Who am I as a Communicator?

 How well do I know myself when communicating in any given situation.? This week I  got the opportunity to take 3 assessments which allowed me to get to know myself better when communicating based on statements on each of these assessments. I also learn how two people that I know well felt about my communication style . One was a close friend, and the other a professional colleague. Based on the results from my self evaluation compared to the evaluation of my friend and colleague they know me very well. When communicating in certain situations I tend to not be very verbal due to nervousness, and a large crowd or group of people. My two evaluators felt the same way about my communication style on the Communication anxiety inventory and also on the  verbal aggressiveness scale assessment. They did not quite understand how to do the listening styles profile, however based on my results I am people oriented, action oriented, content oriented, and time oriented. I will say this test was right on point about my listening styles. 

The one thing that surprised me the most about myself was that I am more successful in classroom situations, than face paced environments. I cannot function when I am with people who are in a rush to get every thing done in one day.  The insights I gained this week in doing these assessments was learning things that I did not realize about myself when communicating in different situations. I also learned that people whom you interact with on a daily basis really do know you, just because they never comment on things they see and hear , they are still listening. 

I am enjoying this communication class. I am learning a lot about perceptions, communication styles, and most importantly how schemas play a part in becoming a competent communicator. 

References
Rubin, R. B., Palmgreen, P., Sypher, H. E. ( Eds.). (2009). Communication  research measures: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge.

Rubin, R. B., Rubin, A.M., Graham, E. E., Perse, E. M., & Seibold, D. R. ( Eds.) (2009). Communication research measures 11: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge.   

Intercultural Communication

Inter-cultural communication is part of our daily life. There are a number of factors that impact our ability to be competent inter-cultural communicators. 1. Culture 2. Perceptions 3. Roles and Identities 4. Communication style 5. Personality. All of these factors may influence us directly or indirectly through our interactions with others ( Vuckovic, 2008).

When communicating with others we may have to ajust our behaviors according in order to get a better understanding of what others are trying to tell us. Therefore working with others, especially in the classroom with our young children and their families what we say, and how we say things are very important. We should not have assumptions as to how we think people from other cultures should act. Verbal and non verbal skills or cues are also important in communicating with others. Listenting attentively to what others may be saying and taking in as much information as possible will keep us connected to what is being relayed and enabling us to recieve the message that is indended for me to hear.

In our readings for this week we learned so much information about the Platinium or the Golden Rule. "Do unto others and you would have them to do unto you". To put this in plain English, treat others the way you wish to be treated. This is the first strategy I would apply to any communication style when interacting with others, whether it is children, their families, people in the community, or my professional colleagues. Being aware of cultural differences and adjusting my behavior  according to their needs is the key ( Beebe, Beebe, 2011). Another strategy would be to practice active listening. Listenting to what others are saying , asking them to repeat what I think they said is part of me understanding what is being communicated to me ( O'Hair & Wiemann,2009). Having respect for the language others is important, some peole use different wordings or sounds to describe different things, we should not assume anything about what they are trying to communicate to us, until clarification is given.

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

O'Hair, & Wiemann, Real communication: An introduction. Bedford, St. Martin's.

Vuckovi, A. (2008). Inter-cultural communication: A foundation of communicative action. Multicultural
     Education and Technology Journal, 2(1), 47-59.

   Effective Communication

The television show I chose was Here comes Honey Boo Boo. I have seen commericals from this show but never viewed  a whole entire episode, so I got the opportunity on Wednesday to see the episode of the wedding.

Communication is the process of sharing thoughts and feelings between people through speaking,body language, or writing ( O"Hair & Wiemann,2012). In order to become effective in communicating the concept is to ensure that the content transmitted is recieved and understood in the way the message was intended. In the show the relationship based on the way the people are communicating is a family unit. The family consist of June (mother), Sugar bear (father), and 4 siblings, Honey boo-boo ( Alana), Lauryn ( pumpkin), Jessica, (Chubbs), and Anna ( Chickadee).

 Findings from viewed with the Sound turn-off:

 The feelings and expressions based on nonverbal behavior observed in my opinion is joy, happyness, feaf nervousnes, and anxiety, these are shared by June. Her facial expressions consist of the batting of the eyes, and her tone of speech is not consistent, kind of ramblimg. The children add on to the problem by constanly beating on the bath room door. From watching sugar bear he seems to be in control based on his facial expressions.

Findings of the show with the sound turn on:

At this point the weddings has begun. The wedding party marches out, leaving June and the person who walks her out alone. She seems to be more in control. She looks out of the window, and says "Old my GOD!" Sugar bear level of emotions at this point is a all time high. The movement of the lips indicates nervousness, and when he sees June, the eyes change to some what of a brighter state. He gets real emotional during the vows, and starts to cry outright.

I had no assumptions concering the show before I viewd it with the volume on or off.  Based on what what I read about the characters, and the way they communicate with one another, I knew I would really enjoyed what I would see, or hear. However in this particular episode, the speech pattern, and the body language was kind of polished up. My assumptions might have been more correct depending on the context of a particular showI knew well. Communication involves, the extent to which the message is symbolic, the extent to which the code is shared,whether the message is culturally bound, and the percieved intentionality of the sender, and whether the decoding, or encoding message is transactional ( 2012).
In my opinion all of the skills have to be practiced and learned , therefore, no assumptions should be made as to waht we may think the intended message should have been from the sender.

This show was very, very, funny, exciting, and a wonderful show to watch for entertainment.

Reference
O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. ( 2012). Real Communication. An Intoroduction ( 2nd, ed.). New York. Bedford/St.Martin's.

Competent Communicator

     The person that I chose who demonstrates being a competent communicator is my assistant principal in the school district I work in. This particular individual, who is a female really holds her own. She knows how to get the attention of the children as well as the staff members. When speaking she keeps goog eye contact and her facial expressions are not mean. Her body language is always at a composure which rarely changes. She is very consistent at what she does when speaking. My assistant principal talks in a calm voice, and always ask the question, " boys and girls do you understand". She leaves no doubt of what she is trying to convey to the audience she is communicating to.

    As a early childhood professional, I feel that I have most of the traits that I observe in my assistant principal. However, I think that there are a few important pointers that I need to work on. My facial expressions determine what I am going to say. I also need to get better at my body language, for example the use of the hands when speaking, and I need to leave more of the head jestures out. All in all I need to work on having more postive composure.

    In modeling my assistant principal I also need to work on relaying my messages in a more constucing way in order for my audience to recieve the messages I am trying to get across. I feel that learning different techiniques and strageties will help me to better myself when communicating with my children, parents, professional colleagues. Being able to communicate effectively is important to me, especially with the amount of situations which call for communication in many situations, and during many events and activities..

Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and their families who come from diverse backgrounds:

The hope that I have for working with children and their families is that they will one day be treated equally and receive the same rights and opportunities that they deserve. I also hope that one day that racism will end and all children and their families will be recognized and accepted and this acceptance will not be based on the color of their skin, their gender, their sexual orientation, and the class they belong to.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is:

That all early childhood educators, researchers, and all who work to ensure that children receive the best quality of education possible continue to work together to help in eliminating poverty, so that children and their families will receive equal opportunities, so that they will also be worthy of the necessities of life.  Reflecting back to the media segment of "In their Own voices" the most touching event was when Julie Benavides had to endure being compared  because of the color of her skin to the dog in the story, has made me take a look and to be aware of encounters such as this with my children and families. My goal in teaching is for them to not have to  experience this type of stereotyped or discrimination.

To all of my colleagues, this class  has really been a learning experience and a heart felt journey for me. I would like to thank each and every one of you for helping me to travel this journey because without your sharing of insights thoughts, and ideas I would not have learned as much as I did about diversity, equity, and social justice. I hope to continue to learn with each of you in other classes, I am sure it will be a good and exciting adventure. Just remember Equity is very much a part of social justice.  I want to share this one and last thought with you.

     "The degree to which social justice is achieved in a given time and
       place should be measured by two..... notions: 1) the greatest of good
       for the greatest number. and 2). how the least powerful and the smallest minorities in a society are faring."
                                                   Ched Myers

References

In her own voice: Julie Benavides ( Laureate Education, Inc. 2011). Retrieved from http://waldenu.edu

Justice and Equity: A fairer world. The Tasmartian Center for Global learning . (2013) Retrieved from http://www.googleonline.com
  
   

Welcoming Families From Around the World

For this weeks blog assignment, I am to imagine the following scenario: You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice...a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. I receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origins. 

I will assume that my new family will be coming from Japan.

At least five ways in which I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family:

1. I will conduct a Google search of the family country of origin. This is for me to get a better  understanding of the background of their culture, their foods, music, traditions, and family orientation. This will help me to become familiar with some of the expectations of this culture. 
2. Upon meeting this family for the first time, I will be very welcoming by making them feel accepting, and comfortable in coming to a new environment. I will have information available for them concerning our school, which will include the staff, and the curriculum.
3. I will have a family available that is from the  same country as they are. This will help in making the family not feel not as uncomfortable as they would if their was no one else that could relate to. After work we would all meet up to tour the town, and get familiar with some of the shopping centers, and other attractions.
4. I will try hard to learn some of the language in order to communicate effectively with the family. I will let them know that I am glad and happy to have them as part of our country for a little while.
5. I will plan a event for other parents and their families to meet and greet this family. Welcoming families is a big part of being diversity. This event will be a big and huge event in order to prepare for other families who may enter our country; making them feel that they are a part of our society will have a big impact. They will feel very welcome.

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

I hope these preparations will benefit both me and the family by me preparing and gathering information and showing them in many ways that I am glad to meet them, and that they are very welcome in our country and our school setting. I hope that they will feel that any time they enter my classroom they will not experience any biases, prejudice, and will not be discriminated against. They will know they are valued, and accepted. My gesture of having another family from their culture will show them that I care about their well-beings and their child's well-being. All of these things will be helpful to me as well as the family from Japan.

 

 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

A memory of an incident that I experienced bias, prejudice, and oppression happen about 4 years ago when I worked in pre-kindergarten. During this time president Obama was running for election. This made a lot of people mad, sad, and just racist's. This is what happen: We had to always sign in on the sign-in sheet on a counter in the office. There was sheet that had all of the republican candidates listed, and the message written on it was these are the people you need to vote for. It did not just stop there, one kindergarten teacher was so upset about president Obama running that her daily functioning was off target. She stopped speaking, she treated all blacks with disrespect, including the children in her class. This was really a bad time for her, and she did not try to hide how she felt.

The specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression diminish equity by: one letting the incident of the paper of who to vote for be put on the sign-in-counter. This was the responsibility of the secretary to remove it once it happen, but she just brushed it off. Two, the teacher that showed her racism should have been spoken to by the supervisor, since everyone knew how she felt. She was very verbal, saying things like we have to do something, we can't let this happen, just right out disrespectful. This incident brought up for me that racism is still here, maybe not in a greater form, but some people will never change, it is not because they don not know how, some just refuse to like or get to know other's of different races. I feel that we both should have to make  changes: the kindergarten  teacher in her negative feelings about black's ,and myself for maybe not understanding her feelings and what she may have experienced to bring out these negative feelings. I can recall at the beginning of this class when viewing the web video, Playing for Change: "War/no more trouble, the ending said we just need peace, and this is what we all need in order to live together in society.

Reference
Playing for change: "War/No More Trouble" ( Laureate Education Inc,2011). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgWFxFg7-GU&feature=BF&list=ML4oVf-d DwKA-bV3PQwJ5xcpVdi7B-TPk&index=3