racist, but he did become friends and interacted with our friends no matter what they looked like. My father in law was the person that needed to change and to some extent he did even though he had over forty years of believing he was right in how he treated others.