Effective Communicator?

I evaluate myself as a good communicator because I have a good memory, listen well, and always speak my opinions. One type of my personality is to multitask so I tend to multitask on listening different conversations at once because I want to be aware of my surroundings. This usually helps me to communicate with my colleagues to bring information and/or ideas that I gathered from our clients. 

Others will perhaps hopefully view me the same way I evaluate myself. My friend and my boss views me as a person that has a good memory and a very sarcastic person. They always say that to stop reading their mind because I already guessed what they were going to say before they get a chance to say it. For me, that’s because I listen and remember past conversations and/or events that helps me predict the next conversation.  Sarcastic can be a funny way to have a conversations with people to bring a good laugh, but I tend to respond sarcastically when I am getting a vibe of hypocrites. Even if it’s a question someone is asking me, if I get a sense of sarcasm, I will respond that way, but without disrespecting them.

Remembering that I do not only communicate with colleagues, young children, and their families but, I also work with foster youth that are in high school and in college. I have to work with school based social workers, department of social services, high school tutors, psychologists, law enforcement, foster families, legal birth parents,  and the culture of the staff at the five high schools and many college/universities I work with. The assessment tests for the week made more of an impact because I had never been evaluated by others. It was good to see what communication skills I should reconsider and focus on my unintentional gestures that I do that can hinder effective communication.

People From Different Groups and Cultures

One of my assignments at work is to work with high school foster youth. I have to meet with them and finds ways to communicate with them so that they can openly discuss their passions, questions, or dreams about attending college. One strategy that I have found effective when dealing with students that are from another generation is that I listen to what their interest are and I try to find something that we would have in common to gain their trust. For example, if a student is interested in a particular television show, I will try to watch a few episodes to get an idea of the characters. Then I would have found a commonality when talking to that student during the following meeting session. If they are not talking, a second strategy that I use is my sight. I look for any logos, sayings, or designs on their clothing to find something to say in relation to it. Just last week I meet with a girl who has a tattoo of a music symbol. I am a musician myself so I decided to introduce myself like I usually do when I meet a new student, but this time I added that I am a musician. As I talked about my musical experiences, I saw her nonverbal gestures. Her eyes widened and she began to smile more. That broke the ice between us. My third strategy is to focus on not just verbal gestures but also on the non verbal. Whether a person is no talking due to their religion, gender, age or whatever, I learn a lot about a person based on how they physically act around me.

I-Carly with and without sound

This is what I see when I muted the television show, i-Carly.

I see a young couple walking down a hall which looks like a school hallway. The young male is in crouches and has a cast his left foot. Their relationship looks to be that of high school friends. A girl with blond hair approaches them and with a big smile on her face, she directs her attention to him. The other girls facial expression changes from a smile to a frown. It seems as though she is not liking what the other girl is telling the male. The male looks flattered as he raisins his eye brows and pouts his chest. The girl that was with the male takes a step away from them and shrugs her shoulders. She then grabs the male in crouches and kisses him until the blond girl leaves. I guess I was wrong. Their relationship has changed from high school friends to high school sweethearts. The male smiles and the scene changes to another location.

Side note-I am glad I have cable that allows me to rewind live television. I don't know how I would have been able to complete this assignment. Now with sound.

I sure was wrong. I feel that I made assumptions that were incorrect just based on the non verbal gestures of the characters. My assumptions would have not been wrong if I had been watching a chow I know well because certain characters are made to be predictable. That's what makes a character popular. They are expected by the viewers to do and say similar things. After I heard the dialog of the scene, I realized that the couple were not high school sweethearts. The girl just wanted to get rid of the blond girl who was trying to ask the male to a party. She did kiss him but she was talking in a sarcastic tone  and made her jealous with the kiss. The plot of the scene was totally different.

This assignment reminds me of what children that come from other countries feel on their first days of school in another country. Know that I think about it, there are children in the same country that can feel that way.  

Assignment 2 - Week 1

A person that I deem as a competent communicator is my good friend, boss, and educator, Julie Benavides. Five years ago, I never thought that I would be a child development major and be an educator. I had the pleasure of listening to Julie lecture in one of her classes at East Los Angeles College. The behaviors that I saw were honesty, energetic, and passionate. In my teachings, I have tried to model the energetic part and I say try because it is hard. It doesn't matter if Julie has a presentation  at 8am or 10pm, she seems to always be energetic. Through my experiences in and out of the classroom, I have gained tremendous passion for what I do. To be able to communicate to others about what I am passionate about has helped me transmit my message across to many individuals. Another trait that I feel makes Julie an effective communicator is her wiliness to talk to many different types of audiences. She has addressed little children, parents, high school children, college students, teachers, teacher assistants, program directors, and family child care providers. She has been effective in communicating to these different age groups. I have been there when she does so and a behaviors that I always see is honesty. She uses real life examples and relates  her audiences. I was surprised to have seem her talking about diversity in a few of our Masters courses at Walden University. Surprised as she did not even tell me that she had recorded videos. Her trait of being humble is also a trait that I wish to carry as I communicate to others.

Professional Hopes and Goals

When working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds, I will do the best I can to not make them feel out of place or culturally misunderstood. My hope is that by modeling acceptance of diversity, they also gain respect for different cultures and embrace diversity in a positive way. Just as adults, children vary widely in their modes of interacting and preferred learning styles. want to  respect and value diversity by doing the opposite. One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is that I would want to hold workshops discuss these topics with families and at the college where I work. I want to also instill these values in students that are attending a higher education institution so that they also can go into their own centers. Instead of ignoring diversity, I By reading my colleagues blog posts and in class discussions for this course, I am glad to know that in communities aside from mine, educators will be instilling respect for diversity in children. I want to thank my colleagues for their constructive discussion and blog posts. I have copied and pasted them on my desktop every week to continue to self reflect on issues of equity and social justice. I am glad that the shared vision of a society of cultural acceptance is shared by many around the nation.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

In the event that I were to have a family join my center/ classroom from a country which I do not have any prior knowledge would make me want to learn no more than five things from their culture before they entered my classroom. I would do so as a sign of respect for their culture. The name of the family's country of origin that I know nothing about is Afghanistan.

I would hope that the family would be on an internet social network like facebook. This would give me the opportunity to view their pictures and get a visual idea of how they portray themselves.

I would like to go online and look for information on this country. I would want to learn things about the climate, geographic surroundings, and the societal structure (city or countryside or jungle,...) of that area.

I would go to the library or online to find information on the history of the country. This would include the type of government it has and the language or languages spoken.

I would then get written words in the language they spoke if from what I looked on line would be the main language used there. Translated words in English and their language like hello, restroom, friend and other words that would facilitate.

I would not want to investigate any further as I would be assuming they spoke, dressed, and acted a certain way. I would not want to insult them if I took a tourist approach to address them. I would want to learn as much as I could about the children and family once I meet them in person. I hope that my attempts in learning about this family will benefit both them and myself as I hope it would ease their welcome and make them feel respected.  

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

An incident I can think about that has made me a target for prejudice within my own ethnic group is my name. Before I continue to explain, I need to share a bit of my parents history. Both parents migrated to the United States and were the target of many racial profiling and where treated vary unjustly in the 70s and early 80s. They received  this at work and in their vary same neighborhood where they lived. When I was born, they wanted to name me Francisco, a name that is commonly used in many Mexican families. Francisco is the name of my grandfather and it is the middle name of my father. They wanted to continue the tradition but were thinking that it may cause me problems, mainly with acts of prejudice. My parents thought that if they named me frank, short for Francisco, that when people would  see my name like in a waiting list for school or a job position, I would have a better chance to be selected as they thought that if a racist person was in charge, they would not pick my name that is associated with a Mexican.  

Now to the prejudice part that I have received from other Mexicans and Mexican Americans. All I can say is, "dammed if I do and dammed if I don't". My parents good intent on trying to make me fit in with Americas was a good deed on their behalf but overlooked the reaction from other Mexicans and Latino populations. An example I can share is that some people think that I changed my name because I was ashamed of being called a name that is so commonly used in Mexico. They tell me to keep it real and to never deny my roots. Some people even tell me that I am a liar and should not misread my name on my birth certificate. Some of my close friends have called me a wannabe whitewashed Mexican. They do not believe that the name spelled on my birth certificate is Frank. All I know is that things like a person's name can be tied into a person's social identity and as a professional, I must be mindful in not to insult anyone by changing their name even if I cannot say it. The story that Dr. Euguene Garcia told in one of this week's videos made me remember this. I sometimes feel like his sister , Cipranita felt with the unintential microaggression that she experienced on her first day of school when the teacher, not being able to pronounce her name, changed it to Emily forever. It creates thoughts of insecure feeling of which name is better. This is not a good thing for children to experience as it can make them question their roots.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). "In His Own Voice: Dr. Eugene Garcia" [DVD] Baltimore, Learning MD. Author.