Thank You

To all my classmates I thank each of you for your support and constructive critisim and positive words throughout the course. Many of you have shown me how to look at things differntly, you have helped me to grow and I thank you for that. This was a fun course and I'm glad that I got to share it with wonderful classmates like you. I continue to wish you all the best as you complete the program!
Thank you again...

Adjourning

Saying good-bye to a group of people where you became closely related to can be a sad moment. During my college years I was able to bond with my colleagues learning about them and their personal lives. When graduation came, it was a bit sad knowing that some of us would never meet again. Many of us moved to other states, many found jobs in our field while the other half didn’t. We all were happy that our courses were now complete.

Another experience for me, was leaving my baby alone in the hospital without her parents. Although it was not a complete good-bye, it was still a bitter moment. For a month straight, there were doctors who cared for my daughter in the NICU when I couldn’t do a thing for her. I was glad to see my baby leave the hospital but I was going to miss the nurses who cared for her. I remember taking my daughter to meet the nurses who cared after her for me. I wanted her to meet the wonderful team who cared so much for her.

Both of these experiences were big milestones in my life where I was glad to see them coming, but I was sad to see them leave as well.  

Conflict in Communication

I recently experienced a conflict with my boss before the Christmas Holidays. My principal/boss had got angry with me because a student hopped out my van line and disappeared into the car rider line. The way the issue was resolved was not fair. She basically yelled at me making it seem as though it was my fault. The bad part of it was I’m the teacher assistant not the certified teacher. I believe the issue could have been handled differently. During the heated conflict I surprisingly held my tongue while she literally yelled. She kept asking what happened, so I explained my point of view with a little anger in my voice. She never called the certified teacher that works duty with me into her office. I have no idea why, but I still think this issue has been unresolved. I really wanted to tell her a lot of things on my mind but I remained calm and allowed her to talk so that I could understand her frustration.

 

After being in this course I have learned some things about conflict management that may be useful towards my future conflicts.

 

 

Communication Self-Assessment

Doing this week’s application has helped me to identify where I stand as a communicator. I learned that my communication anxiety level was moderate, my level of verbal aggressiveness was significant and my level of listening was classified group 1 people orientated.

I had my husband and coworker to both evaluate me using the same assessments. To my surprise they both rated me as significant on a verbal aggressiveness scale, moderate on communication anxiety and a group 1 listener.

This was a shocker to me, to know that someone else viewed my communication skills the same as I do. I was a bit disappointed with one of my results. To know that my words can be offensive towards others did not sit well with me, although I have always been a person to speak my mind and be through with it.

I expected my husband to score similar to me, but not my colleague. It was glad to know that she viewed me as being a people person. She knows that I love to communicate one on one, but when it has to done publicly I tend to tense up a bit.

Learning about myself has taught me where my strengths and weakness are, and how I can learn to correct the areas that need improvement.  

 

Cultural Diversity

I think that I do communicate differently with people from other cultures depending on the occasion. I enjoy being around people of different cultures because I can learn from them. However, there have been times where I have become irritated with being around people from other cultures. One experience I remember is when I was in undergrad. I had a foreign teacher whom I couldn’t understand at all. The verbal communication between the two of us was horrible. The way I passed this course was from notes. Luckily, he issued out notes that were typed up to all students.

It is hard communicating with someone who doesn’t share the same culture of you. You all have nothing in common which makes it harder to communicate. It is possible to communicate with people of different cultures, but it may take a few adjustments. When communicating with someone of another culture you must be careful of their language, know what’s considered offensive to their culture, and be aware of any hand gestures and body language they use. The main concern is being open-minded!      

Nonverbal & Verbal Communications

I watched the television show Love That Girl. The show I watched wasn't that hard for me to understand without sound. During the beginning of the show a group of people were sitting around socializing and laughing. It was obvious they were friends. Throughout the show they would gather together having drinks and playing cards. Appearing to be an old male friend came back into the picture bringing a woman with him. During a party an agrument took place. Later in the show that woman no longer appeared. Obviously, it was related to the party because she wasn't seen after that and that old male friend was spending more time with one of the other women from the party. I assumed they used to date and wanted to pick back up on their relationship.
After re watching in sound I learned that everyone was friends. The party they threw was for the guy and his fiancee coming into town. Things went sour at the party because of the comments made about the soon to be groom and his old love. The fiancee was confused of their past and got angry. I was right when I assumed the dude did want to have a relationship with his old friend girl.

I believe this show was easy for me to understand because I read the body language. I paid attention to the characters and their behavior as well as observing their facial expressions.

Competency in Communication

The one person that I feel shows competency in their communication is my grandfather/pastor. When he speaks he is very clear and uses appropriate tone. His messages are always easy to follow along with because he relates his Christ messages to everyday life. Always giving examples of how the two are linked. He makes eye contact with the audience, has a great posture(not slouching), very presentable in clothing. He is very neat and well groomed. His passion for ministering to others about God has opened opportunities for him to speak at other churches, funerals and other events.
My grandfather apperance resembles his character. I would love to model his style. I have learned a lot from him. I've become inspired by his communication skills and the way he represents his self.