Week 4

As I evaluated myself on communication. I quickly realized I absolutly do not like to speak in front of my people at all. I do not like attention drawn to myself in front of people I dont know. Myself and my family and colleague rated me the same on 2 of the surveys. On the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale my score for myself was a lot lower than the score that my colleague and family member received for me. Other people see how I am in commication all the time and how if I don't like what someone says I will disagree with it quickly rather than keeping my peace. My rating was low but theirs were both in the moderate area. This week, one thing that really sunk in with me is that you can't judge people based on a first impression. When people meet new people, some tend to get really nervous and scared, therefore a first meeting might be very awkward for them. You must alwas give someone a second chance, don't judge based on the first time. To really get to know someone you must be around that person for quite a bit of time to understand them. Another thing I have learned is that schemas play a big part in your entire life. The things you have been around and the experiences you've had will lead you to communicate in certain ways with certain people and lead you to beleive things also. As in dating, you can't base future or present relationships on past relationships. You can't expect what happened then to happen now. You must make your mind up that this person is a completely different person even though he may be doing some of the things that the past one did, he still isn't the same person and may be completely different and you can't judge him based on your schemas! Or past kids in your classrooms. If a child comes in the first day and things happen all day long that have happened with a past kid, you can't expect immediatly that that child will be just like a past kid. It is a completely new kid. I have learned that you can't use judgement in a classroom at all. Kids can change, they change and grow everyday. They just need you to be open with them and give them room to grow without criticizing them based off of your schemas. Every child is different and there will never be 2 kids that are the same!

Communicating with Others

How we communicate with others says a lot about who we are. All my life I've been raised to be the same no matter who you are around. But I was also raised by parents who lived on a farm and hardly ever got off of the farm. When working in a public place, it kind of seems different. I mean I do act the same around all the people, but the things I talk about differ with each person. I feel very close to my Pre-K teachers (There are 3 of us). The kindergarten teachers seem a little more distant although we are all in the same building. When it's just the pre-k teachers at lunch, I feel comfortable talking about things that are a bit more personal or being dirty minded.. ya know.. lol! We talk about things I would never share with the rest of the faculty at school. Sometimes you kind of know when the people you are around will allow you to talk about personal stuff or be dirty minded (lol). It's usually pretty easy to read someones attitude before you are even talking to them. I try to treat everyone the same. I don't have much experience of talking with people of others cultures or races. I do know that if I go into a store and there is someone of another culture at the checkout, i am usually WAY more nice to them than I would be an American. I feel like they need to be welcomed properly so they don't look down on the US. I tend to talk more with them than I would an American.

Observing Communication

For this assignment, I recorded an episode of Full House. It's not a show I normally watch but my daughter watches so I had it recorded. While watching it with the volume muted, I noticed that all the family was very close. I noticed there were more than just regular family, there was some extended family going on. It was very weird to see 3 men a girl and 3 kids all in one house plus a neighbor girl who always came over. With the television muted I wasn't able to tell which one was the father because I seen 2 men actually kiss the girls and they sat one all 3 of thems lap, so that was hard to tell.
The Nonverbal behavior was very appropriate. A lot of pouting by the little sister and hateful looks from the older sisters. You could tell how each character felt by the look on their face or the movement of their bodies.
After re-watching it with it unmuted, it was much easier to tell who dad was because they called him dad and the other 2 were called uncle jessie and uncle Joey.and the woman was the aunt. The childrens mother had died when they were young, so the father was a single father. I noticed at the very end there was very dramatic music playing and there was a "life lesson" being learned and it was very teary. It would have been much easier to make assumptions based on a show I watched often because I would know the family and know what their story was. This was an awesome activity and I really enjoyed doing it! You can learn a lot more about a show and people if you watch it without volume first.

Communication

One person I admire for their communication is our principal at our school. One thing is for sure, principals must have excellent communication skills. They are leaders of the teachers along with the children. Children respect her and if they don't she lets them know how she feels about it. She is constantly looking for positive ways to make it known how good our children and her teachers are doing. She is energetic and amazing. The very first day of school I had a kid who I had already chased all morning, then he proceeded to spit on me. I took him straight to the principal, she said "So you've been spitting" and he SPIT RIGHT IN HER FLOOR! Here's what made me admire her so much, she simply said "oh that's cool." I was fuming by what had happened and she handled it so calmly. Well at the end of the week after several observations this same kid got kicked out of pre-k because it took two of us to chase him around and the other children were gettin ZERO attention. I called the mom and let her know we needed to have a meeting. The mom showed up I went over some thigns with her and then the principal took over the conversation and did an amazing job of it. She protects her teachers with all she has and wants us to be able to teach and back up our opinions. I would love to have communication like that. It's not just talking communication. She makes eye contact, uses her head and her hands and is absolutly amazing at what she does. I would love to model her communication skills, but I don't feel I could ever be that good at it. Maybe communication gets better with age, and I'm still a young'en. :)