Communications

Through my studies and professional work I have shown communication competency by:

1. formulating and carrying out plans for internal and external communications;
2. demonstrating facilitation skills;
3. recognizing and applying an understanding of individual and group behavior in normal and stressful situations;
4. facilitating teamwork;
5. demonstrating an understanding of conflict resolution and problem-solving strategies;
6. making presentations that are clear and easy to understand;
7. responding, reviewing, and summarizing information for groups;
8. communicating appropriately, speaking, listening, and writing, for different audiences such as students, teachers, parents, community, and other stakeholders; and
9. understanding and utilizing appropriate communication technology;

Reflection:

Communication was one of the competencies I thought I had a really good understanding of before starting the program, but after being presented with some challenging situations to communicate to the community or other audience about, I realized I still had much to master in this capacity of administration. I do well working with different personalities and individual behaviors to communicate expectations and work through conflict resolutions, but I was not prepared to handle situations like a mass communique to the community in response to a hypothetical situation involving inappropriate sexual behavior from a teacher. My first attempts at drafting those messages were not the quality I expect myself to be at, so after working with some feedback, I was able to create products included here that I was confident in.

What I felt more comfortable with before and even more during the program was my experiences communicating in difficult or tense situations with individuals or groups. I have officiated soccer and football for almost 10 years, so I have already had experience working with different personalties to help them come to an agreement or at least be able to see the other side of the argument. I also felt comfortable with different modes of communication from written communiques to in-person messages to recorded and live video productions to disseminate and carry out plans of communication for stakeholders both inside and outside of the physical school building. I learned the need for open, honest communication as administration during my program, and for internal matters especially, it's better to over-communicate than hide behind a veil and barely communicate at all.