Blog Assignment Week 4

I chose my husband, Danny, and my preschool assistant, Marilyn, to take the three tests this week.  The communication anxiety inventory was the test where our scores differed the most.  I scored in the moderate level, Danny scored me in the elevated level and Marilyn scored me in the low level.  I found these results very interesting because I believe your answers to the questions really depend on what situations you see me interact in.  I know I am not very comfortable in public speaking situations but I also feel that I do a pretty good job in these situations if I am knowledgeable about the information I am presenting.  Marilyn sees me often interact with parents and feels that in those interactions I seem confident and comfortable in my communication with them.  I would agree that usually this is comfortable for me because we are discussing information I feel knowledgeable in. 

            Danny knows me better outside of the working environment and sees my communication anxiety when it comes to talking to people I do not know or about information I am not as confident in knowing.  Danny is also the one I talk to when I know I am going to have to give a group presentation.  He then gets to hear about my discomfort of talking in front of groups. 

            In regards to the verbal aggressiveness scale Marilyn and I scored in the moderate level and Danny scored me in the significant level.  These results did not surprise me because I feel in my professional life I do a better job of maintaining a good balance between respect and consideration for others’ viewpoints.  At home I am sure there are times when Danny does not believe I do a good job of respecting and considering others’ viewpoints. 

            This week I found it interesting how your self-concept shapes your communication with others.  Your self-concept “can shape what you think of other people because your perception of others is related to how you view yourself” (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012, p. 47).  I believe all of our personalities played a role in the scores.

             

Reference

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Blog Week 3

Throughout the years I know I have found myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures.  “When we communicate with people who have different cultural backgrounds than our own, we tend to share less information with them than we do with people who share our cultural heritage” (Beebe, Beebe, & Redmond, 2011, p. 97).  I know there have been times when I haven’t communicated as much with a parent because of a language barrier or cultural differences.  There are parents that I make stronger connections with each school year and some of it probably has to do with the similarities in our cultures. 

  

One strategy I could use to help communicate with people from different cultures is to ask questions and listen effectively.  I know that when I ask questions I do learn more about a person and their culture.  I did this last year with a parent from Honduras and it was interesting to learn about her and her life in Honduras.  I need to remember to do this with all of my parents not just the ones from a different country.  Most importantly I need to make sure I am listening effectively when we are communicating.

A second strategy I could use to help communicate with people from different cultures is to avoid negative judgments.  I believe this is true no matter who you are communicating with.  You are going to be a more productive, happy person if you avoid negative judgments and more people are going to want to communicate with you.

A third strategy I could use to help communicate with people from different cultures is to become more other-oriented.  I would like to say I always think of others before myself but that is not true.  Being other-oriented can help you be a better communicator but also just a better person.

Reference

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

Blog Week 2

I chose to watch “Parenthood.”  I have heard people talk about watching this show but I personally have never watched this show.  I started watching the episode with no sound and it was difficult for me to figure out what was going on.  I could mostly tell if people were family members and watching their facial expressions gave me ideas about how they were feeling.  Watching the body language was helpful to see if they liked the people they were around or to see if they were upset with someone. 

I watched about half of the episode and then I decided to watch it again with the sound on.  I found out that some of the ways that I thought people were feeling was correct but then other times I was not correct.  When I watched with the sound off I thought Max was upset with his dad and did not want him to talk to the person on the phone.  When I watched with the sound on I found out that Max was super excited about getting the job of photographer at his uncle’s wedding and he wanted to tell his dad about it.  Even thought I could get a pretty good idea about what how a person was feeling when I watched the show with no sound it was much more enjoyable to watch with sound.  I definitely had a better understanding of what was happening in the show when the sound was on.  I also found myself getting more emotional about certain parts when the sound was on. 

I believe if this show had been a show I was familiar with it would have been easier to understand what was going on even when there was no sound.  For example, had this show been “Friends” I probably could have understood it pretty well even with the sound off.

One thing that was eye opening for me was once I begin to understand a little bit of the story of the show it was easier to understand what was going on even when there was no verbal communication.  There was a wedding part and a part at the end of the show that just played music while everyone continued acting.  It was easy for me to understand what was going on during this time once I had a little bit of an understanding of what was happening in the show.

Blog Assignment Week 1

The person I chose to write about is actually my husband.  My husband’s name is Danny and he is a division chief for our local fire department.  One of the most important components of his job is having good communication skills.  He spends a lot of his time communicating in person, over the phone, through emails and through text messages.  He is an effective communicator because he is very knowledge about the issues he is discussing and he is also a good listener.  He listens, processes his thoughts and then expresses what he is thinking.  When he is talking to you in person he has good eye contact, a positive attitude and is approachable.  He is great on picking up how a person is really feeling.  There have been times when our nanny has come over in the morning and Danny can tell right away if something is wrong.  Danny will ask her about it and usually there is something going on at home or with someone she knows that she would like to talk about. 

I hope I do model a positive attitude and that I am approachable like my husband.  I would like to become a better listener because there are times where people will be talking to me but I am totally thinking about something else.   I would also like to learn to be a better communicator when it comes to using technology.  Sometimes I worry that my email or text message might not be sending the right message or have the right tone that I am trying to portray. 

Professional Hopes and Goals

As I work with children and families from diverse backgrounds I hope they always feel welcome in my classroom.  I hope they feel that we have good communication with each other and that working together we can do our best to help their children be successful.  One goal for myself and for the early childhood field would be to never let my own biases get in the way of being an effective, caring and responsible teacher.  I would also hope that all early childhood teachers would be aware and knowledgeable about diversity, equity and social justice.  Having this awareness and knowledge will make them better teachers. 

Thank you to all of my colleagues in this course.  This course has given us all the opportunity to share personal stories and I am thankful for your openness and willingness to share.  Reading stories and ideas containing examples of what we are learning about has helped me get a better understanding of the issues presented in this course.  Thanks for all of your help and good luck in the next course!

Welcoming Families From Around the World

My family’s country of origin is Romania.  I chose Romania because through World Vision my family actually sponsors a young boy from Romania.  Even though we sponsor this boy I actually do not know anything about Romania. 

The following are the five ways I would prepare to be culturally responsive towards this new family:

1.     Research – I would do research on Romania.  Where is it located, what language do they speak, what is the climate, favorite foods and information on the environment and economics.  I would start by using the website http://www.romania.org.

2.     Language – I would try and learn some common words in Romanian so I could help the child feel welcome.  There is actually a translator section on the Romania website where you can translate English words into Romanian.  http://www.romania.org/services/romanian-translations.php

3.     Food – I would learn about what kinds of snacks they like to have in Romania and hopefully bring some of those foods into the classroom.  I would hope this would make the child feel more at home and it would help the other children learn about the new student.  Familiar food always seems to be a comfort to me. 

4.     Include Materials – I would bring music and books into the classroom that relate to Romania.  This would help educate the other students about Romania and help the child feel at home and that his culture is represented in the classroom.

5.     Meet the Family – I would take a special time to meet the family prior to the child attending school and after the child has been in school for a week or two.  This would allow me the opportunity to learn about the family and see what their expectations are for their child’s school experience.  Meeting with them a couple weeks later would be a good chance to see how things are going and if they have any new questions or concerns. 

These steps would help me have a better understanding of Romania and the environment the child has been living in.  It would allow the other students in the class to feel like they have a better understanding of where the child is from and it would hopefully bring up similarities between the children.  I hope it would help the child feel welcome in the classroom and a part of our classroom team.  I hope the family would feel important to our program and feel comfortable enough to have open communication with us.  I hope these steps would create a good environment of acceptance, caring and belonging.    

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

Prejudice was really brought to light for me when I read the book “The Help” and then watched the movie.  It has been many years since I have watched the movie but it was heart wrenching to see how some white people treated African Americans.  I was not born during that time so actually reading about these experiences made it much more real.  In this book the prejudice and bias against African Americans diminished all equity.  The African Americans in this book were not treated fairly.

It was embarrassing and difficult to watch some of the ways African Americans were treated.  It was even more difficult to realize that these situations really happened in our country.  As I read the book and watched the movie it made me sad and angry to see woman being treated differently just because of the color of their skin.  The part that really got to me was at the end of the book when Aibileen had to leave her job and leave the child she had been taking care of everyday.  The little white girl was about three years old and she adored Aibileen.  She preferred Aibileen over her own mother and to watch Aibileen’s sadness when she had to say goodbye was depressing.  It was even more difficult to know that all of that sadness was caused because of another woman’s hatred. 

There are many things that would need to change in the environment to turn this situation into an opportunity for greater equity.  Thankfully there were a few people who were making good choices and helping to bring equity to the situation.  Throughout the book Skeeter was a white woman who started treating African American woman appropriately and in return created an opportunity for greater equity.  Celia was another white woman in the book that did not let society’s beliefs influence her own thinking of African American woman.  Celia showed equity to her maid and in return found a strong friendship.

It was great to see the bonds these two white woman made with African American in a time in history where these bonds were not suppose to be made.  They did not let the prejudice and bias of society influence their treatment of other people.  That is an attitude more people need to possess.