Myself as a communicator

This week I evaluated my self as communicator in ways I would evaluate others. Some of the ways I evaluated myself :

1. Sending a clear message. Everyone has to be on the same page of understanding.
2. Making sure I am hearing and understanding- interpreting the situation
3. making sure my facial expressions and gestures does not come off ass offensive

I had realized that while taking the assessment of verbal aggressiveness I was rated as a significant aggressor. My score was pretty high. I was definitely surprised because I did not know I came off that way. It is never my intentions to be that aggressive. Now that i look back at the the way I communicate with my children and families and in my personal relationships, I have a lot of work to be done.

Others think of me as a communicator as:

1. Thoughtful
2. My movements of intimidation
3. Non verbal communication

I have to say that I was surprised by my movements of intimidation. Just like sometimes I do not intentionally give off a bad gesture, I did not know that when I am intimidated, it changed my body language. When I took the assessment of the listening styles, it said that I was empathetic. I was not surprised by the results.

I have l;earned this week that it is hard to understand an individual if we do not communicate with them. We can easily pick up a book or magazine and read about someone and think we know them when really we know much of nothing at all because not all facts or information is going to be true unless we talk to them.

Three strategies

I do find myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures. Not everyone is on the same level of thinking, not everyone shares the same religion, not everyone lives in the same community to adapt to the same needs necessary. I find myself communicating appropriate to the matter, but that does not show the way I react. I act the same around everyone but i communicate differently.

To help me communicate more effectively:

1. Consider asking more questions than you normally would, in order to clarify meaning and messages (Beebe, Beebe, & Redmond,2011).
2. Learn as I interact with others and adjust my behavior as I learn (Beebe, Beebe, & Redmond, 2011).
3. Be inside of someone else shoes and understand their perspective before I make judgement.

Reference

Beebe, S.A., Beebe, S.J., & Redmond, M.V. (2011). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Communication styles tv show

So one of the shows I absolutely hate is Bad Girls Club. I can not stand reality shows.

In this show a group of women are put into a house together to see their moderate behavior. This is a perfect show that shows lack of communication skills. There is so much rolling of the neck, eyes, head, snapping of the fingers and most of all physically fighting. Most of the time the women are not even talking, it seems they are yelling at one another and they are all doing it at the same time. They are not talking to one another they are talking at one another and over one another. It seems like physically fighting and doing mean things is the only way to solve anything. The only time I saw descent conversations was when they talked to their loved ones on the phone. Some were crying so I assumed they missed their loved one's or they don't want to be in that mansion full of women anymore.

I watched this show on mute and could tell what was clearly going on. Women are very sneaky and I feel some of them need drama in their lives to make it interesting. I noticed that there were some cliques, sideline girls and some just really minding there on business. I noticed that you could be minding your on business and the girls will pull something out of you to see your other side and to get you to join their team. Everyone seemed to be competing or something with one another. these women really need to treat themselves better.

I was very accurate about the communication skills in this show, there weren't any. The women were very disrespectful. No one listened to one another. To my colleagues, this a perfect example of what not to do.

Demonstrating competent communication

I believe that communication goes a long way in this world. Words has so may meaning by the ways its being presented.

I have a friend who was in this relationship for a while.She assumed the communication was great but her partner knew it was a ticking bomb waiting to happen. All those years of assuming damaged her communication skills today but she is doing much better. She has become a much better effective communicator by listening, trying to understand, trying to reason and console her partner when he needed her instead of being his mother she became his best friend.

They do not argue much anymore or say hurtful words. They both had to change the presentation of their words so they wouldn't come off as hurtful or intentional. I can learn from my friend by being more patient to my associates and to be more understanding.

Professional hopes and goals

There is one hope I have when working with children an families from diverse backgrounds and that is to learn different styles of teaching so I can incorporate those into different learning styles for my children and families so that we all are on the same page of education for their children and for themselves.

One goal I would set for my families in this this field is to get them to understand that we are early educational advocates for one another and not just our self's and families.

I want to give a warm thanks to all my colleagues and professor that made comments on my post and questions. You guys have helped me learn many views of culture, diversity, and equity through your eyes and through personal experiences. Thanks so much and I will see most of you in the next class.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The country I have chosen is Zambia. It is a country in South Africa. In this scenario, I chose to be a family host. Five ways I would prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family:
1.      Learning what they eat- I’m curious because most of African food is very rich in natural and fresh ingredients.
2.       Learning their language- I would like to welcome them in hello in their language and say goodbye when they part their ways. This way they see I took time out to learn a little bit of their language and so they will feel comfortable.
3.       Learning their norms
4.       What they do for entertainment- Maybe some games, or outings, family nights that I could use within my family as well to incorporate other cultures in my family.
5.       Learning about their education

These preparations we help benefit my family because it will help us see our own culture from a new perspective. To be able to connect to a new culture through advocating, hosting, social media and conversations will show lots of fun and pleasure. There could be joy in also having them learn a little bit about my culture as well. A new world of connections and understanding will open up our eyes to many opportunities and connections.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I have witnessed a coworker being teased because of her accent. She is Spanish speaking and from Puerto Rico. My coworker has been in the states for 20 years but still has a very strong accent and can’t pronounce some things in English so she and another teacher speak Spanish a lot at work to help her speak English better. A lot of people assume she doesn’t know much, an air head because of her Spanish background but she’s very smart. My coworker has 3 children and is married, but they were born here so not a strong accent. My coworker also experienced an issue with getting back into school. She needed help feeling out her FASFA and she was given the run around as if no one wanted to help her. People would get frustrated because they could not understand her.

This situation was not presented as fair because no one tried to help my co worker. I think it is so much easier to help than to ridicule. We are all the same but different. Instead of giving her the run around with FASFA they someone could have sent her a guide on what to do or took ten minutes out of their time to help.

The feelings I got from this was heartbreaking. I felt in a way I knew where she was coming from because my race is considered a minority and we still experience prejudice, racism and discrimination because of our race.

Both parties involved could have turned the situation around because everyone should be treated with dignity and respect no matter their background. My coworker should not have to, but just had to work harder for people to understand her by educating herself so it will be easier for her and who ever she communicates with. In this world you have to work almost twice as hard to get what you want or deserve and that is in every category.