Week 6

This week we are learning about listening. We listened to Jackie read us a very good article. Half the class wrote down how many times they heard the word and and the other half listened to the whole article. At the end we had to write down what we remembered about the article. It was interesting that the people that had to count "and" didn't remeber what the article was about. A few people that did listen didn't remember a couple of things because they got stuck on particular parts of the article. We also did an actity where we paired up and one person talked about school and the other was listen. The group that was listening at first pretended that they weren't listening. For me this made it hard to communicate. I found myself getting lost in what I was trying to say and trying to add more information because I thought that what I was saying was not important. We also praticed on our interviewing skills. This is one area that I am still working on.

Part 2: Barriers to Listening

I think one of my barriers is message overload. With all the information that I am getting at school and home I find that I start not listening to half of what is being said. "To deal with the overload, we often screen the talk around us..."(Wood, 2010, p.151) I think this is how I deal with overload. Another barrier I have is noise. If it is really noise in a room or even my phone I don't pay attention as much as I should. The third barrier that I have is preoccupation. I do this alot. With all the multi tasking that needs to be done, I find that I am thinking about something totally different rather that listening to what I need to. I have to ask what was said because I didn't hear the message.

Wood, J. T.  Interpersonal communications: Everyday encounters (6^th ed.).  Boston, MA: Wardsworth.

Week 5

This week was about nonverbal communication. On Monday we started with a warm up activity where we had to come up with a total of 11 fingers in the middle of the circle without talking. It took us a couple of times but finally manage to communicate using foot stomps. It was funny trying to communicate without verbal words. We also did a back to back drawing where one person had to explain a drawing while the other person had to draw the picture we sat back to back and also did it facing each other. The drawing that we did back to back I think was harder because you could read any facial expressions to see if  what you were trying to communicate to the other person was being received clearly. It was a lot of fun to see the drawings.  On Wednesday we did a warm up activity where without communicating we lined up in alphabetical order by last name. Misty was a great help since she knew every ones names. Then we had to line up according to our birthday months. That was a little trickier but we finally got it. We watched several movie clips on nonverbal communication. The one I thought was interesting was how touch is the first sensory experience that we feel as humans. The artifacts that people place in their homes or offices was interesting. I didn't realize how it tells everyone about who you are. "We use artifacts to announce our identities and and to project a particular image to others." (Woods, 2010, p. 133)

Part 2
I chose to read the article, Nonverbal Communication: The Poser of Nonverbal communication and body Language. The ten things that I really liked were:
- It take more than words to create relationships with people
-Nonverbal communication is a vital form of communication
- Many people send confusing or wrong nonverbal signals
-That our faces are able to express a lot of different emotions without saying a word
-The way that we move can tell a person a lot about us
-In different cultures and regions gestures can mean different things
-The way we say things is more important than what we say
-To maintain the flow of a conversation you need good eye contact
-Nonverbal communication needs your full concentration or you miss important clues
-We communicated a great deal through touch



Wood, J. T.  Interpersonal communications: Everyday encounters (6^th ed.).  Boston, MA: Wardsworth.

week 4

Part 1
This week we talk about words. We created a wordle with words we associate with language. Creating the wordle was a lot of fun. Then we broke up into two groups and created a bridge. The bridge that each group created needs to be an exact copy. We got to send out one person to communicate with someone from the other group to try and explain how the bridge was going to be constucted. I can see how easy it is for miscommunication to happen causing hurt and angry feelings. We all communicate and interpret differently. There were a few frustrastions and people gave up on the task.  The brigde however did look alike. We discussed the activite on Wednesday and how we think it went and how we felt.


 Part 2
We use two kinds of rules to govern communication, Regulative and Constitutive. These rules are usually shaped by our cultures.(Woods, 2010)

Rules that regulate how I:

Talk with elders: With respect. They are older and usually wiser
Interact at dinner time:No fighting or arguing. Talk about how the day went
Have first exchanges in the morning: Tell husband I love him. Tell children to have a good day at school and that I love them.
Respond to criticism form your supervisor:Don't really say anything. Don't like conflict
Greet casual friends:Say hello and ask how they are doing
Talk with professors:Same rescpect as you give authority figures.


Wood, J. T.  Interpersonal communications: Everyday encounters (6^th ed.).  Boston, MA: Wardsworth.