Communication or the lack of

I have been going through a conflict at work with on of my co-workers. It is a very long story but she did something that I would not have done to a friend which I though we were. I now know we are not. The way I handle the problem was just not talking to her. I knew if I did I would be very honest with her and it would hurt her feelings and that was not my intent to do so I just kept my mouth shut. It hurt her for me not to talk to her but she did not know she did not want to hear from me at all. The Non-violent Communication skills emphasize personal responsibility for our actions and the choices we make when we respond to other, as well as how to contribute to relationships based in cooperation and collaboration. I learned that I am responsible for my actions so it was best that I just kept my mouth shut.

Who Am I as a Communicator?

What is the one thing that surprised me was that my daughter and I scored me the same. Not because we do not agree but that we both agree that the test was not complete. We felt that some of the question did not apply but we had to answer to go to the next question. What other insights about communication did I gain from this week is that I am continuing to grown in this field.

1. I am respectful of the viewpoints and intelligence of other, and attempt to change their minds with gentle, inoffensive suggestions that do not attack thier self-concept.

2. I am empathetic and concerned with the emotions of others. This listenting style helps build relationships, but it can interfere with proper judgment because I tend to be very trusting to  others.

I feel my lack of communicating in my own culture is a problem.

I feel my lack of communicating with my own culture is a problem. The change in our children over the years has got to revolutionize and I do believe it has a lot to do with the lack of communicating.

I do not have problems communicating with people from different groups and cultures, however I do not understand some cultures and I know I have to work on it.  I do feel the dominate culture  believe in changing things the way they feel things should be and we all have to follow suit or reap the consequences. The Black community had great communication when I was a little girl. When I was a little girl we all got spanked when we were not doing something that we were suppose to be doing. We all learn from our parents and we knew how much they loved us. Parents did not have the problems we have today because we stopped communicating with each other. We had rules and our parents were not afraid to disciple their children there was a nonviable conversation between parents in your neighborhood  that if another parent saw you doing something you had no business doing you were spanked and sent home to get another one from your parents. Parents were not afraid of being arrested for disciplining their children. We did not have children using foul language and fighting each other and their teachers.  Communication stopped between parents and their children and there has been a change of who is in charged. Today the children are in charged and parents do what they communicate to them.  I do believe that because of lack of communication we are losing our children.  When we had communication with the whole community we did not have aggressive children and parents were not abusing their children. I believe the lack of proper communication between children and parent and the community is part of the problem.  I believe we let another culture influence the way we raised our children and now we do not communicate with our neighbors much less the disciple another person child.  I believe that we have to make a change I am not sure how this is going to happen but starting with communicating with our neighbors will be a good start.  

Messages Communicated Through Body Language and Facial Expressions.

The television episode I choose was Blue Bloods I have never seen it but I have always wanted to. The television show is about a family that works in the criminal justice area, such as police, and lawyers. When looking at the episode without the sound I observed no eye contact many times, also many of the brows of the characters were drown up which means ether concern or anger.  I saw very little smiles in the episode until the end; however I did observed arms folded and shoulders moving up and down with angry faces.  Many times when they were in court I observed irritated faces by the lawyers.  

The assumptions I had while looking at Blue Bloods without the sound was that there was a lot of arguing and conflict between the lawyer and the police officer. However after looking at the episode with the sound on I found out that the lawyer and the police officer were brother and sister and the brother was testifying agents his sister the lawyer. I am not sure way there was no eye contact other then they just did not look at each other while talking. I do now understand why the brows on their faces, and the folding of the arm.  I would not have this assumption if I watched at Blue Bloods.

I enjoyed this assignment; I notice that I am watching what I say to people and how I hold my arms. I also listen to what is being said to me before I speak back.  I also enjoyed Blue Bloods and I just might start looking at it

What is Communication

                                     Rev. Father Boniface Hardin

There are two different people who demonstrate competent communication. The first is the  founder of Martin University Rev. Father Boniface Hardin. The second is my oldest brother Charles Guynn, These two men are very articulate when speaking to an audience there demeanor demands your attention. They both use word that will stretch you vocabulary but not so much that you do not understand what they are saying, more like I wish I would remember to use that word when I am speaking to my parents. 

                             
                      Charles Guynn and My Mom and my
                          Sister Frances in the background.

Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come for diverse backgrounds is that I will continue to lean about different diverse backgrounds of all people around the world, and to make sure that my entire staff are educated to these backgrounds. I also hope that the children and their families that attend our school will learn that many different kinds of families exist in our world and to stop any bias feeling that may have already developed and also prevent any new ones that may develop.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is in an area that we did not focus on as much and that is the area of children that have social emotional disorders and their families. In most cases I do not feel that these children and their families with these divers’ disorders are treated with equity, and social justice. I feel they are our throw away children who no one wants to have in their classrooms or in many cases their schools. These are the children who quit school or are expelled from school or even put out of school and even the unthinkable children who commit suicide. I would like that the early childhood field make it mandatory that all staff have training when working with children and their parents with this kind of disorders.  I feel we must start early before these children get into the elementary and high schools.

I would like to thank all of my colleagues for all of you insightful posting on our blogs as well in our discussions. I have leaned a lot from all of you. I will take your ideas and use them. I also like to thank Dr. Morgan for all of your help. I hope to have you all for classmates in our next class.  

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The name of my families country or origin is from many differ areas of the world. I consider myself African American. However I have a grandfather who is half American Indian and Caucasian, who married an African American woman. I also have a great-grand-father who is Italian who married a African Italian and a great-grand-mother who is half African American and half Caucasian.  My father was fair skin and my mother is fair skin also all of my brothers and sisters are fair skin. However we all can see who pick up which ethnic genes some of us have blonde hair and blue eyes some have light brown hair with green hazel eyes and some have dark brown hair with dark brown eyes. My dad had dark brown hair with gray hazel eyes and my mom has dark brown hair with dark brown hair.

The story in our text tell a story about a little girl name Beth who brought a CD if country music to school to share with her class and her mother became embarrassed, but Beth told her mother that the CD was part of her culture that she wanted to share. The teacher went on to explain to Beth’s mom that she had encourage the children to bring things from home that reflect their daily life and that they called it Culture Share. She went on to let Beth’s mom know that the class enjoyed listening to the music that Beth loves.  I love this ideal, this is something I would encourage all of my teachers to incorporate in their lesson plans.  I would also educate myself as well as my staff about the different cultures in our community that would be apart of our school through research. We would also have parent’s night out at least six times or more a year to share their different cultures such as  food, music, dancing, language, holidays and the country of their origin or anything else that the parents wants to share about their cultures. I would also have guess speakers from different country of origin come in as in house field trips to share their cultures. I will also have foods added to the menus form all the different cultures around the world and the families in our school as well as books, toys and dress up clothing in the dramatic  for the child to play with on an everyday basses.

My hopes for these preparations is that the children as well as their parent feel apart of our school. I also want the parent to feel that their children are happy to be at our school and that they will lean the same as all the children in the school, and as it stated in our text that “Teachers and families should work toward developing mutual respect—with families recognizing that teachers may well know more about children in groups and children’s development in general, and with teachers recognizing that families know more about their child in particular. Both types of knowledge are necessary for children to flourish.”

Reference

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).