Communication Scales

I gave the communication quizzes to two people who know me in different aspects of my life.  I gave my husband, John, the quizzes, and I gave my colleague Christina the quizzes as well.  John is the person who knows me the best, and Christina knows me only from work.  I was nervous and excited to read what they thought of my communication style. 

            Their scores were similar to mine except for two areas.  The first area that differed from my results came from my husband was in the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale.  He thought that perhaps I am more verbally aggressive than I give myself credit for.  John thinks I can become verbally aggressive and insult a person’s character, ideas, and moral position (Rubin, Rubin, Graham, Perse, & Seibold, 2009).  Although I mainly am verbally aggressive with my husband in this manner in jest, I can see his point and will try my best not to insult his intelligence when we are having a verbal debate; but I am not promising anything. 

            Christina, who only knows me in a more formal setting, differed from my score in the Communication Anxiety Inventory.  Christina’s score me in the low anxiety range which states, “You reported that you feel comfortable communicating in most situations and feel confident in anticipating such encounters (Rubin, Rubin, Graham, Perse, & Seibold, 2009)”.  Christina has only ever seen me address small groups, and in small groups I am a confident communicator.  What Christina does not know is that when it is necessary for me to speak in public, I begin to have the symptoms of a panic attack.  My pulse races, my breathing increases, my heart palpitates, and there is a pit in my stomach.  It feels bizarre that Christina only knows one side of my communication style.  On the other hand; my husband mainly knows the more casual side of my communication style. 

Cultural Communication

I recently had a new student placed in my classroom.  His family is from India, but he was born in the United States.  His family speaks two different languages at home; English and Kannada.  The little boy who was placed in my class uses mainly scripted language from Dora the Explorer.  Thankfully, his parents have a great sense of humor about having a tri-lingual child, who mainly speaks Spanish. 

With this little boy, I find myself communicating more deliberately and with more specific intent.  I use more pictures and objects to explain my message.  He also uses a picture schedule to help him get used to the classroom routine. 

Although I try to stay away from the cliched ways of communicating with this little boy such as talking louder or repeating myself several times, I have caught myself doing that to try and communicate with him. 

I have found that it has not been too difficult for he and I to be able to communicate on some level.  It is a superficial relationship for now, he mainly comes to me for his wants and needs, but hopefully with all the supports we have in place, more meaningful communication can occur soon.

Nonverbal Communication

I watched a new episode of How I Met Your Mother with the volume turned down.  I have been a long time fan of the show, so it was fairly easy to figure out the premise.  There was alot of movement and physical comedy in the episode.  Which helped with the nonverbal communication part of this assignment.  I guessed the episode was about one of the main characters trying to deal with his roommate moving out. 

When I watched the show back with the volume turned up, I was pretty accurate with my assessment.  This was a very interesting assignment.  It is a fun way to test how accurately you can predict a situation with just using your eyes and not your ears.  This skill can be very useful for a teacher who students are nonverbal!

Effective Communication

The person who I would like to emulate in the ways she communicates is my sister.  She is the treasury manager for an alternative energy company.  She handles hundreds of millions of dollars every day, effective communication is not just a requirement, it is crucial. 

The behaviors my sister exhibits that make her effective is the clear and precise manner in which she conveys her message.  She is no nonsense, and she is very decisive.  My sister is the person you want when you need to get things done!

I get very nervous when I have to confront parents or colleagues.  I will fret about what I will say for a long time making myself more and more nervous.  Once I finally talk with the person it usually is never as bad as I have made it in my head.  I need to model my communication style after my sister.  I would really like to be a more effective communicator.    

Goals for Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice

One hope I have for working with children from a diverse background is that I always make them feel welcome and a part of my class.  I never want them to feel ashamed of their background or less than any other student; I want to celebrate all of the diversity in my classroom. 

One goal I want to set related to diversity, equity, and social justice is to share my studies and findings with others in my preschool.  I would like others to be aware of microaggressions and the damage they can cause.  I would also like to share with my colleagues the information I have gathered regarding social privilege; in the hopes that we all take a critical look at how students from lesser social backgrounds are treated.

Finally, a brief note of thanks to my colleagues;  You have all challenged and taught me in every course we have taken together at Walden.  Thank you for sharing your most personal stories, your ideas, and thoughts on diversity, equity and social justice.  I would have not learned nearly as much as I did without all of you. 

Welcoming Families from Around the World

I have a family arriving to my developmental preschool from Sweden.  I have no knowledge about Sweden.  I know nothing about the culture, the politics, the history, or the people of Sweden. 

5 things I will do to prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family will be:

Research the country and learn as much as I can about it

Find Swedish books and toys and have them available upon the child’s arrival.

Research the Finnish, the native language of Sweden and try to learn some phrases to make the child feel comfortable.  I will also find a translator if needed for the child.

Finally, I will invite the child’s family to come to the school to teach the other children and me about the land of Sweden.  I will also speak privately to the parents and conduct a home visit to discover what else I can do to make them and their child feels welcome and comfortable at their new school.

I hope these preparations will put the child and parents at ease.  I also hope that the knowledge I have gained will help me head off any potential behavioral issues that may arise as a result of moving to a new country. 

Incidence of Inequality

I recently became angry over the demand that Ellen Degeneres step down as spokesperson for JC Penney's.  This demand was made by One Million Moms. 

One Million Moms defines itself on its Facebook page as "an online activism campaign which gives mothers an impact with entertainment media decision-makers, and lets them know we are upset with the messages they are sending our children and the values being taught."

A week ago, One Million Moms put out a statement asking that JC Penney remove DeGeneres as its spokesperson, saying in part, "The majority of JC Penney shoppers will be offended and choose to no longer shop there. ... By jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon, JC Penney is attempting to gain a new target market and in the process will lose customers with traditional values that have been faithful to them over all these years." The group asked supporters to make personal phone calls to the company demanding it lose DeGeneres as its new face.  Thankfully the group failed miserably.  JC Penney stood by Ellen and choose not to remover her as their spokesperson. 

This incident made me want to shop at JC Penney.  I never shop there, but I will now.  I think people should live and let live, and the mothers who are worried about what their children are being taught should maybe stop and talk to their children instead of targeting a celebrity who brings nothing but joy and happiness.