Communication Evaluation of Me

When completing the evaluation test I thought it was very interesting that among everyone who evaluated me including myself, that there were a lot of similarities. I asked my teacher assistant and my boyfriend to evaluate me.  I had them each to take all three test because I was curious to see how others viewed my communication skills in comparison with my self.

When it came to the listening styles profile all three sores from myself, TA, and boyfriend it all ended up being in group one. Group one says that I am empathetic and concerned with the emotions of others. This listening style helps build strong relationships, but it can interfere with proper judgement because I tend to be very trusting of others. I agree with this part of the way I am very empathetic and concerned with the emotions of others when I talk to them because I would not want to say anything that would offend them or their character. I do believe that this helps me to build positive relationships, however I'm not quite sure if it interferes with my judgement. I feel as if though I will trust you until you give me a reason not to trust you.

After reviewing the scores for Verbal Aggressiveness I found this to be the most interesting of all of my results.  When I looked at the scores from myself and my boyfriend it indicated that I was at a score of moderate. Which means I maintain a good balance between respect and consideration for others viewpoints and the ability to argue fairly by attacking the facts of a position rather than the person holding the position. I believe that this is true about my self because I feel that you should not directly attack person personally for their viewpoint, but instead put facts with facts to kind of show the person how both their an your viewpoint could be similar and different by presenting facts. What I found interesting was that in the evaluation that my TA did because her score came back putting me under significant. Significant says that with little provocation, you might cross the line from "argumentative" which attacks a person's position or statements, and verbal aggression, which involves personal attacks and can be hurtful to the listener. I do not agree with this statement, but I wonder if with certain situations that have occurred at work if I become aggressive before thinking it all the way through. It is very interesting to see a result like this because it makes me step back and look at myself and how I handle certain situations. It could also be because we work in the same environment all day long she may be more receptive to things than I am not which may indicate that I may be more aggressive. This is a great eye opener for me.

The last set of scores were interesting to me as well. The results of  Communication Anxiety from both my TA and my boyfriend came out to Moderate. Moderate indicates that I feel somewhat concerned about a number of communication contexts, but probably not all.  It says that mid-point level of communication anxiety is what we call "situational." When I evaluated myself I had a score of mild which states that I feel a bit uneasy in some communication situations and somewhat more confident in others contexts. Communication does not seem to be something that you worry a great deal about. In this instance I would have to say I agree more with the evaluation of my boyfriend and TA I do worry about some of my communication skills. I also feel that it depends on the type of situation I'm in when communicating. I may respond differently to different situations.

This week the overall activities that we have been doing with communication show me that there are some areas of communications that I need to improve on myself. Although it does not show when when I have to talk to large group of people or a small group of people I do become very anxious and nervous when communicating in certain situations. I have also learned that at I sometimes let my emotions get into the way of me listening to others. I have learned that I have to need to be come confident in what I am going to say when I say it. I have also learned that I communication better when I am talking in one on one situations. It is hard to communicate with a large group of people because you do not know how others are going to criticize you.  Nonetheless the information I have gathered this week has helped me to learn a lot about myself and it has shown me the areas that i need to work on in order to become a more effective communicator.

Diverse Communication

• Do you find yourself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures
• If yes, in what ways do you communicate 

 
 
 When Communicating with other I have found myself to communicate with people differently.  When Talking with my own culture/race I use a lot of slang, but when working with other families I'm relaxed, but I speak in a professional manner. In the area that I teach in there is a very heavy Hispanic population. Although I communicate with them and talk to them just like I do my African American and Caucasian families, I do at times find myself a lot of the times trying to figure out what they are saying. This happens with my Hispanic students as well sometimes. I know when I am communicating with my families I use a lot of non verbal communication and alto of visuals epically when I'm not able to have one of my coworkers to come in and help translate for me. When I'm talking with both my students and families I still show them that I care and am interested in what it they are trying to communicate to me. I find my self talking slower to them as well just to see if with the little English that they know they can still kind of get an idea of what I'm saying to them as well. I know some Spanish, but not enough to carry out a long conversation. Whenever I do have a coworker come help me I always make sure that the family is comfortable with them doing that because I would never want it to seem like I do care or that I'm not trying to communicate with them at all. The whole time that I am talking to them I'm making eye contact with them and not just with the person that is translating. I still want my Hispanic families to feel comfortable with talking to me. Since I have a very welcoming attitude and classroom I have developed a lot of trusting and respectful relationships with not just my Hispanic families, but all of my families.

In Order to better the communication with a diverse group of children and families some strategies that I could use would be to  withhold judgment of others, learn about their cultures represented in the classroom to better communicate and be accepting (Gonzalez-Mena, 2010). I need to make sure that I am putting away my own biases and beliefs. Also when meeting new people I need to go into the situation with an Open mind and be a more informative listener.


Resources 

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2010). Looking at Nonverbal   Communication Across Cultures. In 50 Strategies for Communicating and   Working With Diverse Families (pp. 80-81). Upper Saddle River, NJ:   Pearson Education, Inc.

Television Observation

For the assignment this week I chose to watch a show that I have never seen before. Being that I do not have a recording device I went onto netflix's and watched How I met your mother, season 8, episode 1: Farhampton.

The first time I watched the show I watched it without sound. When the show came on it kind of introduced everyone to a place called Farhampton. It came on with a couple which looked as if they were about to be married. Between the two of them there was a lot of verbal and non verbal communication between them. Their facial expressions showed that they were both happy and nervous. Throughout the show it showed about 2 other couples, who seemed to be couples and one single girl. One family had just had a baby everyone when looking at the baby showed facial expressions of feeling happy and excited and careful. The show seemed as if it were showing a group of couples that are friends. When they interacted with each through body language and facial expressions it seemed as if though everyone was happy and doing normal friends things like cracking jokes on them. Through out the show I observed a lot of the couples arguing it seems as if they girls were trying to get their point across but the body language of the guys said that they really did not want to hear it. During these conversation there was a look on their faces of disappointment, discouragement,sadness. You could tell that each person was concerned about other situations that they had been going through. Throughout the show I observed a lot of serious conversations where through throwing up of hands, raising eyebrows, dropping of heads and then the other looking as if they were trying to saw through notes left on the bed by one couple that they he was sorry. The show ended with with seemed to be happiness and comforting. It showed one couple with their baby smiling back at them while they were smiling and holding each other.

Show with sound \
Once I watched the show with the sound on I found some of my observations to be true. The show started with a couple about to be married, but the two have cold feet about going through with the whole thing. There were a lot of time where the facial expressions did show that they really weren't listening to what the other person was saying. There were a lot of situations where the characters were arguing trying to figure out how to break bad news to someone else. The episode also showed how you can be having a conversation with someone and the others not really be listening. The show was very commercial. It presented itself with a lot of different situations between the couples friends and how they are moving forward in life.

After watching this video it was amazing to see how much people use non verbal communication to convey their messages, whether its through body language, facial expressions and hand motions. I think most of the assumptions I had made about the video before hearing the sounds were right. It was like a lot of people in a new area beginning at new points in their lives. I think it is amazing how much people in general communicate with non-verbal skills. I thought that the show was very humerus, but very relateable as well. 
 
 

Competent Communication

think of someone (e.g., family member, celebrity, politician, friend, or professor) who demonstrates competent communication within a particular context. What behaviors does this person exhibit that make him or her effective? Would you want to model some of your own communication behaviors after this person? Why or why not?

 When I think about someone that demonstrates competent communication I think of my old professor/academic advisor Dr. Natasha Spellman. . This lady has been such an important inspiration in my life and still continues to be.  By her being a Professor, Academic Advisor,  and over the Entire Pre-K program at Elizabeth City State University she has no choice but to have impeccable communication skills.  She displays some very strong communication skills. She is always very open with everyone that she works with. She creates an environment that is very welcoming, trusting and confident. 

She is able to put her own biases and personal beliefs to the side in order to prepare students to become educators. She is very goal oriented and works diligently to help serve her students and other professors. She carries herself in a very professional, but at the same time she is kind, layed-back and understanding. She is a very personable person; without being rude or disrespectful she lets you know that she is here to help you, but that she does 't have time for any mess. She is fun, but she is about her business. She has always stressed the importance of the code of ethics and how big of a role that play in developing relationships with children and families. She is also an advocate for children and families. She works very closely with outside centers to ensure that her students are getting the hands on experiences that the will need once they enter into the field.

 I would like to take as many of her communication skills with me so I can become just as successful as she is. I want to take her concepts of having an open mind, being personable, responsible, welcoming and goal oriented. Like Dr. Spellman I want to present myself as a friend, mentor and business woman. I feel carrying on these traits will allow me to develop trusting, caring, and open relationships with children, families,  the community, co workers etc..

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)



Over the past few weeks I have learned a lot about diversity, equity, and social justice. One hope that I have when it comes to working with children and families is that the families begin served are given an equal education. I hope that educators all over the world realize their own biases and then gain further understanding of diversity and equity so that we can better serve all children and families. By continuing education it will allow us to better serve the children and the families that we may encounter on our jobs. Having experience of being treated differently from white students by teachers and seeing teachers not care about black males that are falling behind in school it makes me hope that teachers now are seriously being looked at when they are being hired for jobs as educators regardless of if its daycare, private schools, public schools or universities. Everyone should be treated equally when it comes to receiving an education the color of your skin and where you come form should not determine the type of education that you receive.

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)

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field in relations to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is that anyone working in the early childhood field be required to take at least one course a year to keep them up to date about the current issues that the early childhood field is facing in regards to diversity, equity, and social justice. I believe that continuing your education on these issues is the best way to try and promote change across the board. Having knowledge and gaining knowledge from others experiences will allow for educators to seek deep understanding of the things that are happening to children and families from diverse backgrounds.
 
A brief note of thanks to your colleagues
I just want to take the opportunity to tahnk everyone in the class for sharing their personal experiences with me and for giving me advice and help on the different topics that we have discussed throughout this course. All of you alls postings and feedback has given a better understanding of diversity, equity and social justice. Sharing your personal experiences has allowed me to look back at the way my classroom evironment is and given me insight on how I can develope better relationships with both the children and families. I greatly apprecitate all that you have done throuhout this course. I whish everyone the best as you continue on completing you masters.

Best wishes and be Blessed


Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.- MLK Jr.