Communication-Week 4: Who am I as A Communicator?

After doing all kinds of assessments, I perceived myself according to my own standard of what a effective communicator  appeared to me.  Then I reviewed two persons' assessments on me. I found that I felt somewhat insulted for being placed in "significant" on Verbal Aggression Scale. It made me feel like I've worked so hard in improving how I argue the cases with others in appropriate way seem trivial.

However, I realized that this person may not change his/her perception of me, because he/she may already "set up" a certain perception of me based on the first impression. What does it take to change one's perception of me is an important question. This had gotten me to reconsider how I communicate with others. I am becoming much more aware of how others react to my communication approaches.

I am hoping to improve my communication styles in different areas so that I could continue being an effective communicator for everyone including myself.

Communication and Culture---Week 3

Do you find yourself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures?

 I sometimes find myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures. I work at a university, and I have many co-workers that are from different counties that do not speak good English and I am unable to understand some of the things that they are saying, so sometimes I use body language and facial expressions instead of verbal expressions.

 I also communicate differently with people that have a different religious belief because I am a Christian and my ways of living are different from others that religion belief is not Christianity.

I have found that there are three strategies that I have learned this week, which would help me become effective communicator. First, listening skills are very important when it comes to communicating with different people. Second, learning about culture and sharing culture even though people communicate differently, we can all learn from each other and be successful. Third, gain my perception of self and of others by learning and relearning about diversity, culture, and my being.

Communication Skills

I choose to watch one of my older sisters' favorite shows that I have not had the opportunity to watch before called, "Bizarre Foods, with Andrew Zimmern who is a chef and foodie. His job is to find the world's most unique tastes traveling all around the world. I have always found food as something you can really enjoy and share with others, the more diverse the tastier. As I was watching the program without any sound, I came to like the personality of the presenter as his facial expressions were very friendly and expressive. It looks like he was visiting India, as I was able to observe in the scenes they were showing of the city and its people. As he arrived to the city a person was waiting for him, I imagine it was his guide there was a lot of talking smiling among them as they walked among the city. The guide would point to the different scenes and Andrew's facial expressions demonstrated admiration as well as interest to learn and see more, the guide's face also showed expressions of pride as we should his pointed to the different places.  I enjoyed seeing how they would actually seem to listen to each other as they spoke by making constant eye contact as well as smiling and shaking their heads.

Then I saw the program once again but now with sound and I was surprise to see that most of my interpretations and assumptions were actually correct as I was actually able to connect their non-verbal communication with the words they were saying. There was actually a lot of good communication being done, as well as mutual respect to both cultures what made it even richer for those that were watching the program. I am a strong believer that communication can exist among all cultures, as long as we are open to learn, respect and value the believes traditions and points of view of all people, even if they differ from our own. If we are able to do this then we are capable to communicating with others in a productive and effective way.

What is Communication

I would like to share some of the qualities I have observed from my current supervisor, which is the center director of the Head Start program that I work in. When it comes to communicating with the parents or staff she is very proactive to finding various ways to communication such as notes, emails, phone calls as well as person conversations. Despite the fact that a75% of our parents do not speak English she always welcomes the children and families with a smile  in her  face and one or two words she knows how to speak in Spanish every morning. Her doors are always open for any concerns or questions parents might have, and they know that even if she can't understand most of what they say she always has somebody that translates for them and does her best to help them in any way she can. I also admire the way she can easily influence others for the improvement of the services we offer to the families, she is very clear and assertive at what she says as well as her expectations. Her vision and goals are very clear  and she does not  get  intimidated  when it comes to  speaking up  when there is injustice  or discrimination  towards  the  services the families receive in our program.  She is  a strong believer  that  we need to empower the parents so they can  speak up when  things to  not seem right, and not get  intimidated if  they do  not speak the language .

I have also observed the way she is able to influence all staff to work together as a team  and not just doing what is their part , but actually helping others once completed their tasks. Her phases are always we are a team, it's not just about what is our job, we are not alone  in this.   I  have learned  several techniques  that have improved my communication over all with  my students as well as my parents,  I have also  learned to  speak up and empower my parents  with the  various resources and contacts  I have  obtained over the  years. By improving  my communication  skills  I  have influence and created  a relationship of trust, team work and  respect between other staff , parents and  children  which are crucial  elements when it comes to  providing quality  service.

Uplifting Stories

The story that came to mind of me is our Conscious Discipline that we have been studying with Becky Bailey. This is an alternative form of discipline that has been researched and it is making positive impact on children. This form of discipline puts the focus on the child and the child's feelings. One of our children was a real problem in the classroom. He was real defiant and violent. We began implementing this Conscious Discipline at the beginning of the school year. The teacher and assistant are using all the techniques and even shared them with his mom so she could implement them as well at home. This boy has made a complete turnaround! This is almost the end of the school year and it has made a difference in his life. This is one positive effect that I can see from their research. I am not as involved in the Conscious Discipline as the teaching staff is, but I am eager to get more familiar with it. Has anyone ever heard of it before? Does anyone live in Florida, because I believe that is where it is based?

Your Personal Research Journey

I chose to take a closer look at developmental concerns and delays in early childhood children.  It was not easy to simply pick one topic because I have such a wide variety of topic interests and need for further growth.  However, I narrowed it down to the one I felt currently impacted me the most.

The topic of developmental delays was of great interest to me for several reasons.  One was personal.  I have a relative who was not diagnosed with a reading disorder until eighth grade.  He missed out on valuable instruction and opportunities simply because he got overlooked.  By the time it was finally discovered (because his parents got fed up with trying to go through the school system they took him to an outside agency for testing) it was almost too late.  He's never really been able to bounce back or learn to adjust and the impact on his life has been fairly substantial.  I know his parents have that "if only it was picked up on sooner" mindset, and who can blame them?  As early childhood educators it is so important for us to watch out for potential problems, delays, or concerns and relay that important information to parents which is my professional interest in this topic.  I think sometimes I tend to work the extremes.  Either every little thing is a potential problem or everything is developmental and children will “get it eventually”.  I want to be more knowledgeable about developmental concerns and delays so parents don’t have to wake up in 10 years going “if only they had caught this sooner”.  This topic can be sensitive to discuss with parents as often times the early childhood teacher is the first set of non familial eyes and ears on the child.  We could potentially be the first one to suggest there is something "not right" about their child so it's important to know what to discuss with parents and how to approach the sensitive subject.  I also want to work on collaborating better with special education teachers so I'm not devoting all of my time to the few special education students and neglecting my others (which I tend to do now).  Unfortunately for me (and my students) I only had one special education class in college, and it was not the greatest learning tool.  With the amount of students coming into my classroom with developmental delays and concerns I realized my deep lack of understanding and vowed to fix this as soon as possible!

I think thus far, I’ve learned so much about the research process.  Perhaps the biggest thing I discovered so far is how to design the research.  This is such an important step and one that takes careful and deliberate planning.  One small mistake should have huge implications for the validity of the study.  Who would think something as simple as how many students to study could be a make or break decision?  Design the study is one important building block in the process, but one I know little about implementing.  I’ve never actually conducted a formal research project so my fear lies in setting it all up correctly!  Research is so time consuming I would not want to be at the conclusion and realize my work is not valid due to a design failure.

What are your thoughts and/or opinions on my topic?  Do you have any input that you think would help me out either with this study or in this class?  I’d love to hear from you if you do!

Wk 8 Final Blog Assignment

Three consequences of learning about the international early childhood field for my professional and personal development:

1). By learning about the international early childhood education, I can be helpful to my co workers or any other EC professionals, by providing resources that maybe used within their classrooms or given to families.

2). I can use the information about the international early childhood field, to help get the word out about the importance of early childhood education and the benefits that a young child can receive when he/she attends a high-quality program.

3). When visiting websites on the international early childhood field, I can learn about goals, mission statements, research and many other areas that are of high importance when it comes to young children and their families.

There are many ideas, concepts, resources and information that the international early childhood field provides for EC professionals and any other professionals who have the best interest for young children in mind.


One goal for the field related to international awareness of issues and trends and the spirit of collegial relations:

I would hope that the one goal that ALL EC professionals lean towards is to provide high quality learning programs, that can improve health, social emotional and cognitive outcomes, improve school readiness skills, prevent achievement gaps, and provide cost effective investments along all education pipelines. (RAND, 2008).