Tuesday, March 22, 2011

What I have learned in communications the past 6 weeks.

In the past 6 weeks I have learned alot about communication. I learned that you have to have active listening to understand what the hell is going on in the class. Yes I wasn't the greatest at Active listening. I also learned about interviewing. How to be prepared for the interview and go into it with a positive attitude and hope for a positive outcome. Also know your stuff, do your homework. That is key when going into an interview so when you get asked questions about the company you can actually answer them. Have really good eye contact and ask questions. That is another key to an interview. My teacher scared the living shit out of me. I seriously could not do the whole eye contact thing with him and that is one of the things I had to work on my self in this class. He was preparing us for the real world since everything involves verbal and non verbal communication. One thing about Jonathan is he was a pretty cool teacher and worked with me on my public speaking skills. He gave me tips and things that I need to change or work on. The last two week of class I went through a rough time and we learn about aggressive, passive, and assertive behavior, which I did take an encounter to because all the issues I tried to solve the other person was aggressive. The whole assertive thing kinda helped out in my situation. Over all this was a great call and I learned about many things on how to communicate and what the whole social mirror and Saphir-Whorf Hypothesis and the list can go on. But I am sick and this is my last blog for my communications class. It was great and I had a blast when I actually showed up to school.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Communication Presentation

WOW!!! That is all I can say. Today in class we had to do a 20 minute presentation and I chose to do it on Boxers. Not the boxers you wear but the breed of Boxers. We had over a week to get prepared for it, the teacher gave us time in class to get prepared and he even gave us tips on how to present it. Well of course I was not prepared at all. I had a horrible week that kept me from going to work and I couldn't even show up to school. That's how bad the situation was. Today I woke up and freaked out. Made it to work on time but sat there and couldn't figure out how the hell I was suppose to get prepared for this presentation. I didn't have anything ready like how the boxer originated from, how they got the name or anything. I just had my personal experience being an owner of many boxers. After work I called my mom to have her print of some information and went and picked it up. When I got home I got my prop ready... BOO the boxer puppy and of course I forgot my boxer book. When I arrived at school I got about 10 minutes to prepare. Wasn't enough. The dog was a distraction, I was nervous, couldn't focus and I almost blew the presentation. Then my teacher asked what my conclusion was and how I got involved into the boxer. That's when I started to loosen up and became more comfortable. I had good eye contact, posture, and I spoke clearly and at a good pace. After all of the presentations my teacher gave us constructive criticism on our presentations and he said that once I started to talk about my personal experience owning over 12 boxers (8 being puppies) he said that's when he noticed that I don't do well when I am trying to present from a script. I do a better job at telling stories and the information that I already know. The point is.. be prepared when it comes to do things like this. The audience will be more interested and things will flow smoothly. No matter what the issue is focus on the things that need to be done to get your mind of the horrible situation and BE PREPARED.