"Start Seeing Diversity Video" Blog: Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

"Start Seeing Diversity Video" Blog: Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

Some of the ways you noticed that homophobia and heterosexism permeate the world of young children including books, movies, toys, stores, culture of early childhood centers, and schools.  What I have noticed is parents are been more homophobia than the world as it relates to their children.  Toys in the store are arranged separately the way they are presented.  Boy toys are all lined up together and supposedly girl toys are all together.  I also, noticed in the store that toys that an individual might think a girl could play with such as certain type of stuffed dolls.  Instead are in with the boy toys.  This also, misleads parents to believe this is the correct because the way things are displayed visually.  As I viewed "Start Seeing Diversity Video" Blog: Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation” I realized quickly displaying toys in a daycare center is important because if presented as only boy or girls toys young children will grow up to believe they can only be a doctor for example.  Have conversations with young children about their thoughts and beliefs are important to help get them on the right track so that they want grow into stereotype thinking.  I believe that culture of early childhood centers also fall in the same categories preventing girls and boys from choosing what they want to play with and interfering who they would like to play with on the playground.

How you would respond to a parent/family member who informed you they did not want anyone who is perceived (or self-reported) homosexual or transgender to be caring for, educating, and/or interacting with their child.  My response to parents with these types of feelings is to explain to them that the school district is an equal opportunity work place for all people regardless of their race, religious beliefs, sex or gender.  I also, will invite them to read the district rules and policies and if they have further question or request to please talk with the Superintendent of Schools.

Reference:

Course Media: "Start Seeing Diversity: Gender" (Approximate length: 6 minutes)

Collaborative Learning Community

During the past 8 weeks, I have learned so much from each of you my colleagues.  I thank you for sharing your insights and 

your best practices.  I also, thank you for encouraging me during class discussion to express myself with no hesitation.  I 

truly love the book our instructor chose for us to learn from.  I would love to hear from any of you that would like to contact 

me with questions or an up date as you go forward in the rest of our learning.  You can reach me at skatrtuesday@aol.com.  

Lastly, I want to wish each of you continued success now, in our next class and as we all go on in trying to complete the 

master's program.  I would like to share what a instructor once got me to realize and the end of his class.  He would often say 

at the end of each class session "you know to much now."  I would like to say to each of you my colleagues "YOU KNOW 

TO MUCH NOW"!

Audrey Winters

Team collabration

When I reflect over a group that made for the hardest good-bye was working on my family reunion.  I was able to work together with 4 generations in my family.  At the end of the last event of the week we all were introduce as the committee group.  The group consisted of 7 people representing 7 cities.  Each of us took turns reflecting over the hard work and the happiest we all experienced by being a host family.  Afterwards we all hugged each other to signal the respect and love we all felt for one another to end a 2-year journey.  I personally believe the hardest part for me was listening as each of my family members started to share different moments of the past 2-years when working hard putting together our reunion.  This made me realize time spent and shared and that we would not be talking to one another at the same magnitude as we had during the last 2-years. 

The group I remember that had the clearest established norms was a class I was taking during the time I was working on my undergraduate degree.  This group was able to settle on norms with the entire agreement from the group and was able to stick to those norms throughout the semester.  I believe the leadership from the instructor had a lot to do with it.  The instructor of the class I remember gave us such a feeling of why we were there and made me personally feel if we did nothing else we will respect one another.  I loved his attitude because I knew this meant we would get a lot done in class. 

The group I had the hardest time leaving was the family reunion group.  I had formed such deep relations with my family members from out of town and there was such deep history in each and every one of them.  We had formed such a bound and relationship as if we had grown up together. 

One closing ritual I have experienced with my camping buddies was on the last morning of camp we all drink champion and orange juice before breaking camp. 

I believe I will adjourn from my group of colleagues by using good wishes to each one of them on such a hard fought journey over the last years in the program.  I will try and recall funny and hard times we have experienced and assure each one of them how worth it was to hang in there until the very end.  I believe adjourning is essential stage of teamwork because it gives you a chance to reflect and complement one another and say things you may have forgotten to say during the time working on your group project.

Blog Assignment

Blog Assignment:

As I reflect over a conflict the one that comes to mind is an experienced I had with my daughter-in-law.  I will give you a brief example of the situation that happened between my daughter-in-law and myself.

 I had agreed that two of my grandson’s could come over my house from 8 am until 12 noon.  Each of their mothers agreed to pick them up at 12 o’clock pm.  One of the grandson’s mothers ran late in picking her son up from my house.  I had to drop him off actually with his uncle due to an appointment I had for later that afternoon.  I left her a message as to where her son was and about my appointment.  I thought everything was fine until later that week when she refused to answer my call.  After a while she did pick the telephone up and explained how she felt about me having to drop her son off with his uncle before she returned.  The biggest reason she was upset with me was due to not telling her I had appointment.  Even though, I had her to agree to a pick up time before leaving.  She thought I should have gone as far as to tell her my plans.

One strategy I learned in the case of communicating with my daughter-in-law is accepting a personal responsibility for how I communicate in the future with my daughter-in-law.  I now see that the way I communicate is a way of collaborating and learning to cooperate with one another.

After watching the “YouTube” video “natural giving” and to remember to “do the things that we know how to do” is what I learned.  I now know that when communicating with my daughter-in-law I need to fully communicate until we have a full understand of what she expects from me and what I expect from her before moving forward.  I also, learned how we all have challenges with the way we listen to others.  I believe I need to take in account the challenges one maybe experiencing when listening.  These challenges are considered “listening barriers”.  People can have things going on in the life, work, health that can prevent them from always hearing the full information.

References:

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St.    Martin's.

YouTube. (2010). The basics of nonviolent communication. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-129JLTjkQ

Blog Assignment

From looking back over this weeks assignment I was able to recognize a few similarities in my evaluation of myself.  When examing two other people, I noticed I was harder on myself in some areas than other people.  I feel that I am sensitive to the needs of people but, one person told me that I was not. Then on the other hand the other person agreed with me that I’m sometimes over sensitive to the needs of people.

The thing that surprised me was how honest the two people where with me during this assessment. I picked one person at work and my son to complete this assignment.  I was thinking that their answer would closely match my answer but they gave me a different truth.

The insight I gained was that I have to become a little more sensitive to people needs at work.  Another, insight I learned is that, I get very nerves when I speak in groups with people in power.

Changes in my Communication Skills

Changes in my Communication Skills

During this past week I did found myself communicating differently with colleagues and families. As I think back over the past weeks.  I noticed how I was choosing my words more carefully than I have since I started this course.   In addition I have been more aware of my body language than in past times.  A prime example was Friday, when I was in a training class for work and something was said that I did not agree with during the training.  The person I use to be would have said what came across my mind right then, but I remembered this week discussion about the “Platinum Rule”.  So I sat and gather my thoughts before I said anything in the training.   This, I felt was a better way of present information and myself and treating people the way I would like to be treated when communicating information.  This weeks resources has given me a chance to see the areas I need help in and what I need to improve in to help me as a person and a professional.

 I could use “code switching” and “style switching” to communicate with different types of people who’s culture is different than my own.

Taking the time out to think before commenting when communicates with people can help you choose your words more carefully.

Another good strategy to use is allowing a personal to express their selves totally before commenting.  This will give the person who is listening a chance to practice “emphatic listening.”

Reference:

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Army Wives

The movie I watched was Army Wives:

The characters in the movie relationships seemed to be people who are married to one another based on the way they are communicating.

The feelings expressed seemed like anger, happiness, sadness and celebration based on the nonverbal behavior I observed.

The assumptions I made about the characters that most of them appearing in the movie would be that they were married.  Based on the plot and the interpretation of the communication I assumed something bad was going to happen.

My assumptions were close to being correct by watching this movie.  I do believe if I had watched a movie that I was use to watch all my assumptions would have been more correct.