Evaluations as a Communicator

One of the differences that surprised me the most regarding the communication evaluations was that they perceived me to be more confident in myself than I actually did. The one thing that I try to work on every day in my life is gaining more self-confidence which leads to confidence in all other aspects of my life. When speaking about a topic that I am very passionate about of course I am going to have more confidence in what I say and how I present myself. Although, there will always be a part inside of me that doubts what I say and hopes that the other person can follow what it is I am saying without confusion and disarray. One of the individuals that I had fill out the evaluations was one of my staff members from my school. I thought it would be interesting to see how she felt about my communication skills since she sees them in action on a daily basis and of course when conducting staff meetings. I guess on the outside I have a tendency to come across cool and collected when speaking to staff one on one and as a small group during meetings. Since I have been working with my staff for some time I am more comfortable speaking in front of them but the uneasiness still lingers now and again. In essence the fact that I come across as more confident to others is a good thing, but the fact that I don’t have the same confidence in myself could present itself as a challenge in my continuing communication skills.

I believe I had posted before about technology taking over much of our communication during the day, whether it is through texts, emails, Facebook, tweets, instagram etc. “In blogs, in chat rooms, and on dating and social networking sites, the presentation of self can be more controlled than in face-to-face encounters (O’Hair & Wieman, 2012, pg. 58). I feel this can be harmful when you are truly faced with a conversation with someone on the other side of a computer or phone screen. Yes this can give you practice when it comes to communicating with someone but speaking face to face is different than speaking to someone over the computer. “Sherry Turkle, a technology researcher, notes that the online environment offers young people a virtual “identity workshop” where they can try on different identities with little risk (O’Hair & Wieman, 2012, pg. 60). I feel it is important that children today learn the importance and effective skills for communicating with individuals in person.

Self-monitoring is a phrase that I have heard throughout my courses here at Walden and is important when continuing your journey in the early childhood field in order to keep improving. O’Hair and Wieman (2012) have shown me the difference between high-self monitoring individuals and low-self monitoring individuals. I never knew there were two different types of people when self-monitoring. “Communicating successfully involves finding the appropriate level of self-monitoring for the situation and the people involved” (O’Hair & Wieman, 2012, pg. 56).

 O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.