Learning Plan 9 Blog Post

I can use my skills of proofreading, collaborating, and inspiration to help my group complete the assigned project.

One item I would propose for our Code of Conduct would be that we must check in every day with the discussion group to contribute towards the discussion and/or assignment.

My Conflict Rankings:

1.   Accommodate

2.   Avoidance

3.   Collaborate

Conflict Style	Avoidance	Accommodate	Competition	Compromise	Collaborate
Item Scores - INSERT your number from above next to the question number in the grid below and add up your scores.	1 4 6 5 11 4 16 4	2 4 7 4 12  5 17  4	3 1 8 3 13 2 18 3	4 3 9 5 14 2 19 2	5 3 10 4 15 3 20 3
Total Scores	17	17	9	12	13

4.   Compromise

5.   Competition

Interpersonal Communications Post

"It's not what you say, but -how- you say it."

Most people know the adage, ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all’. Many times, I prefer to keep this in mind during destructive conflicts, because things can be said that can’t be taken back. Usually in this scenario, there is a lot of accommodation, where I simply choose to not expend any more energy on the conflict.  I prefer to engage in constructive conflicts, where the end results in an understanding or an agreement for how to tackle the problem if it comes back again in the future.

Most of the time, the destructive conflicts usually fizzle, and the issue springs up again and again, under a different guise. Money, time management, stress; all of these are factors that can spark a destructive conflict, and I am not one to really be approached in these things. I am non-confrontational.

As I mentioned before, things can be said that cannot be taken back. In one instance, when I decided to speak up, I did so in a way that was more venting that addressing, and it cost me a relationship. It took a long time to mend things, and we are stronger for it today. However, there are times that I wish I’d just been quiet during the fight, especially since the issue was something absolutely ridiculous. 

 Things probably would have gone better if I had just taken a step back and addressed the issue, instead of placing blame.  I feel that’s the way a lot of disagreements get blown out of proportion as well. 

Non-Verbal Communication:What you can see

This week in class, we are talking about non-verbal communication, and the focus of this blog post is about non-verbal communication in advertising. The image below stood out to me for more than just the 'non-photoshopped' girl in her underwear.

Image from: < http://petapixel.com/2014/01/21/lingerie-campaign-aimed-young-girls-takes-stand-retouching/ >

While the main idea for this advertisement is ‘natural you is sexy’, there are other undertones to the entire campaign: what is actually attractive is what is in the picture. This demographic is aimed at teenage girls, in hopes that the ideals of more natural bodies will improve self-esteem. However, this campaign is showing that you must still be somewhat thin, fair(er) skinned, and have what society believes to be ‘beautiful’ in order to be beautiful.

I believe that the happy, simple poses the models take are also trying to help with the appeal of higher self-esteem, but there is no real sense of self here, except in the color of the underwear. There is a total lack of jewelry, the makeup is soft and natural with the photographic lighting, and the underwear isn’t enough to make a fully bold statement of ‘this is it!’, with the exception of the girls, in their natural bodies, laughing and smiling. This tells me that Aeri is trying to sell underwear under the guise of positivity, and while it’s nice to know that the girls haven’t been photoshopped (their claim), it’s still not the exact body type of the girls we see in school.

Week 6 Blog Post

This week, we were asked to write a blog post on three things that were the most interesting, controversial, or meaningful to us from what we’ve read and watched in the resources given. I chose to talk about code-switching, active/passive voice, and gender language.

One of the things that I learned about this week was something called ‘code-switching’. (WTHOTV, 2012) I feel like this doesn’t have to be about slang with racial undertones, like the first four minutes of the video suggests. This can simply be the fluidity of speech as it goes between slang and formal talking with anyone. A few examples are siblings, who can communicate with each other with ‘secret’ or invented words, and teenagers, who tend to emphasis different words as euphemisms.

Something else that I learned was the active/passive voice. This concept has always given me trouble, and I never understood why. However, it’s very meaningful to my profession, as speaking professionally, and directly, are very important for client and patient care. Knowing how and when to use passive and active voice, whether in speaking or writing, is very important to making sure there are no breakdowns in the communication process.

Something that can be rather controversial these days is the use of proper gender nouns and labels. (Engleberg and Wynn, 2013) Being mindful of gender neutral pronouns can be useful when communicating on a broader scale. This discourages unfair sexism in speech, and encourages equality throughout. It is also important to remember labels as being gender neutral. With our society accepting more transgender and genderfluid lifestyles, our speech and writing must reflect respect to these people as much as refusing archaic titles, such as stewardess instead of flight attendant, to keep the equality of roles present.

Engleberg, I., Wynn, D. (2013) ‘Think Communication’ pp. 90 Pearson Education, New

            Jersey.

WTHOTV. (Oct.15, 2012) Code Switching [video file] retrieved from

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO7cjyEYtGM&feature=youtu.be

Losing Our Listening

The main message of Julian Treasure’s video was that we, in society, are losing our ability to communicate. Between the staggering noise pollution in our world, as well as the connectivity through the internet, gives us a sense of disconnect. I agree that there is a lack of listening between people of my age, and even between generations.

I decided to try the silence exercise that was suggested. I wanted to ‘reset my ears’, as he said, and see how it would affect my focus. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I could pick up the smaller things in my children’s voices. I could the difference between whining with the toddler for attention, and for a need, like juice or to use the bathroom.

I think that continuing this exercise, and incorporate it when I cannot settle down enough to meditate, can truly help with my focus throughout the day, and even compounding it further through the years.

Oral Communications Blog Post 3

For our blog post, we were to create and share a list of 5 things that we are most proud about yourself. Unfortunately, my list is much shorter.

~Delilah, my 7 year old

~Isabel, my 2 year old

~

~

~

I was always told that the only things in life I was any good at was making cute and clever babies, and being kind. Being kind, however, is nothing to be proud of; if anything, it denotes to most of my peers that I’m a pushover, and easily taken advantage of.

Next, we were asked to create a list of 5 things that we believe in, and provide a paragraph to explain these things.

~I believe that everything we need to be healthy is in the world around us, whether it’s in a cup of tea, or massage therapist, or even a counselor.

~I believe in the innocence of my children.

~I believe that, deep down, all people are good in some way.

~I believe that nothing will make you happier than a good book or playing in the dirt.

~I believe that compassion is shared, and spread with a smile.

My beliefs are based mostly in naiveté, and will probably be mocked by most. However, I think that the world really is a good place, somehow, and we take everyone and everything for granted. If we could go back and treasure the human heart, instead of hardening them with paranoia, then our health, as a society, would improve. Our health, individually, would improve if we would just trust our intuition, and accepted that we really are what we eat.

My picture of self-concept isn’t one that I’d like to share. At all. But, in the spirit of the assignment, I can do my best. To look at myself, I would see a mother, round with excess from carrying life, and losing it. I would see a woman who carries the weight of her home in every silver hair that peeks out from the chestnut curls that are so haphazardly pinned down. My self-concept is of someone who wants to heal the world, if only she could hold it in her hands, and smile down upon it. 

A Key Reference

While investigating the intriguing life of Ms. Emma Goldman, I should say I found a few references that help me to understand what she hoped to accomplish in her life. The two most important media that I had found was in a digital encyclopedia, and a documentary. I chose to write this entry on the digital media, found here: Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-Class History.

Mr. Eric Arnesen took on a tremendous task, which required putting together a unique volume of information based on our country's Labor History. With Labor Day being such a valued holiday, and occurring tomorrow, it was well worth my time to look at what he had to offer. I was not disappointed. Not only were there images of Ms. Goldman in the section dedicated solely to her, but her story unfolded in an un-biased, and purely educational way. Mr. Arnesen is a professor of Modern American Labor and History, as well as Assistant Dean at Columbian College of Arts & Sciences (A subsect of GW University) in Washington, D.C. He has also written three separate historically relevant books, as well as collaborated on 6 separate papers on varying subjects, from civil rights to labor unions.  Because of his extensive work throughout his career, I believe the information in the above mentioned reference to be completely certifiable, and reliable.

The publisher of this book, found in both hard copy and online through Google Books, is Taylor and Francis, LLC. This company is known for its textbooks, as well as non-fiction publications, throughout the United Kingdom, and the United States. Further research into its business website shows that the company has had a two hundred years of experience in publishing of educational matierals and scientific journals. Its credibility stands, unwavering, and I believe that I can trust what has been published to be accurate and appropriately displayed. 

Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working Class History was published in the year 2007. Its recent publishing date shows little of whether the information is reliable. This timeline in particular discusses U.S. labor history from the industrial era, all the way into the twenty-first century. It shows essences of civil, children's, and women's rights alongside labor laws and developments.

References:

'Eric Arnesen, Faculty and Staff', (September 6, 2015) retrieved from http://history.columbian.gwu.edu/eric-arnesen

Essential Communication Skill Choices

For this assignment, I have chosen Communicating sensitively and ethically, Understanding the communication process, and Using effective assertiveness strategy and skills as my three personal skill choices. I feel these are important for me because I do have trouble speaking to people in a personal or public setting. I have always been more comfortable with written media, like email and blog posts. However, being a lactation consultant requires more face time than online time, and so I have to work on my interpersonal communication skills. I feel working with these three specifically will help me to better understand my client's needs, as well as effectively assist them to understand the wealth of knowledge available to them.

For Communicating sensitively and ethically, I have found that I am not as well versed in empathic conversation as I would like to be. During my time as a caregiver, I found it difficult to be empathetic to families of the dying. I would be completely factual, and do my best to help them understand what was happening to their loved one. Otherwise, I was unable to communicate sensitively. I feel that this would be important in my new career, as new mothers can be just as nerve-wracked as loved ones of dying clients, if for different reasons. 

Understanding the communication process can greatly increase, not only my chances of being understood, but understanding the person I'm having a conversation with. I always thought of talking as a simple exchange of information, but after looking over the notes given in this section, I'm finding that there is so much more to it. If I have a mother come to me with issues about latch, milk supply, and she suffered from horrible sleep deprivation, I would have to learn to really listen to what she meant, 

While I do define myself as one that can think critically, as well as have a wide range of imaginative skills at my disposal, I feel that I do not always communicate these ideas assertively. There is a difference between assertive presentation, and just presentation. Assertiveness is a positive connotation to the conversation that can assist with decreasing psychological noise and semantic noise. Assertiveness, in short, can help me capture and retain attention during a conversation. This is why the choice for assertiveness strategy will work for me. I have to be able to appropriately engage my audience, and make learning interesting.

One goal that I would like to accomplish this semester is to become more confident in my presentations. I find that standing before a crowd, no matter the size, and relaying my information to them will take a proficiency in all of the points above, as well as confidence in myself. To achieve this goal would also be very important for my career, as it takes all of these skills to properly acquire and counsel this specific clientele. 

Introduction

Hello, everyone! This semester, I enrolled in the Oral Communications course at my local technical college, Mid-State Tech. One of the projects we, as a class, will be working on is a blog, and here it is!

I want to thank everyone in advance for reading my posts, and I hope you all have a wonderful day, week, and semester!

~Em