Diversity Video

Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

The times that our children are in now are very different from the times in which we lived. I can understand why some parents do not want to expose their kids to things such as homosexuals becuase it may go against their religion and values. So instead we choose to brush things under the rug. I believe that we should avoid placing these same-sex books in our centers due to the fact that it is against religions and goes against the values that are set forth. If the book was only brought our for reading time and explained to the children, it would be better this way. I think that we expose kids to some things early and this is one of them; this is left for the parents to handle.

If a parent and/ or family member came to me explaining that they do not want anyone gay or lesbian teaching their child(ren). Then I will make sure that the prinicipal, supervisor or whomever gets the message so that the child's culture and needs can be met. We are here to work with the families and if the parents make special request, it is up for us to fulfil. 

Thank You!

THANK YOU💓❤❤

This has been one of my challenging terms thus far, and I know that it is only going to get more challenging from thenceforth. Although it has been a challenging year, I still managed to finish way better than I began. The first two weeks were hard and stressful, but by week 3, I began to get the concept of how Dr. Williams like to do things. Dr. Williams you are the first person that I want to acknowledge because you pushed me to put forth my best work, that you knew I had all along in my inner self. The comments left on my post, blogs, and assignment were a big help, and I really enjoyed working with you this summer.

To my fellow blog mates,  I would like to thank you as well for leaving your comments and reviewing discussions to leave me meaningful comments that I am able to take in not only my professional life, but my personal life as well. I wish you all the best in the rest of your Master's degree studies, myself included because we have became as one big family here to love and support one another. 

Adjourning

Adjourning

When you have worked with a group of people for so long you all become family, and it is like you have known each other for years. This is what I had when I worked at Wal-Mart, and this is what also made it so hard to want to leave. I felt like I had known these people all my life, and we were always down to help one another, no matter what we were doing, if someone needed help, we helped.  Although I did not like the job much, the people and the customers made the job worth-while. When I moved onto another position it was very bitter-sweet. 

When working with a high-performing group, it is very hard to leave because everyone on the team is doing their job and holding their wait. You don't know what you may get when you work with another group or partner. They drive may not be like the drives that you are used to. If all this is no established in the beginning, you will end up pulling all the weight.

When you have to leave a group that has established norms, this is hard because you have became very accustomed to working with a certain group and you all have worked good together effectively and built a solid foundation of trust. But once you have to leave and move on to another group, you have to develop a new group all over again with new attitudes aboard.

Adjourning from groups have taught me the importance of keeping in touch with those who you have met alone the way. Some I have regrets, and for some I do not. The crew at Wal-Mart I still keep in touch with a few because I live locally and I see them whenever I am shopping in the store. When it comes to undergrad, I made so many colleagues and my professors were so helpful, I regret not keeping in touch with those who mean the most. There are some undergrad Child and Family development majors in which I still communicate with through facebook, but my one friend who I built a bond with slipped through my hands, and that I regret.

When adjourning from the Master's program, I believe that it will be bitter-sweet because reading the blogs and discussions have gave us all a bond, and in order to keep this bond, we must reach out to one another. When adjourning it helps to bring one another closer together on a professional and personal level, which is needed to help one another.

Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html

Conflict Resolution

Conflict Resolution

There was a situation that arised at work a few weeks ago which lead to me and another coworker having disagreements about the matter. It went as far as the teacher walking out of the classroom on me and leaving me alone with the kids. The supervisor was not there at the time to resolve the conflict so it was left to us to do so on our own, which of course did not end well. If we both would have used a more NVC approach such as empathetic listening it would not have been so much of a big conflict. Another approach would have been that we both quit trying to out talk one another and listen carefully we could have came to an agreement to agree to disagree and left it at that. The following Monday, she came to school and apologized to me and me to her for we both were wrong and we realized that things got carried away way to fast and we could have just agreed to disagree. 

I as a Communicator

When I reviewed my results and the results of others, nothing really surprised me, but what did surprise me is that we all agreed that I am a good listener. The reason that this was a shocker, because I did not think that my husband would rate me as a good listener being that he always says that I never listen to him. Learning about my different aspects of communications, my strong points and weak points, it helped me to learn where I need to be at both professionally and personally with my communication skills so that I can help my families and children. 

The two insights that I learned this week came from the listening style assessment and communication anxiety assessment. I have learned that I am a good listener who puts to much trust in others, which does not always mean that I will get the same in return. This makes more conscious of who I should trust to protect myself. The communication anxiety assessment enlightened me on the importance of being confident around children, families, and colleagues so that they can trust me. 

Rubin, R. B., Palmgreen, P., & Sypher, H. E. (Eds.) (2009). Communication research measures: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge.

Rubin, R. B., Rubin, A. M., Graham, E. E., Perse, E. M., & Seibold, D. R. (Eds.) (2009). Communication research measures II: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge.

Cultural Communication

Cultural Communication

The three strategies that I would use to help me communicate effectively with people or groups are: 

1) The Platinum Rule-Do to others as they would like to be treated (Beebe, Beebe, & Redmund, 2011).

2) Don't expect that just because you know a person's culture you can predict his/her behavior (Gonzalez-Mena, 2010).

3) Put the culture and the person first.

I have been practicing these strategies in communication with different cultures before I knew they existed. There are two hispanic children in my classroom and their parents both speak english, but not very well. This is why I communicate with them differently than I do my parents who are American born. I let the Hispanic parents initiate anything they want to ask or any remarks in general, so that I can know how to follow up their questions with an answer in which they can understand. One of the parents have an older daughter who is able to ask things that she may not know how to word, which makes it easier for us to communicate with her and her family. I listen to all of my parents and their concerns, but I pay closer attention to my Hispanic family and their concerns and issues because I do not want them to feel like they are being treated any differently than any other family. I also want them to know that I am here for them and their child. 

GGonzalez-Mena, J. (2010). 50 strategies for communicating and working with diverse families. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc."Looking at Nonverbal Communication Across Cultures" (pp. 80–81)

Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2011). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Chapter 4, "Interpersonal Communication and Diversity: Adapting to Others" (pp. 85–114)

Communication Assumptions

Communication Assumptions-Grey's Anatomy

The TV show that I chose to watch was Grey's Anatomy. I have heard a lot of people on my social media speak about how great the show is and the excitement that goes on in the episodes, so I decided to take a look. I watched the first minute of the show in silence and thought that the characters were all friends and happy with one another. I also thought that they all got along, and crying to one another due to a case or patient that might have affected them. During the nonverbal behavior, I could see that there was some anger between characters as well as sadness in the conversations that were being discussed. 

After turning on the volume, I could see that my assumptions were somewhat right. There was anger and sadness, but not how I imagined it. One of the doctors was yelling at another doctor that I thought was a student, but she was actually a doctor, and the doctor who was overly emotional with her friend was actually overemotional with her lover. These both took me by surprise because I knew once I turned up the volume, I would be right. If I was watching a show that I watch on a regular, I would have definitely had all the answers because I am familiar with the show and know all about it.