When you are communicating with someone, try to be a very effective communicator because you never know how someone is watching your communication skills and reactions.
This week in Communicating and Collaborating in the Early Childhood Field course, we were able to examine our own communication and listening styles, dispositions, and skills, as well as getting someone else to evaluate you. It was amazing to see how a family member and a colleague perceived my communication skills mostly the same as I did myself.
The insights about communications I gained this week is to never take communication for granted, and how not to make assumptions and perceptions about a person by their outer appearance. As an educator, it is very important to reach out to our children and their families we serve with effective communication skills. We need to make an effort to build a friendly network, especially to the ones that we perceive as being "different" from us. When we exercise good communication skills, we will develop the abilities to communicate in a better constructive way.
What I find most interesting is that I remember as a teenager my mom would always tell me to be careful how I dressed because the first impression I would leave with someone would be that. In my mind I would say to her, "don't judge a book by it's cover" and it seems both these ideas are valid. We do see people a certain way, but we have to make every effort to open the book and see what is inside--that is what will make us better communicators.
ReplyDeleteCarol,
ReplyDeleteYour point of not taking communication for granted is well said. All of our actions communicate something. It is important that we continually stay aware of what and how we communicate so others can recognize our competence.
Carol-
ReplyDeleteI also like your comment about not taking communication for granted. It is important to know that each interaction is making an impression on families and community agency members. I also like your comment about communication as a contructive tool. This paints an image of being able to bridge gaps with families that are different from us, as well as those that are similar.
Thank you!
Katherine
Carol, you could not say it better. People should not take communicating for granted. It very important to interact with others. Your thoughts and opinions were very insightful for future study. Thank You!
ReplyDeleteCarol, not taking communication for granted is extremely valuable. We are always. communicating even just by our quiet facial expressions; they can make us approachable or not. It is important to keep this in mind especially in our professional realm.
ReplyDelete