Week 12 Blog- Chapter 4

Miscommunication often happens between people, whether it involves the different meanings of words or the lack of words all together. There have been times when things have been miscommunicated between two people, it happens all of the time. For example, I have had teachers in High School that were not clear on some assignments that they wanted us to complete. My senior english teacher for instance, would give us examples of previously written papers, some written by her and some by her students, and would expect us to then write a similar paper without explaining what her requirements were or telling us what she is grading for. She gave us a rubric but most of the time it said "student successfully completed the requirements of the paper" and, " Student had an addequate introduction". Her rubric did not explain what we had to do either. When we asked her what she wanted she said "I want a paper just like this, explaining about a life experience." She would not give us any other information. So I just assumed she left it open ended for us and I wrote my paper the way I thought she wanted it done and ended up receiving an F on it. I asked her about it and she said that it was not even close to what she was looking for. I replied, "Well you didn't tell us what you wanted specifically, I did not know what form to right it in, if it is suppose to be a research paper or fictional piece, you did not clearly explain anything to the class and your rubric did not help clarify anything. The whole class was confused."
She replied with "Its all in the way you interpret it, that is what I wanted you guys to figure out." I thought this was rediculous because if this was the case, why did MY interpretation of the paper get me an 'F' ? I asked her the same thing and she avoided the answer. The next day I checked my grade online and it said I got a B on the paper.
I think that she didnt realize that she didnt communicate well with us until I confronted her about it, but even after she realized she was wrong she would not admit it. This is why clear communication is so important in everyday life.
My question: Has a teacher/ professor/employeer every been unclear with you regarding what they want for a particular assignment or task?

Week 11

There are major differences between your perceived self and your presenting self. The way you perceive yourself means "how do you describe yourself as a person" and your presenting self means "how do you describe yourself when you are around other people?" This can also be described as "front stage and back stage" in other words, when you are "front stage" or in front of people/friends, you typically act differently then when you are alone (back stage). We all know that different people expect different things from us and we change our behaivor accordingly, but our true self does not usually emerge until we are alone with no other influence to change us.
We commonly see this "front stage" behavior at scool, work, and other public places where people attempt to impress other people. I remember a time when I was in highschool and one of my friends started to act a lot differently than before. This was the durring the transition from elementary school to middle school, and as you all know, that is the hardest of them all. She started wearing a lot of make-up, wearing tighter and more revealing clothes, and hanging out with the "popular" crowd. She became a jerk to me and our other friends at school, but after school she would call us up and appologize and ask to come over to hang out. She was putting on her "presenting self" at school, and at home she was back to her normal "perceived" self because nobody around her cared about her presenting self.

Week 10

Perceptions-
I think we can all say that a lot of our perceptions, especially in current times, are made based off of physical appearance. I too fall into this catagory. I try not to, but often find myself judging others based off of how they look. I believe that it is part of being in society today and that we cannot help but form oppinions and "catagorize" people, and things right away. Some of the things that we, I included, perceive related to physical appearance, are clothes, makeup, disabilities, skin color, hair type (dreds, smooth, strait, dyed, natural...) and even the places we occupy (in front of the library or in front of a porn shop). These are all things that make us judge instantly, and it is all a form of perceiving.
I believe that I perceive myself differently than other people perceive me. The way I see it is, as humans we have the tendancy to perceive our selves in one of three ways in relation to other people: 1. We think we are better than them, are confident, and smarter.
2. We have low self-esteem and don't think we are at the same level as everyone else
3. A combination of the two, somewhere in the middle.
I think that I am pretty modest and confident, but I don't think that I am better than anyone else, so I guess I would fall in the third catagory being a mixture of the first two. I couldn't tell you what people think of me as a person, but I can bet that it is different than how I see myself.

Question: What are your perceptions of yourself and how do you think that relates to what other people think of you?

Week 9 Blog

I have heard many speaches before. Some were emotional and sad while others were dull and boring. The variation of responses that arise from different types of speaches make me think. What is it that make speaches so variable? I think it has to do with the speaker's knowledge of the type of audience that he is talking to and the way that he adapts his/her speach to appeal to that group. They use many tricks though, age, sex, religion, origin, and other factors all play into the different types of audience reactions that they will get.
I have personally seen a speaker who appealed to his audience in an emotional way. He was talking about the hollocaust and the negative effects of the war. He had managed to make every single person in the audience cry, and all he was doing was telling us a story of what his life was like when he was a kid; he even showed us the number tatooed on his wrist. All in all, it was a very effective speach and he had our attention for the entire three hours that he talked.
I have also seen a speach that focused on a needs based appeal. In fact we see mini-versions of these speeches everyday when we watch commercials on T.V.. All of the ads that we watch are all speaches telling us why we need certain products and how they will make our lives better. I think that this is a very effective way to reach your audience because as human beings we like to be told what we 'need' or what will improve our lives.

Week 5

I was in a group in highschool called FCCLA, and the group of people that we had were only in it because it was a requirement for our Internship class. They did not want to do any of the work, we were assigned committees and there were committee leaders. I was in charge of the Fund Raising and Volunteer work, and because none of the group members really cared about anything, they did not listen to a word I said, and nothing really got accomplished. They were very social with each other and formed cliques and were very excited to meet up because they wanted to share the latest gossip. This is a prime example of groupthink because it shows that they were more into the idea of being in a group than actually wanting to be a part of something and work for it. I really ended up hating FCCLA just because of the people in it. I loved the idea and I loved what we did, but the immature highschool seniors (yes seniors) were acting like 12 year olds and were not willing to put in any effort outside of school. So a few of us, mainly the committee leaders, ended up doing all of the work ourselfs to get ready for competition and we won prizes for our FCCLA group. My teacher however, was also fed up with the other kids not not helping and decided that they did not get any of the prizes, and would not be invited to our pizza and ice cream party (which was actually pretty amazing) so there was only about 10 of us there. She then lectured us for 45 minutes the next day about how we are all going out into the real world and in college we will be expected to work our buts off and do our work outside of class.
I can honestly say that I have never seen my teacher that mad before. She felt as though she had let us down because her job was to prepare us for college, by the end of the year she had proclaimed that besides a few of us, this was the worst class/group that she had EVER had. Even though I know that I did my part and the part of many others, and that I was more mature and realistic than most of the others, I still felt as though I had let her down as well.

Honestly, I do not remember ever being a part of a productive group. I have always been a part of a group and I am usually the leader, because nobody else would step up and do it; so I usually end up doing more than my share of the work, if not all of it. I had a really screwed up highschool class with alot of people who did not care about anything, so whenever we would have group assignments, if they even showed up for the group meetings, they did very little to contribute. I would try to spit out ideas and ask what they thought and I would always hear "Well you are the smart one, do what you think will get us an A". I would often talk to my teachers about how none of them would contribute and how I stayed up late the night before to complete it by myself and they would blame me and say that I had failed as a leader because by doing the work I was encouraging them to NOT do the work. I thought that this was dumb because I did the work because I did not want my grade to suffer.

Question: What would you do if you had an enormous group project and you got stuck with all of the work because you want a good grade?

Week 4

Shrugging your shoulders is one form of nonverbal communication. It can mean so many things. " I don't know" is a common meaning, "I don't care", or you could shrug your shoulders as part of a dance move. Depending on the context, whether you are in a good mood or bad mood, "I don't know" can even mean two different things. It could be an "I know but I don't feel like answering" I don't know, or it could be an authentic "I don't know". Either way, shrugging your shoulders is one form of nonverbal communication that can be misinterpreted. Nonverbal communication is important because it can either ad to a point, or distract from it. Can tell us if someone is lying or sincere, and can speak words even if we don't say them. Everybody uses nonverbal communication in everyday life and it is one of the most important types of communication.

"The person who controls and possesses information has power." I think this means that people who know things get more out of it, such as a teacher knows more than the students about a particular subject, and therefore has power over the students. Or a doctor has more medical knowledge than a patient so he has a higher labled status (power) than the patients or ordinary people. We need to be aware of this information because as speakers, we hold a certain power over our audience. When we give a speech, whether about a personal subject, or based on research, we have certain knowledge that our audience does not, therefore we have the power to control their interest. If we learn how to control and use this information to somewhat apply to everyone in the audience in an effective way, then we have the makings of an effective and interesting speech. Nonverbal communication is also a part of this factor. By the motions of our hands, face and bodies durring a speech we can give a certain tone to the words we are saying that further supports our speech.
Question of the week: WHy do you think nonverbal gestures are so much a part of everyday life?

Week 3 Post

I am often an active participant in the classroom, which means, I like to raise my hand and comment on or question the lecture. Sometimes this goes over great with the class and triggers great classsroom discussions, other times, people tune me out and don't listen to a word I say. I am usually pretty adamant about keeping my comments relevant to the topic in discussion, so when I get ignored or get blank stares or rolled eyes from my classmates, it frustrates me. The way I see it, by actively participating in the discussion, I am exposing myself to new points of views, getting my questions answered, and getting the best out of my education. I love to learn new things and have my thoughts and feelings challenged. I do not think that some people understand my reasoning sometimes, and they feel that I am just a know-it-all who is trying to get a good grade from the professor. I understand that perspective as well, so I try very hard not to over-take the classrooms, and I challenge my self to keep my input to a minimum, but I always love to ask questions!

I have sat through many presentations that have been very disorganized. My Biology professor for example, is very disorganized. Her syllabus had spelling and factual errors, her presentation is sloppy, she often comes to class unprepared and loses things. She mapped out the class discussions on the syllabus, but it is disorganized and they do not match up with any of the chapters in the book so it is hard to follow along. All of these issues together create a bad image for her, and they give us students a reason to tune out her lectures (especially when she strays off topic, which happens very often). Her lectures are the same way, she will explain one concept using words or discriptors that we have not learned yet and simply say "i will come back to that" and she never does. She offers notes online, but there is no order to them, and we never know which to print out before class because we really have no idea what the class is going to be about.
I think that presentation is important, especially organized presentations. If you are going to teach students, whether at a collegiate level or younger, you have to clearly explain your expectaions and present it in an organized manner. In her case, a simple outline of what we will cover that day, or even week, would help us out a lot.

Week 2

My Middle School and High School had this program called ETS (educational talent search) where some old guy would come in and talk to us about our future and tell us how unprepared we are for it. We would do a whole bunch of career planing activities and short evaulations that would place us in our ideal job settings. Although I found some of thier advice useful, the speakers were often dull and boring. Most were monotonous, and a lot did not speek of the age-group. They would often speak to us like we were done and did not understand everyday English. I do not feel that they properly analyzed their audience before preparing their presentations and speeches. One good thing did come out of those boring ETS sessions however, I realized that when i present or speek to a crowd one of the first things that I will do is make sure to analyze my audience. I am planning on being an elementary school teacher so this will come in handy. It is a lot harder in my oppinion to talk to children in an educated way than to address an adult or some one my age, because I cannot assume that the child knows the same big words that I do. I have to generalize my speeking to match their abilities, and that is all a part of analyzing the audience.

As far as some presentations in the past, many have caught my eye, and most of the good ones I remember well. A lot of them had incredible verbal support. One in particular that I remember was in Middle School. In History class we were learning about the Hollocaust and they hired a speaker to come and talk to us. This guy was incredible. He was able to undoubtly catch the attention of 200 middle-schoolers for his hour long presentation. His speech ran over part of our lunch time and we were free to leave whenever we wanted; we didn't. We were so impressed with his knowledge and speech that we would not dare to leave in the middle of his story. He did not have any visual representations, nor did he do anything fun or wierd with his body. He simply sat in a chair and talked about the Hollocaust; but it was the most beautiful and horrifying story I have ever heard. He used details that put us at the seen and revealed the tattooed numbers on his wrist that placed him there too. By the end we were all in tears, and some of us had nightmares about it that night. I will never forget what I learned from that speaker as he touched my heart forever!

Week 1 Blog

I think that most colleges require at least one course in communication as a way to ensure that their students not only have the skills to successfuly succeed in their careers, but also to communicate those skills with other people. It is a way to show students how important communication is, and that it is not something to be afraid of. Most colleges and universities have certain goals for their graduated students, one of which being that they want their graduates to be well rounded and well educated individuals in society. Having great communication skills is a small but important step to achieving this goal.
I personally am a pretty good interpersonal communicator, that is to say that I can communicate well with others around me and my friends and loved ones. I am not however, a great public speaker. I sometimes clam up in front of crowds or studder, sweat, and avoid eye contact. These are skills that I need to improve before I can become a confident speaker, which is the basis for my chosen career path. My major is Elementary Education and of coarse, if i am going to be a teacher I need to be comfortable and confident in front of large crowds.
My most embarrassing moment occured in front of a huge crowd of highschool students waiting for the bus to pick them up from school. I was walking toward the school and looking behind me (while walking forward) to see if I could find my dad's car in the line of awaiting parents. I do this quite often, (walk without looking where I am going) so I consider myself pretty skilled at it; but on this day I was walking for to long without looking in front of me and I walked myself straight into a pole. I had turned around just in time to smack the pole with my face, actually my right eye. I had a black eye the size of the Pacific Ocean, and just as blue. Luckily I had my contacts in, otherwise that would have led to the demise of my glasses. I did not however, get knocked over, but there was a repulsive sound loud enough to be heard through out the school parking lot, thus ensuring that everyone in the vacinity stopped their conversations to stare at the freak who walked in to the clearly present pole.
Although I have always had issues with public speaking, I believe that this incident contributed to my nervous acts in front of people. I hope that this class will break me out of my shell and allow me to feel comfortable in front of strangers.