One Child at a Time

  Our Diversity is our greatest asset. Listening to "Start Seeing Diversity" helps me recognize ways to reduce bias in young children by illustrating the effort made by one community to create a responsive child care program. Through taking this course and other courses in this program, I have learned that bias, discomfort, and trauma all play an essential role in how children interact with others. As mentioned in the course textbook, sexual orientation is defined through the direction of one's sexual interest: heterosexual (to the opposite sex), homosexual (to the same sex), bisexual (to both sexes), asexual (not attracted to either sex). It also defined that a lesbian is a woman attracted to women, and a gay man is attracted to men (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. 122).  For the parents who oppose the inclusion of books depicting same-sex, the reality is, if you don't, someone else probably will - or already is. And you may not like what they have to sa...

As this course comes to an end, it has been a pleasure studying alongside my classmates, the likes of Myrna, Jennifer, Rebecca, and others who had contributed in no small measure to discussions. Their blogging gave new insight into every new topic each week, relating them to personal stories or experiences. Kudos to Dr. Davis for her honest feedback and unwitting guidance throughout this course. Taking this course has helped me immeasurably, exposing my shortfalls in communication and giving me new tools that I dearly need for effective communication with families and colleagues. I also believe my blog posts and postings to the discussion board each week have also been beneficial to my classmates, giving them a new understanding of the issues relating to communication and collaboration. I hope that all we gained in this course will make us better teachers and effective communicators wherever we find ourselves. Hey guys, I am looking forward to sharing and developing through the posting...

Bruce Tuckman, an educational psychologist, identified a five-stage development process that most teams follow to become high-performing. He called the stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning Lumen learning, n.d.). Team progress through the stages is shown in the following diagram. This process of learning to work together effectively is known as team development. Research has shown that teams go through the final stages during development. The adjourning phase has been the most difficult for me of all the projects I have been involved in. In my bachelor's degree final year, we had a team assignment. In my group, we had great chemistry, so the adjourning phase was the hardest for us. The bond we formed was so strong that we still keep in touch through social media platforms to this day. In the adjourning phase, the team's goals have been accomplished. The focus is now on tidying up the documentation and results. As the workload diminishes, the group is di...

  Conflict in the workplace is inevitable. Conflict in the workplace is a painful reality and a key reason for poor productivity and frustration.  I have had my share of conflicts in work with colleagues at various times over the years. However, one that readily comes to mind is the one that happened last year when I started my new job. My co-teacher was “habitually” on the phone during activities with the children in the class. Our program policy requires teachers to leave their smartphones in the staff room. However, I did confront her in a way that I should say was unprofessional. Knowing what I know now, the approach employed using Nonviolent Communication (NVC) strategies would have been different. Nonviolent Communication (NVC) has been described as a language of compassion, a tool for positive social change, and spiritual practice. NVC gives us the tools and consciousness to understand what triggers us, take responsibility for our reactions, and deepen our connection w...

  Putting this week in perspective, I learned that every contact we make involves communications skills. This contact could be speaking and listening, speech patterns, the words we use, the tone of our voice, our body language, and even the silences all play a part in how successful our communications are. I learned those good communicators are aware of their behaviors and their effect on others. Researchers call this awareness self-monitoring. High self-monitors pay close attention to the way they look, sound, and act in social situations. In contrast, low self-monitors often seem oblivious to their behaviors and other people's reactions to them. Self-monitoring usually makes people more competent communicators because it enables them to see how their behavior fits or doesn't fit in a given social setting. In addition, high self-monitors often have high levels of social and emotional intelligence, qualities that allow them to understand people's social behaviors and emotio...

  Culture is a complex concept with many different definitions. But, simply put, "culture" refers to a group or community with which we share everyday experiences that shape the way we understand the world." It includes groups we are born into, such as race, national origin, class, or religion.         The way I communicate with people depends on who I am conversing with at a particular time; different communication methods for a male, a family with a foreign nationality, children, colleagues, etc. Therefore, employing the strategies listed below could help communicate more effectively with the people irrespective of their social identity. Developing Awareness of Individual Cultures Learning the basics about culture and at least something about the language of communication in different countries is essential. This is necessary even for the basic level of understanding required to engage in appropriate greetings and physical contact, which can be tricky inter-cu...

  NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION CUES IN F.R.I.E.N.D.S Facial expressions are a large part of nonverbal communication. When we aren't talking, we rely on what the other person's face is doing to understand what they are thinking or feeling. Relying on facial expression relevant in the tv show F.R.I.E.N.D.S. in the episode where Rachel tells Ross she is pregnant and that the pregnancy is his shows the relevance of nonverbal communication. Obviously, in shock, Ross is speechless because words are not coming out of his mouth. However, his face is sure saying a lot. Due to Ross's nonverbal communication through facial expressions, the viewer can tell that Ross is shocked and stunned by Rachel's news and maybe even a little scared for what is to come. Another example of nonverbal communication is brought to us through a scene with Ross and Joey. They are attempting to get their friend Chandler to forgive them for something they have done, although Ross is skeptical about Joey'...