Communication

Week 2

Record an episode of a television show you do not normally watch. Watch the show with the sound turned off.

This week’s blog is very interesting. Watching an TV episode with the sound turned off was very interesting.  It put me in the shoes of how a person who has no hearing feels.  I was very frustrated and had to really concentrate and almost guess and make my own story of what was going on. 

The episode that I recorded was Cake Boss.  This is a reality series of a family who owns a famous bakery in New Jersey.  The show follows the family and how they run the bakery and make the different cakes and pastries for their clients and for the public.

Sound Turned Off

The episode that I watched was very interesting. The bakery seemed very busy and I assumed that the star of the show (Buddy) was sort of angry or mad at the other workers.  There was much facial expressions by all the people involved. Eyebrows rising, hands flying every which way, sad faces, there was even like aggressiveness when setting the pastries down.  I assumed that Buddy was disappointed in his co-workers in that they were not doing something right. I assumed that the relationships were close but they were maybe having a bad day at the bakery.  It looks as though they have a heavy workload and that they were under much stress.

Sound Turned On

When I watched the show with the sound turned on my assumptions were way off.  Buddy is not mad and not yelling and was not disappointed in his co-workers.  Actually they are all family and they were laughing and joking with each other.  When I thought Buddy was being mad at the coworkers, what he was doing was explaining the expectations of what he wanted this certain cake to look like.  By his facial expressions without hearing looked as though no one was having fun.  When listening and looking at his facial expressions it was understandable and it was all positive.

I think if I would have watched this show on a regular basis, I maybe could have figured out that he was not mad. Just viewing it for the first time was a great eye opener of how communication can affect us in different ways.  Perception is another way as well.  My daughter was watching with me and she had a different perception than I did. 

Communication

The person that I think has demonstrated competent communication to me was a mentor and a boss.  She had a way of communicating in a positive way and to have others think critically and outside the box.  She taught me to listen and not jump to conclusions.  She seems to be positive until you are with her many hours.  Those are the positive motives that I learned from her.  The biggest one was she taught me to listen.

I feel that I have learned to listen from her and use her as a mentor and a model, however, if she wants something done it does have to be done her way or she will say have another person look at it. For example, she would want a project done or a slide show and you would produce what she wanted and then would say that it looked fabulous, however, lets let this other person look at it.  Then the work was never used.  It seems that the idea was thrown out there and someone else would take credit for it. 

The process of listening she modeled was the biggest help for me.  Now I am looking for a positive communicator and mentor to put my communication needs together.  Communication is so important and it is a talent to make sure that you can communicate properly as to not offend people. I am no longer with this company.

Professional Hopes and Goals

Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds.

Is that I can be objective and respectful to all the families and people that I come in contact with.  I would hope that I can share my experiences and leave that space for the families and people to open up to me so that I can learn from them as well as they an learn from me.  With this hope I hope that this can create a more unified community of harmony of many cultures and much diversity.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to continue to learn and become knowledgeable about how to relate to children and families who cultural and/or linguistic backgrounds are different than my own, so that I can create harmony and unity in the classroom and outside the classroom.

I want to thank all my colleagues in this class and whom I associate with in my daily ventures.  I have learned so much from all the different experiences that have been posted.  I know that I am much more aware of what is happening when it comes to diversity and culture.  I know that I have learned to be aware and to listen.  The biggest lesson that I have learned is not to assume or judge any situation.  I will work hard everyday to look at each situation on a personal basis.  Thank you Dr. Williams for offering your knowledge.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

Scenario

My name is Tracy Halverson and I am working as a preschool teacher in my community of Salt Lake City, Utah.  I have just been informed that a young child who has emigrated from Sweden will be enrolling into my classroom.

There are many things to prepare for before the child enters the classroom.

I think that I would do a little research about the culture of Sweden so that I would know a little if and when this family decides to share information

I need to create a relationship with the family so that they can trust me to share information that is needed.  This doesn’t mean drilling a million questions.  I feel that treating these people how I would like to be treated would be a great way to get to know the family

I would need to find out if the child has sensitivity to any foods or medicines.

I would need to find out how old and how many bothers and sisters if any.  Who is the caretaker (s). 

Does the family have a home language or do they speak English

One last thing to get started is to educated the family in what the culture is where they are entering.

I feel that exchanging this information will make for a smooth transition.

Preparing and knowing a little information before you meet the family will help you understand a bit more of where the family is coming from.  However, everyone will be different.  Preparing to create relationship naturally is a positive way to welcome any one into a new classroom.  It will take more than one meeting, however, all of these preparations will make for a smooth entry.  It will be most interesting to find out where this child is from so that we can all learn from him as well