Communication/Collaboration Week 4

This week I used the self-assessments to find out my communication anxiety, my aggressiveness, and my listening skills.  I asked my husband and a colleague to do the assessments for me as well.  I was not surprised by any aspects of the assessments.  I found them to be very true on many levels and they all describe those characteristics of my communication very well.  Perhaps the only surprising thing about the assessments was the dead on accuracy of the results!

One insight that I gained regarding my communication this week is that there are two sides to my communication styles, one when it comes to my professional communication and one when it comes to my personal communication with those I love and trust.  I have a very different approach to efficiency and confidence when it comes to professional communication.  On the other hand, I have a very attentive and leisurely approach to my personal communication with my family and friends.  I did not realize that the two were vastly different!

Another insight that I gained regarding my communication this week is that there are situations that I am uncomfortable communicating in.  I realized that social situations where I do not know people and am expected to communicate with strangers is very uncomfortable to me.  Although I already knew this about me on the inside, my results and my husbands results were able to pick up on this uncomfortable aspect of social situations.  I identified one of my goals to become more confident in situations such as these.

Overall, I found this week's application to be interesting and intriguing!  I loved getting confirmation about what I already knew!

Communication/Collaboration: Week 3

Communicating with my own children versus my students:

I find that when I am communicating with my own children, I revert to mindlessness when they are talking to me.  I am not sure if it is the exhaustion at the end of the day, or just that they tell me the same story many times over, but I do not give them the same attention that I give my students.  When my students are talking to me, I am more likely to give them my full attention.  With both my students and my own children, I speak authoritatively and firmly which helps to manage behaviors in both arenas.  My strategy for these groups is to make sure to pay much closer attention to my own children as they deserve the same attention that my students get.

Communicating with my colleagues versus parents of my students:

When communicating with my colleagues, I am able to use terminology and quirky teacher jokes that they will understand.  However, when I communicate with parents, I find myself using some of the same terminology without thinking that they may not understand.  My strategy for these groups is to make sure that when I use teacher or student terminology, that I am explaining what I mean or using different words that parents can relate to.  I need to keep in mind that many of my parents are not as educated as my colleagues and this can sometimes be a barrier to communication if I assume they understand things that they are not schooled in.

Communicating with my Bible study gals versus my MOPS moms:

When communicating with my Bible study gals, I am able to share personal stories, successes, and struggles with them as we know each other intimately and have been studying together for two years.  With the MOPS moms, I communicate on a very social basis and do not share personal stories that I would share with my Bible study gals.  These two groups of women are both moms groups, but I am more closely connected to the Bible study gals.  My strategy with these two groups is to make sure that I am taking the opportunity to share stories relevant to our experiences with the MOPS moms so that I can begin to grow closer to them.
 

Communication/Collaboration Week 2

Last night I recorded an episode of "What would you do?", which is a hidden camera show that takes different situations and evaluates people's responses to situations.  The main idea behind the show is to see if people will stand up and defend other people when given tricky situations.  I watched one part of the show where a woman had a young girl standing on a street corner wearing a sign that said something about stealing and lying.  With the volume off and a general understanding of what was happening, there were many non-verbal clues that I could identify.  It was clear that the two people knew each other, the woman and the young girl.  I assumed that they were mother and daughter and that the daughter was being punished based on what the sign said.  As people would walk by, many of them stopped and spoke with the woman.  Some of the non-verbal communication that I saw included putting their hands on their hips, tilting their head to the side, rolling of their eyes, high-fives, and hugs to the woman.  It was clear which people stopping to address the mother were supportive of her discipline and which ones were appalled at the situation.  The young lady's face was down and her demeanor was very defeated.  She was clearly not enjoying the situation.

When I went back and watched the segment again with the volume on, it was clear to me that my assumptions about the situation were correct.  The mother and daughter were standing on the corner because the mother was disciplining her daughter who had stolen and lied.  As people stopped the mother and engaged her in conversation, some were supportive (those who had high-fived and hugged her), and there were others who told her she was not doing the right thing in humiliating her daughter (those who had their hands on their hips, rolling their eyes, and tilting their heads).  Based on the daughters verbal responses to her mother, she was clearly being humilitated and was embarrassed by the situation.

I was amazed that even with the small amount of time that I spent watching the interactions that I was able to glean so much information from just the body language and non-verbal clues.  It was a good reminder to me to think about my own body language and what my non-verbal clues are saying when I am engaged in conversations with others. 

Communication/Collaboration Week 1

When I thought of the question for this weeks blog, our school administrator immediately came to mind.  I teach kindergarten at a small private Christian school, that contains one of each classroom from a three year old preschool program all the way through twelfth grade. Last week we spent two full days at Teacher Development prior to the start of our school year.  During these two days, our administrator presented lots of information from a wide variety of topics.

To start with on the first morning, he presented a vision for our school and for the year.  It was evident as he was speaking that he was passionate about what he was presenting.  His presentation was filled with visuals, handouts so we could follow along, audience participation, and statistics backed by research.  I walk away from the first session with an excitement about the upcoming school year.  His vision and passion were so clearly presented with such excitement that you could not listen to him and walk away without being excited too.

He also took several opportunities to present more information, from drop-off and pick-up information to curriculum schedules.  Although the information on its own was very mundane, he was able to articulate and present it in a fashion that was not boring.  All the information he presented was well-prepared, organized, and it was evident that he has taken the time to put everything together so that it would present well.  I would say his behaviors on presenting information to his staff was very effective as we all walked away excited about the new year and also well informed.  I would model his behaviors when presenting to a crowd as his words had an impact on all of us sitting in that gym!