Week 8 - Final Farewell

To my colleagues,

I just wanted to take this time to say "THANKS" to everyone for such a wonderful experience. I have learned a great deal about effective communication in the field. We must understand how truly important it is to communicate clearly to the children and families of who we serve. We must build trusting, strong relationships with those families that we encounter and we must be the example and show them how to build strong, trusting relationships with others.

I have been supported by my colleagues in many ways but the most important is the fact that I was never judged and could speak openly and comfortably and voice my opinions without any feelings of criticism. I really appreciate everyone's support and honest feedback to help me to improve my communication efforts.

I hope that I have been as much support to you all as you have been for me. I hope that you were all able to learn one thing from me the way I have learned many things from all of you. I am truly very grateful to have had such a tremendous experience in this class and am looking forward to moving on to my specialization and hope to have some familiar faces along this next journey!

Week 6- Team Building

I found the five stages of team development to be very interesting. I think that with all the stages combined together in a positive way this makes for a creative experience. I can remember being a part of a group for a final project in my undergraduate studies. We went through many ups and downs to get the final product completed. After being a part of a group project I realize how important it is to have an effective leader that knows how to take control and delegate responsibilities in an effective manner. Our leader struggled with many of the responsibly and needed some guidance along the way but once she took control and got a grip of her job and how to perform it effectively she was able to produce an effective project. I think that the final stage which is the adjourning stage becomes difficult only when you have an effective finish product. If you are working on a project that is not effective sometimes this can make the adjourning stage a relief and you feel a sense of stress removed from you when it is over. But I really felt saddened in my group class project during the adjourning stage. I felt stressed during the storming stage of our project but we did weather the storm during this stage and we came out learning much more than we knew going in. We were really all sad to say goodbye because of our learning and growth process. We developed strong bonds and in many cases lifelong friendships because we were able to work so effectively together and learned so much at the same time.

I feel that high-performing groups are very hard to leave because we develop a rhythm or a flow that becomes comforting to the group and allows us a sense of belonging and accomplishment, this becomes hard to let go of. It is not always easy to find a group that is highly productive and everyone works well together, where personalities can mix well and things get done easily. I think that forming a group is an extremely challenging task, and to form a highly effective group sometimes seems impossible. So when this is done of course it is hard to leave that sense of security in knowing that things will get done the right way.

I found the group in my undergraduate days of college a highly effective group and once our project had ended I felt really saddened that we would not have the convenience of meeting together all at one time showing off our collaboration skills. Giving positive feedback on researched and established information. And a few of us from that group I still have not heard from after college and I really miss that time that we spent effectively. We learned some valuable time management skills that I really enjoyed while we were part of the group and I have never really been able to regain even after trying on numerous occasions. Once our group experience had ended we all kept in touch for a little while after that but many of the team members fell off and we never stayed in contact but a few of us are still friends today and we try to meet frequently. But after the project was completed we had a little celebration among us to celebrate our success in the class because of our team efforts.

I think that many of the people that I have meant along the way of this master’s degree program will be great contacts in the future to help me stay informed and growing in the field of early learning. I think that adjourning from this group may be difficult because we have established such great bonds in many cases. I have learned so much from so many colleagues in my classes and have been inspired even more by the professors that I have encountered. The end of this journey will be a bitter sweet experience and as I get closer to this point I am beginning to get excited. We still have a little ways to go and I'm looking forward to the remainder of this ride.

 

 

Conflict Resolution

Again this is another trial run, I posted this assignment last night on my new blog page www.kerebaenglish.blogspot.com due to some computer issues while attempting to post this assignment

Week 5 - Blog Assignment

I very rarely run into situation that require conflict resolution due to the fact I am easy going and go with the flow and find ways to navigate situations even when they are not very favorable for me. But in the rare ocurance I run into a conflict I like to address it right away and try to find a reasonable way to resolve it before it escalate

I recently had a disagreement with my husband about my son. My son is 6 years old and has recently started kindergarten. He goes to school in our new neighborhood and he is only going to school for half a day kindergarten, therefore his hours are from 12:30 to 3:20. I think this is such a drag and a waste of time. We both work an hour away from where we live and we are stuck to get him back and forth to school around our work schedules. My husbands schedule changes everyday so this makes the job even more challenging. I insisted to my husband that we take my son out of that school because it does not make much sense the way we are needing to travel and inconvenience ourselves to take him to and from school. I asked my husband to allow me to home school my son which I can do from work and keep him with me another year and allow him the one on one training and guidance through me and my instruction. My husband argues with me each time I bring this up and it truly makes me so angry. He thinks that my son is losing more social skills by being taught another year by me but I totally disagree. I think he is getting another year of vital one on one teaching instruction.

The conflict resolution strategies that I decided to use with my husband are "Consider Options and Alternatives, which " (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012, pg 240) I think I gave him some other choices such as finding a school for my son that is closer to my job so I can easily pick him up rather than traveling over an hour to pick him up from school and then needing to go back to work in the evening to close. We both weighed our options and with the few choices that we have we are still in the waiting process to find out which plan works better. We have also decided to compromise "to give up a little to gain a little" (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012, pg. 241) We are both willing to compromise with each other once we get feedback from all the other schools we have applied for and we are also looking into the home school element this way we will have all resources handy to try to decide on an option.

Similarities and Differences in Communication

This is just a test, I had a problem sending my assignment on 9/27/14 therefore I created a new blog page www.kerebaenglish.blogspot.com and my assignment was sent to that page, but now that my original blog is working again I will continue to use this account in sending all future assignments

 

 

I really enjoyed this communication assignment and learned a lot about myself and my communication style. I always thought that I was an effective communicator and very timid and calm when communicating my thoughts to others. I am an introvert and it sometimes causes me to be harder to gage and figure out. The Listening Style Profile determined that I am people orientated and I am empathetic to the emotional concern of others which is very encouraging to hear. The survey stated that my learning style helps me to build relationships with others but it sometimes can get in the way because I am very trusting of those whom I am communicating with and they could possibly be trying to get over, I can be easily persuaded. I was surprised to hear that responds because I never thought of myself in that light. If you are treated this way for so long it may cause you to eventually turn verbally aggressive which was another survey that was done to help us evaluate our communication. The evaluation stated that I am significantly verbally aggressive which I never saw myself as being that way, but this is why this is such a wonderful assignment to find out something new about your personality and to attempt to change it for the better.

I was also evaluated by my mother and my colleague at the workplace as my alternatives for this assignment. I was really amazed at the way both parties evaluated me and also scored me pretty high on the aggressiveness scale. This is all new to me but it allows me to learn my aggressive tendencies and challenges me to come up with ways that will allow me to fix them. I also learned about my levels of anxiety which were pretty low and this helped to reassure me that I am confident and secure in my position. My mother rated my anxiety levels as high as she stated I am very nervous and second guess my actions at times.

I have learned that I am an effective listener which is detrimental in the field of early learning because you need to be able to listen and learn from your students and their families and then you can successfully engage them and allow them to grow into the best learner possible. I must also learn to tune down my aggressiveness because this is a great turn off to others whom have to interact with you. When you communicate in an aggressive manner people that are listening tend to shut down and tune you out especially if they feel insulted in anyway.

 

Communicating with cultural diversity - Week 3

Culture is something that we are made up of and it defines our being and in some cases can define the way you would communicate and approach a person. I would always wonder why Muslim woman would always walk behind their husbands but I later found out that has cultural significance. I live in an area that is starting to develop more diversity and more varying cultures. This makes me feel comfortable and more freely to openly communicate with my neighbors. I have no problem approaching someone from a different culture or background and asking them questions that may help me to have a better understanding of behaviors because I always use different circumstances to help me to have a better understanding of the children and families I serve. We must realize that our culture is the reason that we act or behave the way we do and we have to be sensitive to parents and their parenting styles even if they are not comparable to our own because theirs are based on their cultural beliefs just as ours are based on our culture and beliefs.

I do find myself communicating differently with people from other groups and cultures. I talk to my colleagues different than I talk to my friends. I have different groups of friends and I talk to each group differently based on their culture or experiences. I have a group of friends that are more professional than the other group so I talk to the group that are more professional in a more intellectual tone. The other group of friends are from my old neighborhood and we can just laugh and be a little more laid back. I also have parents and colleagues that I can talk to openly and comfortably but I still have a certain level of professionalism that I must maintain when talking to both groups. I also talk to my children in my classroom differently. Some children are a little more sensitive and you must watch every word that you use because you can hurt their feelings. I also have some children in my class that you must teach them how to use certain words because they can hurt someone else feelings.

Three strategies that can be helpful when communicating with various groups would be:

1.)    Be open minded in communicating with others and do not stereotype groups or individuals, try to learn something new and positive about their culture this way you will not stereotype.

2.)    Try to withhold judgment long enough to gain a deeper understanding than first impressions allow. (Gonzalez-Mena, 2010, pg. 37)

3.)    Allow yourself to learn from each person and each circumstance by each person it is very important. Don’t judge and this will allow you to have a more willing attitude to be comfortable communicating with a particular person.

Non verbal vs.verbal communication

The television show I decided to analyze was “Seinfeld”. I chose this show because my husband loves this show and I never really watched it I guess because it is an older show and I never was interested in sitting down to watch this show. Now that I have been given this assignment it seemed like a great idea to choose this show since he is always watching it.

The first scene their appears to be two men sitting in a living room talking. One of the guys is sitting at a table reading the paper. The other guy seems to be telling a story with great emotions. The short guy who is telling the story seems upset while getting up pacing the room making angry hand gestures. The other guy sitting at the table reading the paper started to eat some cereal looking not very interested in what the short guy was talking about, even though he was expressing great emotion. The short guy raised his hands in distress and then flopped down on the couch as if he were defeated. A lady then enters the room while the short guy was lying on the couch appeared to be crying. The lady did not pay him any attention and began to talk to the guy that was sitting nonchalantly at the table eating cereal. A third guy enters the room and went straight to the fridge but looking interested in what the other three were talking about. He then goes over to the lady and begins looking at a picture and seems to be angry while looking at it. The characters seem to be friends or family by being closely connected in emotional conversation. The one guy whom is crying seems to be leaning on his friends for support. They seem to not care much about his feelings.

The guy from the previous scene that was eating cereal and reacting nonchalantly is in this next scene with a young lady. They are talking and appear to be in the same room as the group in the previous scene. He seems to be showing her something on a bookshelf and them they turn around and continue talking. She seems too emotional and looks like she wants to cry then she grabs a book and start to show the guy some picture in the book. He smiles and seems like he may be friends with her because they are laughing and talking close. He then goes to the door and the third guy from the previous scene peeks his head through the door and winks his eye at the lady as if he is giving an approval. The second guy tries to keep him out of the door by pushing him as he is trying to make his way in. He is trying to keep the two separated while he is leaving the room for a moment.

After watching the first scene with the volume turned up I discovered that the short guy was not angry he was heartbroken over his girlfriend leaving him. The other guy was very agitated by hearing his cries about his ex because he always talked bad about her while they were dating. The lady that was showing the picture to the other guy was really admiring that it was a Christmas card with a picture attached. I think I was pretty close while watching this scene in my assuming he was angry while looking at the picture. He was not angry but he was letting her know that he could take her picture if she wanted it done. I assumed that they were friends and later found out that was correct.

Now that I have watched the second scene with the volume turned up I discovered that the two are romantically involved. They are both looking at the bookshelf and he is telling her what his plans are in remodeling this area and I did not know that while watching the scene without the words. She looked like she wanted to cry but she was only making a gesture of sadness when he talked about his fish tank, I would have never know this if I would not have looked at it with the words based on their reactions. I would have never known she was a model and the other guy that walked in the room had come up with the idea for the fragrance long before she was modeling it, but the company was not interested in his idea. Then when the second guy tried to enter the room he smells a familiar fragrance he meets the lady and discovers that she is modeling for the company that discarded/ stole his idea of the cologne that he created. I would have never guessed this just based on their non verbal reactions. I did need to listen to their communication before getting the full gage of the show.

 

Demonstrating Competent Communication

The person that I find that displays and demonstrates competent communication  is the Bishop of my church. He is very effective in his delivery and brings every message down to laymen’s terms. I think trying to understand the BIBLE is kind of difficult but having a teacher that can break down the sections to make you understand and really feel the power of the word or scripture is very important. My Bishop has a slight accent because he is from South Africa but he articulates so well that you would never know it. My Bishop is passionate about the word and dedicated to making sure his members understand it and can apply it with every encounter in our life. He can magnify the word and make you feel joy even when you are undergoing the worst possible triumph. He speaks with power, courage and confidence and these traits are important when you are seeking people to worship with you.

My Bishop is very effective based on his knowledge and confidence in his delivery of the word. He is very educated and wants to be sure that we understand what he is teaching so we can go out there and teach the message with the same flow of confidence that he delivers with. He is very interactive and he wants his congregation to participate and exhibit their knowledge to the subject area. He wants to make everyone feel comfortable and willing to answer a question even if they are not on the right flow. My bishop never makes anyone feel as if they are missing the mark or not understanding what he is preaching. He has a way to get everyone involved and excited about the lessons that they are learning about the LORD. There are many interpretations in the BIBLE and he can deliver his message making you agree with him even if you are having a different interpretation.

I would love to exhibit the knowledge and confidence that my bishop displays when he is in front of a very large crowd. I just instantly freeze up and lose my train of thought and feel like I cannot complete my mission I set out to complete. I would love to exhibit some of the same communications behaviors that my Bishop conducts because being a powerful public speaker is a powerful gift to have and can take you a long way in almost any field.