Communication Evaluation

I guess what surprised me the most in my communication assessments this week was that all three score sets were within 2-3 numbers of each other! My sister and my co-worker scored almost the same as I did for myself. I really expected my sister to have a little different score just because our interactions are more socially and not in meeting-type situations. I felt like the assessment questions were very much business like.

Two additional things I learned about communication this week revolve around non-verbal communication. As much as I work on my non-verbal communication skills, I still find that people misconstrue my message at times. I am a person who wears my heart on my sleeve most times so I have to watch even closer than most that I am not sending an inappropriate message. I have also been working on using language that helps break down what I am trying to say within a group. I use humor a lot and sometimes that can be mistaken as well.

I guess my biggest lesson is the more I talk, the more I learn!

Communication in Relationships

While I carry with me the same morals, attitudes, and sense of humor wherever I go, I do interact with groups of people in varying ways. I am a very family-oriented person and we discuss topics pretty openly. At work I use much different language than with friends and family due to the specification of terms used and my work in early childhood. My neighbors and I really don’t talk much, it’s more of a casual wave across the street and a how-do-you-do while I am more open with friends and we can talk for hours about nothing and everything. 

In all of these group interactions I can change my actions to improve communication. One way in which I am working on communicating more effectively, especially at work, is to stop crossing my arms. This is typically because I do not have anything to do with my hands/arms. This is not because I am not engaged or listening to the conversation, which is the message sent. I have become very conscious of this over the last few months and work to change this habit. 

A second behavior I have been working on is listening. In all group interactions it is imperative to listen and not just wait for my turn to talk. In teaching others I must listen to the conversation and reflections from others so that I can facilitate their knowledge and scaffold their learning. I do sometimes get wrapped up in a hot topic with friends and forget to actually listen to their perspective.

A third communication skill I have noticed needs work on is being cautious of my sense of humor. Humor is one of my top strengths as determined when I participated in Values in Action, a strengths-based assessment, a year ago. I have been known to be humorous in some situations that others do not find humorous. Usually this occurs in a work or meeting scenario. 

Working on all of these skills I can become and even more effective communicator in my personal and professional life.

Communication in TV

For this intriguing assignment I chose to view episode one of 30 Rock. I have never watched this 30-minute show before and after viewing it, choose to never watch it again. It was very challenging to decipher the relationship between characters when viewing the show with no sound. Even with non-verbal communication I was unable to detect the majority of relationships. One relationship I found I was correct in figuring out was between Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey. I found their signals and facial expression to exhibit a squabbling type of relationship. 

I struggled to stay in tune with the show when viewing the silent version. Relying on non-verbal cues, all I really captured from this viewing was a lot of back and forth between scenes, scenes that really didn’t show a connectedness without verbal communication. The actual words and sound gave the show meaning, viewing it the second time. This would be my “aha” moment – our verbal communication provides the story/meaning to the conversation and/or relationship.

References:

Netflix (2012). 30 rock.

Respected Communicator

As I reflected on the blog question for this week I thought of many friends, family, and previous colleagues. I asked myself who is the one person I could always understand. While I had a some great supervisors and co-teachers who always communicated well and listened to me, I would like to share thoughts about one of my mentors. Kay is an instructor/trainer for the local Child Resource and Referral Association and I work with her on a regular basis. Through her model, I have learned an abundance of communication skills that have helped me personally and professionally.

Kay speaks eloquently and pays particular attention to relating to her audience. She makes every effort to provide examples when speaking to groups of people to enable them to make the changes needed in their programs. Kay helps shift individuals thinking. I always ask for her opinion on special projects because she I know she will bring and objective eye and an honest response. In my professional role as an instructor/trainer, I have adapted some of my adult learning techniques due to her tutelage. Like Kay, I try to foster individual thinking and growth in the professionals I train. Kay's passion for adult learning and growth has impacted me in various ways and I continue to give back as I communicate with early childhood professionals.

Professional Hopes and Goals

I hope that all early childhood teachers provide a classroom environment and experiences in which children's diversity can be celebrated. Children and families culture and identities should be welcomed, honored, and celebrated.

My goal is to instill a passion for discovering culture and identity in the professionals that I teach. Because culture has become one of my strong passions over the last few years, I include aspects of culture within every workshop I design. It is vital that teachers see how culture and identity affects how children communicate and learn.

I want to send out a note of thanks to all my peers on this journey. You have played an important role in my learning and discovery over the past eight weeks. I wish you the best of luck and continued discovery on your academic and professional journey.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

For this discussion I chose England.

First, I would contact my cousin who is an early childhood professional in England. She could provide me with some first hand experience about a day in the life in England. She could help me get a good grasp of what expectations families in England have on the early childhood teacher.

Secondly, I would re-connect with a website I have visited in the past, Early Education. Through this website I could learn the resources that are made available to early childhood teachers in England. I would check out the electronic resources that I would be able to access.

Third, if I had an address of the family I would send them a hand-written note, reflective of their language and print. Some of the numbers and letters are written in a slightly different form than in the U.S. 

Fourth, I would examine our daily schedule to see what ways we should made additions or adjustments to include traditions from England, such as tea and crumpets at 4pm.

Lastly, I would search out learning materials and props that are reflective of those in England (puppets, food, art and science materials). Including such materials would hopefully help the child and family feel welcome and give them a sense that we care for them and respect their culture.  

With this plan in place, the teaching staff and I would feel more at ease and have the background needed to help this child and family feel welcome and important to our classroom. Furthermore, typically, when families immigrate to a new place they have much transition and uncertainty to encounter. Once this family saw what we had in place to accommodate and help their child learn, it would ease/alleviate this one transition for them.

The Personal Side of Bias

A bias or prejudice of sorts that I have witnessed over several years in the classroom is the removal of children from an educational program. I continue to be distraught at how frequent young children are dismissed or kicked out of early childhood programs because they cannot act “appropriately.” I also know of several children who have been judged because they take prescription medicine to help them regulate their body rhythms.  

These instances diminish equity because all children deserve quality care and education. This includes the respect of being who they are and protecting their social and emotional development. When children are treated differently because of prescriptions or are allowed to gain a reputation from others perceptions that practically pushes them out of the program, their self-esteem and education begins to fail. 

In every case of children being dismissed I believe the teachers, and especially the program director, need to take time and learn the needs of the child so that every effort can be made to keep them in the program. One particularly challenging year as a Head Start teacher I was working day in and day out to figure out how to help calm a child down. He did not stay focused on any one task or activity for longer than about 3 minutes and he was almost in constant action. My assistant teacher and teachers in a nearby classroom said, “He has ADD they just need to get him on some medicine.” I did not believe this and got upset every time I heard this. I continued to observe and went to my director to obtain some additional materials for the classroom. When I added a few, more challenging materials to the classroom, I saw a difference in this child. It appeared he was not challenged enough. This was his second year in Head Start and he appeared bored with the same materials. Had this child been kicked out of the program, he would have missed out on advancing his skills to be ready for Kindergarten, and we would have missed seeing the growth in this child.

It is crucial to advocate for children in every avenue possible!