Toastmasters Club #1307

Even though I am a teacher and I should be comfortable talking before an audience the idea to attend a meeting with speakers and contemplating the idea of speaking in public for a number of strangers was something that I was not looking forward this week.

I went as a guest to a Toastmaster meeting near my house on Thursday from 6:15 pm to 7:30 pm.

I was greeted by one of the members and the president, Irene, introduced herself giving me information about the Club “Diagonals Toastmasters Club #1307”. We had a chat while waiting for the rest of members. At 6:15pm most of the members were there.

The meetings started with the president welcoming everyone. The Pledge of Allegiance was directed by one of the members. Next came the introductions from every member, including me, saying our names, who we were, and something about the day or our professions. That was a nice and simple ice breaker. Then they introduced the Functionaries, and the overview of table topics, evaluators, “Ah” counter/grammarian, and timer rules.

The meeting was not one with prepared speeches. The next step was the presentation by the Table Topic Master informing about the topic for the day. The members received a card where they need to write what was for them the best or worse job. The cards were collected and distributed to a different person who needed to give 3 minutes speech about why he/she thought that job in the card was the best or worse job in the world. The Timer-teller showed the speaker a green card at the one minute and a half, a yellow card at 2 minutes, and a red card at 2 minutes and a half to notify they have 30 seconds to wrap up. One by one every member participate talking why they believed that being the assistance of 007 was the best job, or why the Apprentice of Donald Trump was the greatest job. Each of the speakers was funny and very entertaining. All of them showed an introduction, a body, some personal examples, and finishing connecting and wrapping all together.

After the table topic speeches, the evaluators commented in every speech which they believed were the strengths and the weakness points. I found this part very informative.

We all voted for best speech and best evaluator and the same person won both awards.

The “Ah” counter/grammarian report the number of times each speaker made a mistake and the numbers were very low, just once or twice.

Here was when my turn to speak came as comments from members and guest. I thanked them for the opportunity to attend the meeting and shared that I had such a educative time.

They adjourned the meeting after those comments around 7:30pm.

I really enjoyed going to the meeting. It was not as bad as I thought. I had to speak in front of strangers but they made me feel comfortable and welcome. I was familiar with many of the ideas and points that they mentioned in their evaluations, as gestures, standing positions, so knowing the material was very helpful. Dr. D prepared us well!!!

Chapter 16

This chapter pays attention to HOW to deliver the speech and some other pieces that could contribute to the delivering of the presentation.

Some ideas that I consider important in HOW to present the ideas in the speech:

First is coping with anxiety and fears, there are many techniques that help controlling anxiety, like deep-muscle relaxation and breathing exercises. Also, organization of materials and practice the speech gives confidence. Believing and getting familiar with the content of the speech is another approach to control the anxiety and fears. This is very familiar to me, I know about that fear and anxiety that the textbook presents. I am very personal and private person and being in front of people is something that I avoid as much I can because it makes me very uncomfortable. I can do it, I even get good reviews. I learned how to cope but those techniques do not make it easier for me.

When it came to the speakers’ tools I found very interesting how they can assist to deliver a credible and powerful, or a misleading, weak speech, depending how those speakers’ tools were use. How the clothes, the posture, the gestures, movements, the eye contact, the voice can deliver some of that presentation. Reading about this tools it made me remember those political speeches when the speaker transmits a feeling of confidence. It leads you to believe in the words because the speaker seems secure, strong, confident. Other times the speaker cannot even read a speech and mumbles through it (any President comes to mind?), leans over the podium, move nervously, repeat gestures over and over. That are clear examples of insecurity, weakness, and lack of self confidence that a good speaker needs to avoid.

Know the problem YOU SOLVE!!

“Know the problem you solve” was a superior reading that I want to remember. The two main ideas I would like to point out are:

One, “People care about what you can do for them” that is so true. We all at some moment we care about what other can do for us.

Second, “Think as a problem solver” What a positive idea to others and to ourselves, instead of concentrate in problems (negative) work on solving those problems. Outstanding ideas, that remember me the concept that is not what a person say is HOW it is said what is important.

Handouts week 4

I read the handout this week and I went over the first document October 2006 – “The Great Presenter” like 3-4 times. I was reading those skills for a solid presentation in leadership and many of those I use them when preparing my classes. I teach Spanish to 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th graders, none of the classes (audiences) are the same, so it took me some time to learn and prepare a little presentations according their own personalities (Customize it).

Another important part is the context that a speaker or a teacher wants to transmit. Any person that is delivering a speech or a lecture needs to be prepared for any question the audience (or students) could have. I notice that my best classes are when students participate as I am delivering the content; they turn into active listeners when they are part of the lecture making the content easier to understand and easier to remember. The handout said almost the same when referring to speakers and involving the audience.

With every lesson I prepare, I practice different methods, ideas, tones of voices to get the attention from my students (audience). Being prepare makes the class easier for the students and for me, allowing me to relax and have fun.

I am discovering that a teacher shares many of the same skills needed to be a leader. I thought that a leader was something in a higher level, but leaders are found at every level in our daily lives. It is as important to learn how to work in groups as it is to learn how to be a good leader in order to help others.

CHAPTER 13

This chapter is dedicated to another aspect on delivering a speech. The reading presents us with the importance of knowing the audience that will receive the message. A great leader has to learn about the listeners. A leader can not deliver a message in the same way to an audience of 20 year olds or an audience of 50 year olds. Audience is determinate by many factors like gender, educational level, cultural background, religion, or socioeconomic status to name some.

The textbook makes us consider also the necessity of organization as to understand the occasion for the speech, the length of the presentation, the location of the presentation, familiarity with the place. These are aspects to considerate that will help a speaker be organized and make him feel strong and secure at the time of delivering the speech.

The last portion of the chapter is dedicated to another part of the presentation the topic. Finding and developing an appropriate topic provides the speaker with a powerful initial interest and pre-dispose the audience to listen. The interesting topic and contents can maintain the attention and acceptance of the audience.

Quotes of the week in eloqui

I went to the site Eloqui and I found this section about tips, quotes, testimonials, words of the week. My blog and my Space start with quotes every week so I find very appeal those quotes and I wanted to share them.
Enjoy them... Those a little 'touch of culture and knowledge' as some teacher of mine put it referring to quotes.

TIP OF THE WEEK: Differentiators

Consider what is unique about you that your competitor cannot say. Were you on the high school debate or wrestling team and learned to read your opponent? Did you have a difficult set back or disappointment that made you more resilient? Or were you a military kid who attended a new school every year and learned to be adaptable?

In acting parlance, this history is your back story and gives you credibility. The old business model frowned upon injecting your own values and personality into a professional presentation. Today, in order to be trusted and liked, we want to know what shaped your character and viewpoint. The next time you are asked "why you?" you will be prepared-- both personally and professionally.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Poem 875 by Emily Dickinson:

I stepped from Plank to Plank
A slow and cautious way
The Stars about my Head I felt
About my Feet the Sea.

I knew not but the next
Would be my final inch--
This gave me that precarious Gait
Some call Experience.

TESTIMONIAL OF THE WEEK:

"... The entire business world should take your training."
Panos Papadopoulos
Strategic Sales Planning
Mattel

WORD OF THE WEEK:

Animus (AN-uh-muhs) noun. 1. Strong dislike or enmity; hostile attitude; animosity... 2. Purpose; intention; animating spirit... 3. In the psychology of C.G. Jung, the masculine principle, esp. as present in women

Leaders

Great leaders in history are born. I do believe that to be true, and I must disagree with my classmate Darcey, she believes the opposite. Many of us are leaders in many situations in our life, other times we belong to a group and we follow and contribute as a member. I believe being a leader is not hard, being a good leader is difficult. In an earlier post in the discussion site, I mentioned that a leader is like a parent. Brandon put that idea in my mind when I read his post where he mentioned his father as a good leader. A good parent shares many of the skills of a good leader. They are leaders, they need good communication skills, they need to listen to the children, they need to solve conflicts, find solutions, they need to control, direct, influence, and create good members of society.

The part that I read with especial attention was the one dedicated to conflicts, solving conflicts, skills and strategies about management conflicts. Leaders who are skillful in the area of conflicts are valuable leaders because preventing or solving conflicts is something that many of us would find in our groups. I like to learn that conflicts could be seen as positive, depends the personal attitudes toward the conflict. The different approaches to conflict from gender and culture was very informative for me and useful because we live in a community with different cultures and each culture could approach the same conflict in different matters.

The skills and strategies about conflict are points to memorize specially when trying to solve a conflict with my own children. The cool mind, the critical mind to settle conflict rationally given a better chance to solve it by avoiding some behaviors that we could have when approaching a conflict situation. Defining the conflict is something that I knew and I try to use "I" instead of "you" in every conflict. The way we said thing is important. Checking the perception, many times what a person perceive is not the message that was intended. Suggesting solutions works great. I tried this too, and it makes a person focus in a positive way in the direction of problem solving, not in creating a bigger conflict. Looking for alternative solutions and evaluate them, meaning thinking positive for a future agreement. If the conflict is evolving in negative "you" sentences accusing, believing in one perception, not looking for solutions then the problems and conflicts become bigger problems, impossible to be solved until attitudes change.

Groups

I like when a subject makes me think and contemplate subjects that are so familiar to us that we do not think about them often. We see groups and leaders as part of a common life. Many of us could say what a leader is, what is a group. Reading about leadership, groups, and teams was fascinating. I got myself many times telling myself "so that is why..." and "now that makes sense..." or "Great! I could use this idea in my class"

We spend our life in groups, teams and at times we are faced with the role of leader. Today I am a mother and a teacher. That put me in a position of leadership with many responsibilities. I am a part of many groups of family, friends, and job situation.

There are many ideas about relationships in the groups and between groups. Some ideas that got my attention were the advantages and disadvantages of small groups when making decisions and solving problems since those could help me in my job as a teacher. It facilitates the pooling of resources because people with different opinions and information can contribute. A disadvantage could be that a member could be tempted to let someone else handle the duties and responsibilities.

Another close look was the understanding of roles in a group. They are defined as patterns of behavior and those are so important in students. Classes are oriented to motivate students to work in groups. The understanding of their roles in that group situation is something sometimes difficult for a student. I took many notes to help the groups to run smoothly by maintaining roles. The task roles presented me with ideas to help a group in reaching their goals. Finally, I understood how a self-serving role could prevent a group from working effectively, something important to know to elude as much as we can.

Emotional Intelligence in our group

After reading Christina’s post about her experience with her group I need to say that I am more grateful today about my experience with the people I ended working. I went to read my team member’s blogs to see if it was their experience also and I was glad to find out we all agree that our team is working smooth and like a well oiled machine.

The communication between the members has been quick and continuous via e-mail and chat session.

“The emotional intelligence is the ability to motivate oneself, to control impulses, to recognize one’s moods, to empathize, and to hope” Gamble & Gamble 242. According to our work together and our communication for this group project I need to state that the emotional intelligence in our group is very high. All members are motivated, none show any impulse, we empathize with each other and our common goal and we all hope to work our best in the track of the best grade.

The results from our project seem to confirm that our team members process the information in a similar level and understanding. So far no differences were presented at the time of working together, so I am not sure how we could handle the differences of opinions. We agree and accept each other ideas as a part of helping to create the best work as a team.

Gabriel mentioned that we trust each other as different parts of the same team and there I see a very strong point of why we work so well together.

TOTAL GROUP CONSENSUS

I got together with my neighbor Mike, my husband, and my friend Susan. I presented the two options and we were all divided along genders, females opted for the “passion” job for less than desirable salary, while the males went for the less than desirable job for a lot of money. This could be connected with the ideas that women are guided by the heart while men are guided more often with the head. I tried to explore and present each member with the others points of view and kept an open mind about the subject. Some information was missing; like how low was the salary or how non desirable was the job. It seemed that they did not want to agree.

Finally, we all reached a consensus in a different option, to work on the job we decided first but we would look for a more desirable job with a desirable salary.

Group experience

Our group experience so far has been very pleasant. Everyone is open and prepare to work and do the best job possible to obtain the great grade. This afternoon we had a chat session, everyone was there and all of us were making questions and asking what and how we could help in our team's presentation. There was a need for people to help with some points and volunteers show up immediately. From what I saw our team members are ready to work, open to suggestions, accepting challenges and not afraid of collaboration. Leadership is very interesting since one started organization the group, now each member is in charge of their own task, making decisions and checking with the rest of the members for approval. Good Team.

Awareness

This past week brought me some awareness on some aspects in my daily life. It reminded me of how important are listening and relationships among humans. I took notes about those interview points. I did not know that some questions were illegal in a job interview and some that seem illegal were legal. It is a necessity to be informed and educated, ignorance could cost us so much.
Another very interesting aspect for me was the guidelines for increasing effectiveness in interviews. While reading the textbook I thought many of the points in the guideline could also be used in our daily conversation: be prepared, practice sending and reciving messages, effective listening skills, have conviction, be flexible, and be observant.

RELATIONSHIPS

Human beings live in communities interacting with many members of society. That interaction forms relationships. How important it is to form relationships can be seen in most magazines. Just look at the amount of articles dedicated to how to have better relationships. Humans need to have interpersonal relationships to live in society and contact with humans is needed as a function to validate them as a person. When talking about the shooter in Virginia Tech, the media described him as a loner, without relationships or interaction with people, as a clear example of dysfunctional person. It is not common for a person to isolate from society and relationships.

One of the notes in the textbook was the ‘austistic society’ by this term the book refers to that society at home with computers but disadvantaged when it comes to establish human intimacy. I do not question that definition but one could also see it from the point of view that is another way to establish human relationships, many marriages today started by establishing a relationship on line. I want to see as another way to interact with humans through technology.

One of the hardest thing in a person’s relationships is the termination of one caused by death. Ending relationships is never easy and sometimes the need of an expert is needed to help a person go through the grief process.

The characteristics of an effective relationship help me organize what is important in human interactions. They should have enjoyment, acceptance, trust, respect, mutual assistance, confidence, understanding, and spontaneity. I could add that those characteristics should be experienced by any person involve in a relationship. Another essential point in relationships is that they evolve. Many times we forget that part and that could damage the relationship. The same friendship, love that a couple feel when they get married is not the same twenty years later, that relationship evolves with time and could be as strong and pleasant as the day they got married.

Relationships are alive and very different depending if we refer to friendships, romance, family, and work ones. Good communication is one of the important factors in all those interactions.

LISTEN.... LISTEN....

How many times I say that word to my students and to my kids and sometimes to other adults. I will recommend the chapter about listening to everyone. I could not agree more that such an important skill, so necessary during all our life, is never taught in any elementary school to our little ones. Who has not play the game of whispering a message in someone’s ear in a chain of people to find out that the first message has little to do with the message at the end of the chain? This game came to my mind while I was reading our textbook.

Reading about listening I could not help but wonder what will be the explanation for teenagers and their ‘selective hearing’, according to my doctor. They can hear but the way the process the information is very poor. Could it be that since in those years so many other activities and processes are happening in the brain that listening is not one of the priorities?

Once, I heard that the ones who listen will commit fewer mistakes and will get farther in their lives. If a person is an active listener and good in the different types of listening the act communication will be better.

I found it interesting that gender influences the listening style. I was not surprise though, when I read “Women are for Venus Men are from Mars”, that men are more gear towards information in clues while women are more oriented in relationships. We communicate in different parameters and our importance in messages seems not the same for men and women. Could be this pointing to one of the major problems in communication between genders?

Again, maybe understanding how others communicate, what is important for them and how they process information could help us to pay attention and listen in a manner that would improve our understandings of each other.

Nonverbal Comunication

I work with children and they have conflicts and as adults we try to help them resolve them. Children just like adults do not want to get in trouble and sometimes they lie. When you ask questions look at the person. If the look away and blink as they answer you can be very positive they are not telling the truth, according to psychological studies.

Chapter 6 is about nonverbal communication, mostly as it happens in theUnited States. Many of the nonverbal messages are part of a culture too, as it is mentioned in page 146 that crossing legs in Turkey or Ghana is an offensive gesture. I found the information on nonverbal very useful and educative at the moment of interaction with other cultures or tribes. What for me is appropriate could be offensive in other cultures. In my case, one of the misunderstandings was that in Spain it is appropriate to call the attention of a waiter by snapping your fingers, so any person could imagine how ‘rude’ I was according to American’s nonverbal standards. That is a clear example how learning and understanding others is important at the time of interacting and communicating with others.

Conversation with Gabriel

Yesterday I had my weekly exercise experience, the phone conference. I need to say I am a very shy person and introvert person, so as Terra and I agreed in the first conference we had last week, it is a rare situation when I am not very uncomfortable.
This time I had the conference with Gabriel Onwuegbuzie. We determined the job interview was for a teaching position. We followed some of the questions suggested by the guide and other questions in general about our lives to learn about the person that was in the other side of the line on the phone. When someone is in a job interview they also try to learn about that person who wants to work for their company.

The act of communications occurs people between people and in that moment people react to many other aspects not only in hearing the message. The phone conversation lack the visual messages that a person could use to transmit a clear message or use to communicate other message inside the same conversation to complete a message. The tone of voice was clam and clear.

The first interesting note was that Gabriel and I we both speak English with an accent and I thought that how amazing is life that connects a person from Europe with a person from Africa in a conversation in America in a communication class. I saw his origin as a wonderful opportunity for our class to learn about every subject from a personal different point of view. It gives all of us the chance to learn about others. I learned that he is from Nigeria and he came to California four years ago to work in a company that works with Dialysis. The fact that he moved from his own country with the desire to follow a dream tell us how strong person he is in working for his goals, something that is valued in any kind of job. He is in a program dealing with the Criminal Justice system. He is very interesting in the expansion of technology and the different manner that we could today communicate with each other. I asked him how he will react if his boss or a coo-worker asked him a question about his job and he did not know the answer. Would he admit to that person he did not know the answer or he will try to elude to answer? His answer was very fresh and adequate since he will do both things in an elegant manner, as I see it.

Gabriel is the leader in our team and you can sense his leadership in our conversation. I felt he likes to direct and to organize his life and the duties he has in his life. He could be a good acquisition to our Criminal Justice system with his qualities of organization, leadership and interest in others.

Emotional Intelligence Test

Today I did the Emotional Intelligence Test, one of our Assignments for this week. When I do one of this test I always wonder if I should mark the first answer I believe is more appropriate or the one that I believe is better after giving a thought or two...many times they ended being different.
As you know passion rules my live and that gets in the way of my emotions, so I was surprised to see that my emotional intelligence was good. I was expecting that I was too emotional and a lower score.
I wonder if the picture that we have of ourselves is the same that we project to others, or if a test could describe us more efficient that ourselves, what do you think? This test tells me that the way I see myself is different for what this test states.

Here are my results and how the test interpreted my scores:

Self-report Component
Subscale IQ score = 121
Subscale percentile = 93

According to your self-report answers, your emotional intelligence is good. People who score like you do feel that they have little trouble understanding and dealing with their own emotions and those of others. They generally are able to overcome difficulties in their lives and they are able to control their moods in all but the most trying of times. It’s easy for them to motivate themselves to overcome obstacles and reach their goals. In addition, they find social interactions to be quite easy and fulfilling, for several reasons. They are comfortable allowing themselves to get close with others, and feel comfortable being vulnerable enough to establish intimacy. They also report having an easy time offering support to others; this is likely due to an empathetic nature and a clear mind when it comes to offering good advice.

Group experience

My team experience has been one of the easiest and best coordinated that I had so far at National University. Gabriel is coordinating the group and keeping us informed about the progress that we are doing. The work is well divided among all of us so we all can contribute equally to the final product. Last week all the members from the group got in contact. We lost two members after they dropped the class, but still we are 5 members ready to do our best. This week some of our job is being shared among the members to help others with their tasks. I am very happy how my team members are responding to the assignment.

Virginia Tech

How important is communication in our lives? Look what happened In Virginia. They blamed the lack of communication as a major factor in the outcomes of the incidents. The reporters and the officials pointed that better communication between the agencies at Virginia Tech should have resulted in a lock down of the college after the first incident at 7:00am and those measures could save the live of others.
The new options we have to communicate put students in touch with family members during those terrified moments when shots were heard at the buildings letting them share and comfort each other.
We are learning that communication could be used as a important tool in our lives and the lack or poor communication could affect our lives in a negative manner.

Avatar experience and Answers yahoo

Yesterday I went to the site for Avatar. I did not know a word about that site or what I was going to find there. I was very surprise to find that kind of site since I did not know something like that existed. I have to agree with other students that I had a great time going over appearances, set, appeals. I was not sure if I wanted to make my avatar like me or something like an illusion of me. I decided to make my first avatar as a reflect of a part of my life. Yoga helped me physical and mentally with my life. That practice is giving me patience and understanding about who I am and that for all of our readings in the last chapters is the first step to a better communication by understanding ourselves first we could understand others. My classmates are sending me their Avatars and some of them also reflect something that they like or they identify with in their identities. It was a fun assignment and I believe it could be a good idea to use it instead of the picture that many sites require us to put on but this is an opinion from a private person.

The answers yahoo site was also new to me and I found it very interesting too and as Dr. D called it addictive too. The site allows a person to ask questions, answer questions and discover posts. I set my profile and I felt I needed to post a question to see how that worked. I got a lot of answers in matter of minutes. I answered a question too and now I am very curious to know how my answer was rated.

Hope others have a good time too with those assignments.

My space

I was going over my classmates My Space pages and I saw that some of them had been there for some time; their pages are very organized and structured. I tried to understand the site but I do not find it very user friendly. For example I took me quite a while to learn how to post comments. It could be because most of my friends do not belong to my space and we do not use it to communicate. Maybe it could be a matter of generations. My circle of friends and family, we move and communicate inside the circle of e-mails and messenger accounts. I could see a great, interesting, and effective way of communicating with your friends and opening your circle of friends to others if most of the people I communicate through Internet also belong or subscribe to My Space. Right now, I see My Space as a place where is hard for me to extend. Maybe I should ask for some advice to find a better use of the site.

The other side of the coin

I was reading our chapter 2 in our textbook and I found myself wondering about a sentence:"We take a giant step toward improving intercultural communication by accepting the fact that our culture is not superior to other" Gamble & Gamble, 33. I agree with this sentence; communication could be negatively affected if a person believes his/her culture is superior to others. The other side of the coin is that also communication could be affected negatively if a culture believes that is inferior to other. Some times I heard Latinos saying that they are as smart as other ethnic groups; if they do not believe in themselves and their self-image, the mental picture of themselves is low ans it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, as mentioned in our textbook in page 56, to enter in conflict during intercultural communication. It is as an important is to accept that our own culture is not superior to other, as it is to believe that our own culture is not inferior to other cultures.

Phone conference

Last Friday I talked with Terra, one of our classmates in Hub 420. I was not comfotable with the assigment, I was described as introvert in the Tapt Assessment and I am a shy person. I have to say that I went to Terra's Blog site to know her a little better and have questions ready in case we did not know to continue the conversation. My fears went away in minutes. Our conversation went easy. It flowed very naturally and the 15-20 minutes passed without notice. The questions I prepared were not needed but the information I found in her blog was helpful to maintain a natural conversation. We talked mostly about our situations in National and the assignment, some exchange information about our lives.
The opinions that I formed from her according to our conference is of a very dinamic, open and outgoing person.

Barriers of Communication:

Barriers of Communication:

Environmental.- The surroundings that could have some negative impact on a discussion are the noises that can affect the message interfering the capacity to send or receive the information. In sign language the absence of light could have a negative impact since people could not see the signs clearly.

Verbal.- The handouts mention some ways of speaking that get in the way of good communication, as the use of slangs, jargon, or acronyms. I would add the accent of some people depending where they are coming from. I use to have a difficult time understanding people who were from England or Australia, and I know that there are times when people can not understand me because of my accent.

Interpersonal.- Here is when people can have a negative effect on communication due to incorrect assumptions or different perspectives. I could see how communication between different cultures or races can encounter this kind of barriers. My example is that in Spain a stranger should not look at people, so when I got to the States I felt very uncomfortable with strangers on the street because they look at me for what was a normal length of time for them but too long for my culture, making me believe that I had something wrong or they were very rude.

I will minimize potential barriers in my communication with others by learning about other cultures, trying to be aware the differences and have them in consideration at the time of communication. Knowledge opens your mind to the understanding of others and yourself. To the tolerance necessary in a better communication by developing the listening skills that help to process the information that a person receives. These are some points that could help me to diminish the potential barriers in communication.

Assessments for Week 1

DISC Assessment

It took me some time to decide which were my most-to-least working behavior characteristics. The results did not surprise me, thouhg. My highest score was in “S” Steadiness: “Sympathetic and Cooperative. S's are helpful people who like working behind the scenes, performing in consistent and predictable ways, and being good listeners” DISC Profile DISC personality test, http://www.disc-report.com/?gclid=CKfuyv3vsIsCFU9FGAod2ihP3A . I do not like to be in the spot but I am not afraid of work, so my team members now have a better idea how I could contribute to the final project. My lowest score was in “D” Dominance, so that make sense to the way I feel and behave in working in a group.

Tieger Assessment of Personality Type (TAPT)

My TAPT results also did not surprise me. I did this test before and got the same results. My profile is as follows:

“I” Introvert, prefer to focus their attention and process the world on their inner world.

“S” Sensers, prefer to deal with information that is tangible, factual, and objective. They prefer data to ideas. They typically like spreadsheets, reports, charts, graphs. facts, and figures.

“F” Feelers base their decisions on their person-centeres values. They strive for harmony and equanimity and base their decisions on their own and others’ feelings.

“J”Judgers prefer order, structure, and organization. They’re the “Things I’ve Got to Do Today” list makers (this is so me). They like to feel in control of their environment and their life. They prefer to start a project, complete it, and then move on to the next. They are linear thinkers.

The way I understand this is that we have some qualities from all the characteristics but depending of our ideas, values and behavior some are more constant than other in our own personality. From all these four categories the last one “J” is the one that describe me better in the way I direct and behave in life.

NLP Style

My score here was almost the same in the visual, auditory and kinesthetic, just a difference of 1 point. I did it again and did not change much. The visual area is predominant by 1 point in the way I appreciate and interact with the world and others. I could compare it with the acquisition of knowledge, not every child learns the same way. The same method does not work well for every child and the NLP confirms the theory I have that some children learn better by touch, others by hearing and others by visualization. So, phonetics that works well to teach reading to many children may not be useful for others that need a different technique and approach to reading.

I posted "I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand." - Chinese Proverb before reading about the NLP Style and now I see some relationship between them, do you agree with me?

My cyber community

My cyber community

The way I decided to select whom I will allow in my network is by classmates, friends and family. My criteria is based on sharing this experience with my classmates first and extending it to my circle of friends and family second. In every act of communication humans apply knowingly/unknowingly filters and judgments to people who contact them, culture differences is one of those filters “Whether we are aware of it (differences) or not, culture influences communication” Essentials of communication ,27.

I am guilty of judging others based upon the way they communicate with me. My position in the States came as a person from another culture. Most of the time I communicate with people that do not share my culture, my language, or my ethnicity, so I am aware of those differences at the time of communication. I take this experience as an opportunity to interact, meet and enrich my life with other cultures. Since I came to this country, I take every occasion that I found to learn from other groups and understand the way they see and perceive life. I sometimes hesitate when interacting with persons that I am not familiar because I am afraid I could misunderstand them or even insult them because of ignorance about their traditions. I try to have an open mind and judge people by the way they communicate with me and always be aware that we are different and in the differences we create the individuality that make all of us unique. Here I would like to mention the note from our textbook where it says that in Japanese the same word means different and wrong. I do not see how something different could be wrong, maybe out of the ordinary, but that does not mean it is wrong.

Trying...

I feel like a new kid with a new toy, without instructions and exploring, trying here and there, founding and looking, guessing and overwhelm with so many things, but learning my way in this new world that is opening to communicate with other through technology. The possibilities are so many that I am a little scare of what this could bring... other than many hours trying and exploring, so far it is fun and interesting.

"I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand." - Chinese Proverb