Blog week 4 - Who I am as a communicator

Robin C. Miller                                                                                     EDUC – 6165

Blog Assignment – Week 4

The communication evaluations this week helped me to gain a better understanding of not only, how I see myself as an effective communicator but also, how my colleagues and family view me as a communicator. All parties that took the surveys came up either the same evaluation or different scoring ranges. I wasn’t surprised to learn that I am a very active and empathetic listener. I agree that this can be both a strength and weakness in effective communication for it will cause me to think more with my emotions than anything else.

I also wasn’t too surprised when, I and a family member scored me at being an elevated communicator when it comes to different communication styles. I am more of a one on one communicator. Working in the early education field has helped me practice speaking to larger groups of people.

I was surprised however, the difference in scoring in the verbal aggressiveness survey. My director scored me at a higher level than I expected. It concerns me because I can’t see myself lashing out at people for no reason. Her scoring and her comments contradicted one another. She mentioned that I was to “timid and shy and need to be more aggressive in order to be a good director (personal communication, 2013). I agree to some extent but, I think that being more assertive is different than being aggressive. I agree that I need to become more assertive but aggression is not my style of communication. I believe that effective communication is the right combination of care, love, empathy, concern, listening, understanding, and a little assertiveness when needed.

EDUC - 6165 Week 3 Differences in Communication

Robin C. Miller                                                                                              EDUC – 6165

Blog Assignment – Week 3

            Do I find myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures? Yes! Sometimes, I tend to slow my verbal communication down so the opposite party can clearly hear what I am saying. Not realizing that I might be offending them because they are not deaf or incapable of understanding. Another bad habit of mine, and I see this with my coworkers as well is the unintentional behavior of trying to sound and verbal communicate with the same accent as the person with whom we are talking with. Yes, sitting back watching my co-workers try and sound African, Puerto Rican, or Asian every time a parent would communicate was funny at first. But, I realized two things. One, it could be offensive to the other person and two, it can either make ourselves look like a fool or have the opposite effect and help parents view us as active and effective listeners and communicators.

Another thing that I noticed in my communication skills is that I easily get frustrated when I don’t understand different behaviors that do not coincide with my culture and the society norms in which I live and try to get the parent to understand the norms of the society in which they now live. For example, I had an African mother who always carries her child on her back. I was culturally sensitive to this when they child was very young and not of walking age. But, when the child was supposed to hit the milestone of gross motor movement the child was unable to because she was always carried and had also formed a severe bowed legged appearance that also made it more difficult for the child to try and walk. I explained my concerns to the mother in a culturally sensitive, non-emotional, and professional way.

Three strategies that I can use in the future to help in the process of communicating effectively with people of a different culture are…

·       When something about a family’s practices really bothers me, I will try to look at what they are doing through their eyes instead of my own (Gonzalez-Mena, J., 2010).

·       I will try to withhold judgment long enough to gain a deeper understanding than first impressions allow (Gonzalez-Mena, J., 2010).

·       I will also try not to assume that doing things for children will make them grow up helpless and forever dependent (Gonzalez-Mena, J., 2010).

References

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2010). 50 strategies for communicating and working with diverse families.            Upper Saddle  River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. "Understanding and Appreciating Cultural           Differences" (pp. 36 - 38)

Week 2 Blog - EDUC 6165 Communication and Listening

Robin C. Miller                                                                                                            EDUC- 6165

Blog Assignment – Week 2

Since my niece was visiting me, I decided to watch the TV series Hannah Montana. I turned it into a game so that she can help Auntie guess what they were doing. So we watched it on mute first and she helped me identify what the characters might be saying to one another. The series was based on the concept of competition.

Based on communication and body language between the two girls and one boy in the beginning during the school gave me an impression that they were friends because of the constant verbal communication with one another. They seemed not to like or get along with two of the other young ladies in their class.

I’m assuming, after watching how excited the teacher was talking to his students, that they were expected to raise money for some reason. The two females already raised a lot of money and were in the lead with raising the most. The three friends seemed to have tried everything they could to compare and out do the two ladies but failed at trying to raise the same amount of money or more. The two females seemed as if they were teasing the three friends and rubbing it in their faces.

The three friends did continue to raise money but a knock at the led the three friends to appear very upset and confused when another one of their classmates visited with the same goal in mind, “raising money.”

Ironically, the friends took the money and gave it to their much needier classmate. Based on their facial expressions in class signified that they were happy with their decision that they made. But, when the teacher announced that they two females that were not liked still raised the most money they were baffled as to how that happened when they knew they gave all their money to the much needier girl in the class which would have put her in first place.

I assumed based on the exchange of words and body language that the male in the group did something that he was not supposed to do because his two friends became puzzled and really upset at him. My niece said, “Ooooo, Oliver is always doing something, I bet you he was being bad.” I started laughing because she must of watched this show a millions times.

When I unmuted the show, I found that all of my assumptions were correct. The two girls names were Amber and Ashley and the three friends were Lily, Miley, and Oliver. The competition was a school charity drive.

I also found out that at the end Oliver bragged about how Sarah, (their other classmate they helped) was going to win because she had more money which made Ashley and Amber get more money from their parents to win the charity. Of course, my niece turns to me and says, “See Auntie, I told you! Oliver is always getting in trouble and being bad.”

Link to TV series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eVFTBlsUqE

Effective and Competent Communication - Week 1

Robin C. Miller                                                                                              EDUC 6165

Blog Week 1

During my educational journey at Community College of Philadelphia I had a professor whose name was Dr. Watkins. I had her for a few semesters and would always enjoy her lectures. Not only were they based on an interesting topic that the class was learning but she made it interesting by communicating well with her audience. O’Hair & Wiemann says, “behaving appropriately is not enough to ensure success in communication (O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M., 2012)” and I completely agree. Yes, Dr. Watkins behavior was well intact. She talked in a calm, appropriate, and educated manner. She answered questions and did not mind veering off topic every now and then. She had a way of always using real life situations to help others understand the major points of what she wanted us to learn. It was easy to listen to her because she was very well organized and knew exactly what she wanted to say and when she wanted to say it. She kept a binder of lectures that helped her stay on target with the overall message. O’Hair & Wiemann also states that, “Research shows that many students feel that their most effective teachers are those who are organized, logical, enthusiastic, and approachable (Kramer &Pier, 1999, & O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M., 2012).”

I think two major key elements that were mentioned above were being enthusiastic about what you’re speaking about and also being approachable. When you are happy and excited about relaying a message and teaching others about something it helps the listeners to gain a better understanding of the message as well as allowing them to see how important the message is to the person communicating it. It also allows the listeners to feel comfortable enough to approach the communicator with questions they might not have felt comfortable asking in front of everyone. Being approachable is an aspect that all communicators should have. I believe that Dr. Watkins is an effective communicator because she displays the many traits described above which should deem her fit to be a competent communicator. I would want to model some of her behaviors such as the organization and the approachability to help me become an effective communicator. Her style and effectiveness has helped many people learn a lot about early education not only from her lectures but also from her willingness to share personal stories that relate to the topic. I would definitely like to become as effective and competent communicator just like she is.

References

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