What kind of Communicator am I?

This assignment was a little hard for me because I couldn’t get my results to come up, so I could read them. After talking to my best friend and my aunt, I found similarities between how I scored myself and how my best friend scored me. He said that I communicate very well with others, and I am an excellent listener. He also said, I don’t like talking in public, but I will if I have to. My aunt and I, on the other hand, had some differences between how I evaluated myself and how she evaluated me. She said her evaluation was based off of my involvement with my family. She said although I can communicate well within the family; I don’t always do so. She said if I would just voice my opinions more often than our family meetings will be less stressful for me at times. The thing that surprised me the most is how my aunt evaluated me because I thought I would have scored higher. I see now that isn’t always true because most people do communicate differently when they are with family than they do with their friends, colleagues, co-workers, etc. I also see that I have to voice my opinions more when I am around my family because my voice should be heard when the situation affects me. Although, this assignment was a rough for me because I didn’t get a chance to read my results, I stilled learned that people do see you differently then you see yourself. I’m glad I let my aunt do the survey because she has helped me to see something that I never noticed in myself. Hopefully, what I have learned this week will help me become a better communicator within my family and profession.

Communicating Differently with People from Different Groups and Cultures.

I have noticed that I communicate differently with people from different groups and cultures other than my own. I can remember my mom picking me up one day from school, and like any other parent, she asked me how my day went. As I was telling my mother how my day went my mother stopped me and said, “What are you talking like you are a white person.” I said, “How does a white person talk?” My mother said, “The way you are talking to me right now.” I said, “I just talking proper mother.” My mother said, “Well, you sound funny to me.” I said, “What did you expect when you decided to send me to a school where it is majority white.” I had a few African American friends, but the majority of my friends were white. At that time, I was in the fourth grade. Now, that I am older, I still find myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures other than my own because around my family, when I talk proper, they think I am trying to act like I am a white person. So, I try to communicate with them in a way that makes them feel comfortable, but even then I revert to my old self because I find myself correcting them when they speak, I know that is wrong, but it bothers me when a person mispronounce a word. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family just the way they are, and I wouldn’t change them for the world. I even encourage them to go back to school, so they can make a better life for them and their family. I think it is working because my sister just told me that she just enrolled in nursing school so she can become an RN, and my brother is also talking about going to school now because he has a daughter he has to help raise. I am so proud of them, and I wish them the best in all their endeavors. I believe I communicate differently with people from different groups and cultures because it allows me to adopt to whatever environment I’m in, whether I’m talking to members of my family, my colleagues, church members, friends, or students.

Strategies that I can use to help me communicate more effectively with the people or groups I have identified are:

Family

·         Learning how to be open, affectionate, emotional and instrumental supportive, mind reading, being polite, discipline, having humor or sarcasm, having regular routine interaction, and structural stability (O’H air & Wiemann, p. 166, 2009).

Friends/Colleagues/Church Members/Students

·         Being available, caring, honest, trustworthy, loyal, and empathic. The extent to which you and your friends share these characteristics helps build the relational contest of your relationship (O’H air & Wiemann, p. 167, 2009).

·         Studies have also revealed that children who form successful friendships with others perform better academically and demonstrate fewer aggressive tendencies than those who do not (O’H air & Wiemann, p. 166, 2009).

Reference

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

Communication (Jessie on the Disney channel)

For this blog assignment, I chose to watch an episode called Jessie on the Disney channel. It was very interesting to try to figure out what the characters’ relationships were based on the ways in which they were communication. While watching the show without sound, it seemed like Jessie was care taker because she was the only adult around besides the butler. She was the one waking the children up in the morning and making sure they weren’t killing one another. There were four kids in the house, and they were all of a different race. For instance, there were two Caucasian one Indian child, and one African American child. They seemed to be related to one another because they lived in the same household and they were showing a lot of affection towards one another when something went wrong. Also, they all had their own private rooms and pets in the house.

As I was watching for feeling and expressing based on the nonverbal behavior, I saw that they children loved one another. They seemed to be very happy and cared for by Jessie the care taker. The children expressed anger when they were being irritated. For example, Robby was mad at Luke because they used his lizard as a bowling ball to knock down pins. His facial expression was not happy; he seemed to be very angry at Luke.

After watching the show with the sound on; my assumptions about the characters were right. For instance, Jessie was the children’s nanny, and they children had close relationship with one another because they were adopted, which made them brothers and sisters. That would explain why there were showing so much affection for one another.

I think my assumptions would have been more correct if I had been watching a show I knew then I would have known the characters a little more, and their relationship with one another. The more you watch a show the more you will know about the characters and why they act the way they do.

Reference

O’Connell, P. (Producer). (2011). Jessie [Television Series].  [With Debby Ryan, Peyton List, Cameron Boyce, Karan Brar, & Skai Jackson]. Los Angeles, CA: Hollywood Central Studios.

"Modeling Competent Communication Skills"

I thought long and hard about a person I admire the most who demonstrates excellent communication, and that person is my Godfather. My Godfather is full of wisdom, faith, love, determination, and charisma. He is the man that keeps me on my toes. He is that person that when he speaks everyone listens. He has this demeanor about himself that stands out over any person he come in contact with, which make him an effective communicator. I would love to pick his brain, so I can get a glimpse of his wondrous wisdom. Being around my Godfather just makes me want to be more like him. I try to model myself after him at times, and friends are always coming to me for help. I even had a friend say, “It’s just something about you. You have this Orr about you.” I believe that Orr comes from my dad because now I am more confident when I speak, and people want to hear what I have to say. So, yes I would love to model some of my own communication behaviors after my Godfather because it makes me a better person. Because of him, I am more responsible, independent, wiser, and my faith is stronger in Christ.

Professional Hopes and Goals

I have enjoyed collaborating with you all to make this class one of the best class ever for me. I would like to thank you all for your blog posting, and the response to my blog postings. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors here at Walden University. Live Laugh Love!

 The hope that I have for children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is for them to be able to connect with their peers, so they can feel a sense of welcome and trust. I hope to take what I have learned from this class, and continue to challenge myself to do better so I can better serve the children and families in my program. I want to go beyond the “culture surface” of the children and their families, so I can prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards their needs. Hopefully, this will help me move closer to my goal to become an anti-bias teacher.

Another goal that I have set for myself related to the issues of diversity, equity, and social justice in the early childhood field is to learn as much as I can about those issues, so I can find out the ways I can get involve so I can help children and their families. I want to become an advocate for young children and their families, so I can help those who can‘t help themselves. I want to run a private preschool, so I can help the low-income families who can’t afford the education they deserve. Dr. Derman-Sparks (Laureate, 2011) states we find these joys to be self evident that all children are created whole and endowed with extraordinary intelligence with dignity and wonder and worthy of respect; the embodiment of life, liberty, and happiness, every girl, and boy is entitled to love to dream and belong to a loving village and to pursue a life of purpose.

Reference

Laureate Inc. (2011). Diversity and equity work: Lessons learned (EDUC6164: Perspectives on Diversity and Equity ed.). MD: Walden University.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The name of my family’s country of origin is India. I choose this India as my country because I wanted to know more about it. After reading about India, I have come to an understanding of how I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards my new family. For instance, I will be sensitive to their needs because moving to a different country where people might not understand your culture must be hard. I will be patience when it comes to communication because we have to be able to communicate with one another. I will also make them feel welcome by encouraging them to get involve with their child’s education, as well as, asking them for their input about the classroom environment. I will try to include some of their holidays, so they can feel somewhat at home, and so the other children can experience something new. I have learned over the last couple of years working with children that they learn so much just by experiencing and exploring different things. I want my children to learn about diversity, and in order for me to teach them, I must educate myself by staying current on the new information about diversity. Therefore, I will learn all I can about my new family and where they come from, so I can prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards their needs.

I hope that my preparations will benefit both me and the new family by drawing us closer. I want them to understand that I am here for them, and I want them to be able to trust me because building a strong relationship with your family can go a long way. All I want to do is give them an environment, where they can feel welcomed and loved because leaving behind your home and love ones is hard enough.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

This year I have come to the realization that my administration staff is bias towards the four year old teachers. At the end of the school year before graduation, the four year old hall is responsible for giving the children a spirit week. While planning for the spirit week, the administration staff started changing the way we did spirit week. They didn’t want us to watch movies, have a cook out, or water slides like the three year old did last year. When we would ask them why they couldn’t do those things, they would say we were doing too much, and we had to change everything we had planned for them. Now, do you know how frustrating that is for a teacher who has to plan for graduation, end of the year field trips, graduation parties, and finish a NAEYC book? It was a massive headache, and they weren’t going to make it easy for us.

I tried my best to ignore the other teachers when they would talk about the administrative staff, and how bad they were treating us, but it was hard. I just couldn't figure out why they were so hard on us, and why they would let the three year old hall do whatever they wanted to for graduation. At the end of the year, I had a talk with the principal about how the year ended. She said the reason she was so hard on the four year old side was because she couldn’t trust the majority of them. She said besides me, and my co-teacher, she couldn’t trust the rest of the group. So, that’s why we couldn’t do what we wanted to do for spirit week. I don’t think that was fair because the three year old hall gets to do what they want, and the four year old has to go through hell before we can do anything. I am a skilful teacher, and I don’t think it’s fair that my children and I have to suffer because my principal don’t like the teachers on the four year old hall. As, a professional, I think she needs to reexamine herself, and how she runs her program because bias towards individual teachers is not professional at all. She is not giving everyone an equal opportunity, which what a person in her position is suppose to do. If I were her, I would take more classing on professionalism, and learn how to operate a center without bias or prejudice because she is not going to gain any respect from her employees if she continues. Although, I love my job, I believe my administration staff needs some work on their leadership.