Who Am I as a Communicator?

The two people that evaluated me were my husband and my Assistant Director at work. These two people are probably the two adults that I spend most of my time with if you are to consider time and home and time at work. As I looked back over the results similarities of the scores were that I fell in the same range of both the listening style and verbal aggressiveness. The differences were that my husband scored me higher but same range in the verbal aggressiveness and lower in the communication anxiety. When I read the results of how he scored me differently I was a little surprised at first but then as I thought over the results I realized that maybe it was just my comfort zone as to how I both communicated and listened to others. At home I feel most comfortable and do not have a fear of how I communicate. I know that I have unconditional acceptance.  At work I know that I have to be cautious of how I say things and also struggle a bit with public speaking.  My anxieties with public speaking are less then better I know my audience and the subject matter that I am speaking about.  My anxiety also settles down once I have begun my delivery.

My scores vs. my husband

                        Communication Anxiety – Elevated / Moderate

                        Listening Styles – People Oriented

                        Verbal Aggressiveness – Moderate

When I was younger and living at home with my parents my dad would say when it came to arguing I had all the courage in the world and hoped that I would take that confidence and apply it to the outside world.  However, when it comes to public speaking I lose most of my confidence.  Just thinking about getting up in front of a group of people or answering a question in a meeting or classroom gets my heart beating faster.  Unfortunately, it is this fear that I feel holds me back in life.  It has kept me from doing many things that I would probably be very successful at.

Cultural Diversity

We recently had a family enroll that is from India.   One of the most significant cultural differences would be language.  The father speaks English very well however their four year old son that will be attending our pre-k program does not speak English unless prompted to say specific words such as hello and goodbye.

Three strategies that we could use to help us communicate more effectively with this family are:

1.        We asked the father to please provide us with words in both English and Hindi that we could use with their son as well as for to recognized words that he would be using.

2.       We will create a picture board so that he can point to specific places such as the bathroom or water fountain or items such as blocks (to play with) or food when he is hungry).

3.        We will have a day for the children to bring in their favorite toy to share with others that is special to their family or their culture.   I hope that an activity such as this will acknowledge differences and show commonalities for the children.

When I think about how trying these next few days, weeks, or months, may be for this little guy I am reminded of Bennett's Platinum Rule(Beebe , Beebe, & Redmond, 2011. P. 114)  and think of how I would want my own children to be treated if the situation was reversed and my family was the newly enrolled family.
 .

Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2011). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Chapter 4, "Interpersonal Communication and Diversity: Adapting to Others" (pp. 85–114).

Communication Skills: Language, Nonverbal, Listening

I chose to watch one of the shows that my husband usually watches, Parks and Rec.  The first time I watched the episode I watched closely to facial expressions and body language to see if I could determine relationships or see if I could tell what the characters were feeling.  I thought that without the verbal, pitch, and tones it seemed like the characters were talking about something very serious.  After watching a while, I started the show from the beginning and watched a second time with the sound on.  The biggest difference that I noticed was that with sound I was then able to detect the sarcasm in the characters tone which made the nonverbal facial expressions seem not so serious.  Nonverbal communication can also function as contracting behavior in which it conveys the opposite of one’s verbal message. (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2009, p.105)

Both verbal and nonverbal are important to communication.  Each can provide information without the other but as I saw with this week’s assignment you can’t just pay attention to one or the other.

O’Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St.               Martin’s.

What Is Communication?

As a director I take on many different styles of communication.  I have to communicate with children, teachers, parents, other directors, and the list could go on and on.  I communicate with each differently, but with respect for each.  Part of effective communicating for me also means listening. 

Public speaking has always been a challenge for me.  The person that I think of that communicates competently is my District Manager.  She has to speak to us in many different forums.  We have conference calls, 1:1 meetings, and director meetings where all of us gather together.  On each occasion she is confident, her agenda is well planned and clear to all, she is articulate and motivating as well.  I would like to gain the same confidence that she exhibits.   

Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that you have when you think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds …

                It’s difficult to think of just one hope but my hope embraces UNDERSTANDING:

I hope that families will always feel welcome and the environment in which we create encourages families to celebrate their differences.  I hope that I am understanding and able to always give my best to each family.  I hope that I can recognize when a personal bias may interfere with decisions and I am able to set aside my differences and make a decision that will be in the best interest of the families.

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

A goal that I would like to set would be to make sure that I always challenge my teachers to provide opportunities for families to share their culture so that diversity can be a positive learning experience.

As we wrap up this course I would just like to thank everyone for sharing some very personal life experiences with us.  What may have seemed like differences have really brought about connections.  I wish you all the best as we move on to our next course.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

TRINIDAD

It is interesting that this assignment hits the same week that I have a family from Trinidad that will be starting at my Preschool with the first of the New Year.  Knowing that I have a few weeks to prepare I will be doing the following things so that both myself and my teachers will be able to provide that best possible care to this new infant and her family.  Not knowing too much about Trinidad and its culture it would be beneficial for me to do some research on the country.  As with any family that enrolls at my school we sit and talk before their first day of school.  The family does speak English but with a thick native accent.  With the first meeting I saw that language will be somewhat of a barrier.  When I spoke with mom she was very concerned with understanding everything so that she could go home and share everything with her husband. She stopped me a few times to repeat what I had said to make sure that she understood.  She was conscious of this and apologized.  I will share this information with the teachers so they know that she would like for them to speak clearly when communicating with her.   We have asked about food preferences and likes and dislikes of the baby.  Mom has shared that she loves to sing and will eat most everything.  To make this little on comfortable in her new setting we have asked mom to bring some music that Mercy likes to sing and dance to so that she can hear something familiar in her new setting. We have also requested photos of family to be able to put up in the room so that she can see familiar faces throughout the day also.

I think that a nice way to bring everyone together after the holidays will be to welcome in the New Year with a family potluck.  I would like to invite each family to bring a dish that is a favorite in their home.  I believe that food is such a great conversation starter.   This will be a great way to welcome our new families and allow them the opportunity to introduce themselves and feel a part of the group.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The enrollment at the school that I work at is predominantly African American.  I can recall many occasions in which I was having a conversation with a teacher or parent in regards to food, music, clothing, or names and comments in regards to me or my race were made. 

Such comments include:

 “Oh that is a typical “white” name” or “that is a white person’s outfit for sure”

Or “you like to eat that?”

 Usually when such remarks are made I just casually laugh them off as not to make it a big deal.  However, internal thoughts are usually first disbelief that such remarks are so causally thrown out there. Secondly, if the conversation was the other way around and I had said something like that what would have happened?  Thirdly, I feel that some things are not just because of race but also because of where one grew up.  For example, my mom and grandmother cooked a lot of southern foods growing up but also there were a lot of Italian and northern dishes as well.  Foods we eat, the names we choose, and the clothes we wear are not only because of race but also because of the areas in which we live or have lived.

I think that as with many circumstances education can turn many situations around.