I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day and got to
eat some delicious chocolate and other candy! During this week’s class period Lauren
and McKaila presented over chapter 4, “Interpersonal Communication Skills”. I
thought Lauren and McKailas’ presentation ran very smoothly and was very
helpful in realizing that I should think about the different options a student
has before giving them my assistance or advice on something that is troubling
them. I know that I am usually an advice giving individual because that is how I
feel I can be a better leader for other individuals. For peer mentoring though I
must be able to distinguish the difference between when advice giving is more
appropriate or when interpersonal communication is the better way to go about a
situation. Being able to make this distinction will definitely make me a better
peer mentor for my future mentees.
My next thought about Lauren and McKailas’ presentation was
the first small, but funny video clip we watched at the very beginning of their
presentation. This video showed both advice giving and interpersonal skills
being used incorrectly. The advice that was given was not particularly good
advice because he basically told his friend to go marry this girl they both
know. He also did not use great interpersonal skills by not listening to his
friend’s story very intently or caring what his friend’s decisions for the
given situation was. I can probably speak for most people by saying that I don’t
like to talk just to hear my own voice so if I had a friend who was doing this
to me I probably wouldn’t go to them for advice or help with a situation.
Chelsee’s presentation at the end of class helped me to get
a better idea of what different terms are used to describe interpersonal skills
and advice giving. I never realized that giving advice was simpler and more of
a process of steps when compared to using interpersonal skills. I hope that I can
get better at both of these skills and be better at realizing when to use one
skill over the other during this and next semester!
Matt,
ReplyDeleteLike you, I sometimes jump to giving advice because I feel like that is what is needed in the situation. At times this may be true, but I'll need to continue improving my interpersonal communication skills in order to get better at deciding whether or not advice is good in various situations. I also enjoyed the clip Lauren and McKaila showed at the beginning. It was an entertaining example of something we should definitely not do as peer mentors! However, it also helps you realize you may be having poor communication at times and not even realize it.
Kira
Matt,
ReplyDeleteLike you and Kira I also lean towards more the advice giving part of communication. I think the reason behind this is wanting to help the one in need as much as I can and thinking advice best accomplishes this. Chelsee's presentation made me realize that interpersonal communication is also critical in helping someone in need to allow them to work on their problems and figure them out on their own. I need to work on focusing more on interpersonal communication and I hope to have the opportunity to do this as a mentor.
See you in class,
Makayla
Matt,
ReplyDeleteI agree that I was unaware of the differences between advice giving being simpler than interpersonal listening. I always thought that giving advice was a better way to help people if I already know the steps I think would be best to take in order to solve problem. I also hope that I am able to learn how to work on my interpersonal listening and try to help the freshman grow as individuals this way. Good blog, I'll see you in class tomorrow!
Angie