Using Communication Skills to Enact Change

I feel I am an effective communicator. I took the quiz in this Module’s learning resources and received a score of 26, which means I feel comfortable communicating in most situations. By using my communication skills I feel strongly that I could enact change where needed. Two communication skills I find important are the ability to be clear and complete about a topic. In the case of this course project the topic would be enacting change on a policy about implementing play-based curriculum into classrooms. Two additional skills that I find very important when communicating are always being aware of individual differences and agree to disagree with the audience. When presenting an idea or even an argument it is important to be clear and set a purpose for what you are going to say. In addition to setting a purpose people like to understand the goal for the message up front so I like to be forward with my intended goal in the beginning of the conversation. Making a message complete is really the most important step in the entire communication process. Giving the audience a “call to action” piece makes the message complete because it directly tells the audience what I want them to do. Making sure the audience has all the information needed to carry out their action plan such as contact information, names, dates, and locations of other meetings is vital also.

            My own strengths in communication skills come from my early college years. At the local four-year university I attend I was a campus tour guide for incoming freshman and their families. It was my job to spend one hour with them and get them to buy into the university and sign on to come there. I had to use persuasive communication skills in my role as a tour guide. I also spoke one weekend a month at the university’s open houses for families and incoming students. There were always between 250-400 people sitting in the audience and I would sit up on stage and answer questions that they had. Again my communication skills were very important in this role as well.

             In my current roles at my school where I teach now I lead many faculty meetings and event meetings. I am the yearbook advisor, the chair for the field day committee, and the chair for the Earth Day committee. In all of these roles I need effective communication skills. I always have opportunities for improvement in these roles and feel that I have tweaked my communication skills each year as these duties and events come about.

            Whether it is speaking to small groups at faculty meetings or large crowds at open houses I always enjoy communicating with other people. Though policy discussions and interactions with higher-level officials are not areas where I have had much experience I am always looking forward to taking on new speaking roles and communicating with interesting and passionate people. 

Social Media's Influence on Policy Issues

The types of social media that I feel would be effective to communicate my issue of implementing play-based curriculum back into the classroom would be educational blogs and You Tube. Using an educational blog would be a way to produce and share quality content about play-based curriculums and how they have positive effects on students. Educational blogs also create social interactions among teachers and administrators and even curious political leaders. When on an educational blog users use critical thinking skills and respond with ideas and examples about the topic being discussed. As for the benefits of using You Tube there are many. By posting videos a sense of community can be created. Many viewers on You Tube are looking to share and engage with others in their field of interest. Videos can create a buy in because a personality can be portrayed through the use of a video. You Tube allows people to link to each other and to link to experts in their own field. The use of You Tube videos can also help to show aspects of a classroom because live video can be taken inside a classroom with permission. In the case of play-based curriculum students engaging in play-based curriculum activities could be videotaped and shared on You Tube to show the positive effects and benefits of that type of curriculum. I believe that educational blogs would reach teachers and administrators. If teachers and administrators read and interact on the blog then they may reach out to their school boards and state leaders to start facilitating more play-based curriculums.  The use of You Tube could reach around the world and captivate teachers, administrators, political leaders, and government officials. Being able to watch real children in real classrooms benefiting from play-based curriculum may spark their interest to get involved and advocate for this type of curriculum. A challenge with educational blogs is people do have to take the time to read and respond to them. The benefit though is that conversations can flow and ideas can be generate between experts in the field through the use of blogs. You Tube has the challenge of gaining permission to use videos of children and having the permission from all parties involved in the video. The idea of “putting” kids out on the internet can be a scary thought. On the flipside the benefit of using You Tube is the impact a video with real children learning and interacting can have on the educational viewers. Either type of social media is an outlet to present the idea of using play-based curriculum in classrooms and to show the positive effects it can have on children and their future successes.

Three Professional Goals

Before beginning this class just reading the title was overwhelming to me. I wondered if I would understand all the different polices and systems. My current knowledge on government and politics is not deep and I thought that might make my learning adventure in this course difficult. I also wondered how much of a part would or do I have in developing systems and new polices or revising ones that are already in place. At my county level I have little to no involvement with systems and policymaking. When I think about systems and policies I think about administrators and members of the board of education, not the teachers. Though at many meetings I have heard teachers say, “I wish we had an opinion, we are just peons in this whole system.” I think and hope through this course I will learn that I do have an opinion and I hope to gain knowledge on the systems and policies so that I can play an active role in my county when implementing new polices and systems.

My three goals that would assist me in being more effective in my professional role include:

1.)        Better understanding the types of early childhood systems and what the differences are within the systems.

2.)        Learning how to contribute and play an active role in creating new policies and systems at my county level.

3.)        Begin to understand the current policies and systems that are in place in my county so that I may help and support families more effectively. 

Final Thoughts on Coursework

When reflecting back over this course there were many things I enjoyed. The course readings, videos, and discussions were all insightful and thought provoking. I felt I really connected with all of Shaun’s videos. He is such an inspiring person and has led a hard life that he has learned from and is now teaching others about. I love how he took his incredibly difficult experiences and turned them into positive ways to learn and help others. During my own research for my course project I studied and researched the effects living in poverty has on children and their families. What I was surprised most to learn was that 20% of our children nationwide are living in poverty and that 9% of them are living in extreme poverty. These numbers really made me think about what we can do as teachers to help these children who are living in these difficult situations. My hope is through my research and future research I will be able to find more resources to help these students and their families. My ultimate goal is to find a way to give these families the help and resources they need to avoid living in poverty situations altogether. Being able to provide families with a list of local resources that are available to help them is a place to start. Many families in my local school district don’t know what is available to them or how to access what is. Through my research in this course I learned a great deal through one of my interviews about our local YMCA programs that help children in need and their families. One program in particular stood out to me called Y-TEENS.  This program provides group activities three days a week after school to sixth-eighth grade students who come from poverty living situations. Activities include: gymnastics, team sports, swimming, WII sports, and crafts. The program is always looking for energized compassionate mentors to provide great role modeling. I am very interested in becoming involved with this program as a mentor because it services an age group of children I don’t normally work with. My future aspirations include working with a wide age range of students in need not just children who are early childhood age. I feel that sometimes the middle school age group gets overlooked when needing help so I would like to reach out to that age range. Seeing children in need always motivates me. Whether that need is food, clothing, personal care, or academic support I feel that anyway I can help I would like to. Through this course I took a deeper look at how to assist families living in poverty in need of services for housing and food. Overall I have taken away many new ideas of how to help families, what their needs are, and most important what the lasting effects are on their children if we as teachers don’t get involved.

The Interview Process

The challenge I chose for the Course Project is “Children Exposed to Risk, Stress, or Trauma” with my subtopic being poverty. For the Course Project I was able to interview a school counselor and school health nurse, both who work with families in need every day. The interviewees have combined 34 years of experience working with families who face the challenge of living in poverty.

The interview process has brought both successes and challenges, but the information I received from both interviewees was informative and applicable. Both interviewees were able to provide me with actual experiences they had with families and multiple examples of how poverty effected those families. I enjoyed getting the perspective of a nurse and a counselor because their views had similarities, but some of their concerns differed. I really thought that meeting with them in person and reading their body language and facial expressions about certain questions was very telling, I would have missed that piece if the interviews had been conducted in a different manor. The only challenged I faced was finding common time to meet with each of my interviewees. It seems that for over a week we would set up a time to meet and then one of us could not meet due to a conflict that would arise.

Mrs. Robison the school counselor I interviewed said, “Interpersonal relationships are the key importance among the poverty families.” I really thought about this statement and related it to families I have worked with or currently work with. I realized how much truth is in this statement. So many families ban together who live in poverty and their family time and togetherness is extremely important to them and overrides just about everything else. I really started to think about families who don’t find PTA meetings important to attend or who never complete the Home School Connections projects that are sent home with their child. They find that spending time with their family members doing things they enjoy and have interest in are more important. I had to think this idea even though from a teacher perspective I don’t agree not attending events and not completing projects I now understand the why.

As for the Course Project, I am working on the annotated bibliography part 4. I have enjoyed reading many of the articles and searching for ones that are applicable to my topic. I have sharpened my research skills and scholarly level reading skills during this Course Project. I am still working on my interviews and compiling the information I gather from them. The interview part of the Course Project was the most rewarding for me. I am a people person and enjoy sitting down and talking with others who have a passion for helping children and their families.

When reflecting on the Course Project as a whole one question I would like to pose is, “What types of coping strategies would be beneficial for a family who is new to living in a poverty situation?” 

Course Project-Challenge

My challenge will be: Children exposed to risk, stress, or trauma.

My sub topic is: Poverty

I selected this topic because it is one that I work with every day in my role as a kindergarten teacher at a small rural school in Western, Maryland. We have over 73% of our students in our school who receive aid and qualify for extra services because of their families poverty level. We are beginning to see more and more homeless families entering our school community that need extra help. This school year I have a little girl in my class that is part of a one of the homeless families. She has four sisters and the family lives in a community  house with other homeless families. The student in my class needs simple things such as socks, gloves, and shoes. As we know if basic needs are not meant then students can't learn. I always feel attached to students in need and want to help in any way that I can. In education there are always big changes happening especially with state testing and standards, but on a smaller level there are bigger challenges to be met. I feel strongly that working with families who live in poverty is very important. The long term effects that living in poverty can have on children are immense. Cognitive delays and developmental delays are common in children who grow up in extreme poverty. Many families do not even know what resources are avialable within the community to help them. It is the school and teacher's job to inform the families of resources and reach out to help them help their children. We as educators can be the first line of defense! 

Questions that I have about working with families who live in poverty: 

How do I approach a family that I know needs help and doesn't seem to want any? 

How can I identify families in need? 

Can I help the children in my class without helping their siblings in other classrooms? 

Should I collaborate with other teachers in my building to work together to help families? 

What types of resources should I offer families?