Thank You

Well here we are another 8 weeks gone by and we are at the end of another course. I want to say a special THANK YOU to each and every one of you for whom I would not have been able to make it!!!! You have all been so very supportive and informative, I can’t say thank you enough. I hope the best for all of you as we enter into our specializations. I hope to keep in touch with you all as we journey through our specializations. I am going into the Administrative, Leadership and Management courses; I hope to see some of you there.

Catherine

Adjouring

The hardest group I had to adjourn from was my cohort at Virginia Intermont where I received my Bachelor’s Degree. We were a group of 15 to start and dwindled down to only 4. We were there for each other and built wonderful friendships. After we graduated we all kept in touch for about a year or so, now I am only in contact with one other. It is sad that we built such a wonderful bond and now we don’t even know where the others are in their lives and careers.

It will be hard to once again adjourn from such a wonderful and supportive group of colleagues. I believe that we all have the same vision in mind. We all have a passion for children (at least I hope we all do). We all want to make a difference. We all want to make a change in society. With that being said, I will always feel connected to my colleagues for these reasons. I will always know in my heart that we are serving our purpose. I do not believe we would be in this degree program if we were planning to do otherwise.

I do believe that we need closer so that we can experience our success as well as build new relationships for our future endeavors. I am taking the Administrative, Leadership and Management endorsement for this degree; hopefully I will see some of you there also.

Conflict Management

This week I had a conflict with my youngest son, he is 19. He still lives at home, dropped out of college and quit his job. We are constantly arguing about his education and employment. He gets very defensive when I mention him going back to college or getting a job.

I have learned this week to incorporate cooperative strategies by striving to produce a solution that will benefit the both of us (O’Hare & Wiemann, 2013). We sat down and came up with a compromise that seems to benefit the both of us. He decided not to go to college right now but will keep an open mind about it. He also agreed to get a part-time job and I will continue to help him with the insurance on his car, as long as he is working.

The three R’s (respectful, reciprocal and responsive) may positively impact communication by using them as a guide to communicating. The three R’s were very beneficial in our conflict resolution. We have learned to respect each other’s opinion. I had to learn to respect him not going to school and he had to respect my needing him to pay some of his bills. We were both very responsive to our agreement.

Reference

O’Hair, D. & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. Boston, MA:
                Bedford’s/St. Matin’s.  

Evaluating My Communication Skills

After taking the evaluations of myself I realized better of how I communicate. I am an empathetic listener and very trusting of others. I can have a conversation and not attack the individual person but the position. I do well speaking in small groups but am very uncomfortable in a large group or in front of others, this one I knew. My husband did the evaluation of me and he knows me so well, we came up with the same answers. My colleague, my teachers’ assistant, came up with similar scores as well, but she did see me as being more confident in speaking in public. Both saw me as an empathetic listener and an overall respectful communicator. I have learned that I need to have more courage in speaking in public and that I am very self-conscious about how I speak.

Communication with Others

I do feel that I communicate differently with different groups of people. When I am at home with my family or friends my communication is more relaxed and I don’t worry about how I sound. When I am with the families I work with, children and colleagues I am more aware of how I sound and try to take their feelings into consideration. At home we just cut up and carry on not worrying about what the other thinks because that is who we are. I have even had friends ask us how my husband and I have been together for so long, since we were 15 years old, if we don’t get along; I just have to laugh and say we do get along this is just how we do it.

Professional I try to listen better and give good vibes from my body language. As an early childhood educator it is important for me to put aside any biases while communicating with others, to have an open mind and to be considerate of their beliefs and feelings.

Communication Within A Television Show

I recorded an episode of “How I Met Your Mother”, my son watches it but I have never sat down to see what it is about. With the sound off I observed that this was a group of friends, they laugh, hug and meet at a local restaurant. They seem happy with each other and seem to like each other’s company. They seemed to be very comfortable and relaxed talking to each other. There seemed to be many relationships among this group of friends but I could not tell who was with who except for one couple that was always holding hands and sitting together.

With the sound on I was not surprised to find out that I was right about the one couple, but I thought maybe there was another on but it turns out that they are just friends. There conversations were for the most part pleasant but the one character Barney seems to be the trouble maker.

If I had been watching a show that I knew well I do believe that my assumptions would have been more on target because I would have known who was with who and about their relationships.

Communication

When thinking of who demonstrates competent communication within a particular context my center director, Linda was the first one to come to mind. She has a way of explaining what she is trying to by using examples and descriptive speaking. She uses ideas and personal situations that others can relate to and have a better understanding.

I hope to be able to communicate as well as she does with our families, staff, and in everyday conversations.

This is very effective with her communication with parents as well.