Week 3

Blog Assignment

For my blog this week, I thought about the cultural diversity I see in my colleagues at school, in my neighborhood, workplace, and within your family. I considered all  of the aspects that make up culture, including race, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, varying abilities, and ect. After careful self reflecting, I have to admit that I do communicate differently with my colleagues who are close in age, and of the same race; in turn I have noticed that my colleagues of the same race often speak to me differently when compared to their counterparts of another race. In addition, I have noticed that when I am at work or in a public setting and a group of people are present, I tend to gravitate towards people that “look” like me because there is an illusion of undisclosed comfort because I assume I can relate to them on some level. However, I have found that this form of comfort can prevent me from meeting and or interacting with a group of people that I may have a lot in common with.

On a personal note, I have cousins and intimate relationships with people who are biracial Black/White, Latino/Black, American/Jamaican, or American/Trinidadian and I have noticed that I do try to be more sensitive to the cultural differences between each group. For instance, my son’s father is part Trinidadian and I am African American (so my son shares both cultures) and my family is from the south and he makes comments about eating “fried chicken” which is “funny” to me because I don’t eat fried chicken that is just a stereotype that sometimes effects my communication with him. I find it interesting that one of my uncles tend to talk about all races and groups of people, but he often struggles with being himself when his granddaughter/ my cousin is present because he doesn’t want to offend her by making one of his ignorant comments because she is Black/White.

Based on what I have learned this week, I have learned of the importance of   being "other-oriented, by following the “Platinum Rule” to help me communicate more effectively with people on a professional and personal level. I have also learned that when interacting with people on a professional and personal level, I need to make sure my body language matches my words. I also learned that I need to remain neutral or unbiased when interacting with the diverse group of families/students and colleagues I work with so that I am more effective in my teaching/facilitating lessons.

Reference

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication an introduction. Boston MA: Bedford's St. Martin’ s.

Nicky

Week 2 Assignment 2

Week 2 Assignment 2

As I have been learning, communication is not always straightforward. Everyone, at some time or another, makes assumptions based on messages communicated through body language and facial expressions. For this assignment, I considered what I have been learning about communication skills and styles. I then recorded an episode of VH1’s show Single Ladies. I watched the show twice, the first time I watched it was with the sound turned off and the second time I watched it, I turned the sound on. The first time I watched it with the sound turned off, I thought one of the female characters was in a relationship with a man, but I thought the man was cheating on her because of the looks she would give him whenever this particular woman would come around. In fact, the man looked very uncomfortable being in a communal location in which both women would be present. As I watched the TV show, I saw a lot of “unfinished business” between the man and the woman I thought he was in the relationship with because of the gaze they had when they looked into each others eyes and by the way other people that was around them looked on  and watched their movement and then whispered.

Now, watch the show with the sound turned on.

I then watched the same show with the sound turned on and wow what a difference it makes to hear how a person feels opposed to judging their feelings or behavior based solely upon what I see. For instance, I learned that the female character Keisha was not the girlfriend of Malcolm but an ex girlfriend. However, the energy that I felt when I saw the two of them together clearly indicated that they have some unfinished business. And the female I thought Malcolm was cheating with was the new girlfriend. However, the new girlfriend was clearly intimidated by Keisha who is the ex girlfriend; it was evident in her body language and in the comment she made in which she articulated her desire for Malcolm to cut off all forms of communication with Keisha if their relationship was to grow and have a chance. Initially Malcolm’s body language appeared to be unsettled by the request because his eyes began to shift and he became very fidgety. It was apparent that Malcolm still wanted a relationship with Keisha on some level. However to my surprise, Malcolm later went to Keisha’s home and personal told her that he was going to honor the request of his current girlfriend and cut off all ties with her. Its funny because, I heard what Malcolm said and I saw and heard the aggravation in Keisha as she received the information from Malcolm, but when she closed her door, they were both touching the door as if they wanted to engage in more dialogue and or physical activity.

• Would your assumptions have been more correct if you had been watching a show you know well?

This show is a drama, so I expect to see some predictable behavior, but the writers and producers of this show did an excellent job of showing how a person can articulate one thing but their non verbal form of communication indicates otherwise….so I was left with the question do we listen to what a person say even though their body language states otherwise?

My “aha” moment occurred when I realized people can say one thing and their actions can mean something totally different…  I guess in many respects the phrase actions speak louder than words rang true after I watched this TV show.

 Nicky

Blog assignment Week 1 Assignment 2

For my blog this week, I thought of someone who demonstrates competent communication within a particular context; I selected my cousin Deanna because she is a doctor of education, minister, and her husband is heavily involved with politics. As a result, she is constantly speaking to diverse groups of people and she has a way of keeping each audience member’s attention by getting to the point and not being long winded but conveying the message she wants her audience to receive in a manner in which they can relate to and apply to various areas of their lives. In addition, she has the ability to listen. I often say listening is a gift, because some people appear to listen to what another is saying, but they miss the message because they are fixated on the verbiage that was used and ultimately miss the message or they are only focused on their thoughts and are unable to hear and receive the message the sender is trying to convey.

I would and try to model some of my own communication behaviors after my cousin Deanna, because I have learned you if you say too much, you lose the audiences attention and they become distracted and begin to think about all of the other many things they need to do; they may be present in body, but their mind is someplace else which defeats the purpose.

Nicky

Blog: Professional Hopes and Goals

During the first course in this program, I helped to establish and became part of a collaborative learning community. As the courses have progressed, colleagues and I have been studying together and supporting each others goals with regard to taking on and mastering the challenges of this MS Early Childhood Studies program

As I prepare to move on to my final course before the specializations, I took time to think about my aspirations with regard to diversity, equity, and social justice, the different ways in which my colleagues have supported me and how I have supported them, and what I wish for my colleagues as they continue on their professional path.

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds are for me to leave my personal basis aside and get to know each family and student on an individual basis by spending quality time with them and developing a relationship with them where we can listen to each other and work together so that we can have a positive impact in each others lives and take what we have learned into our perspective communities and make a difference there as well.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to open the lines of communication between staff, families, and their children so that we can engage in dialogue that can hopefully bury some of our fears of not knowing each other and forming opinions of each other based on our visible identities but instead to form relationships that gives us some background knowledge of each other and form healthy opinions based on the way each person is treated as an individual and not for the way society judges us.

I would like to thank all of my colleagues for all of the encouraging posts to my blog and for constantly encouraging me to think about thinking. I would also like to say that some of the issues we discussed were sensitive to some groups and everyone was very respectful to each others differences and were honest in terms of acknowledging if they were privileged or non privileged and for giving positive feedback as to how I handled social injustice and what I can do to make a difference within my community.

Thanks and I enjoyed working with all of you and I look forward to “seeing” you next course.

Best of luck,

Nicky