Communication Advancement
OVERALL REFLECTION
For my Competence in communication advancement, I am submitting a cross-cultural engagement presentation, as well as a template for a newsletter, which demonstrates how I was able to gain more experience in public speaking, as well become more familiar with different technological forms of communication. I was able to give a few presentations to groups of people, and at times I would use PowerPoint slides to aid in the communication. I also helped develop the template that our church will use to communicate through newsletters. My experience with public speaking before was limited to announcements, but I was able to gain a lot of knowledge about visual aids and helpful analogies through my presentations, teachings and lessons.
Learning Reflection
As I developed and demonstrated communication, I learned that I would inadvertently interrupt people by completing the sentences, (and embarrassingly enough, finish them completely incorrectly). This stemmed from my impatience, I wanted to be understood more than I wanted to understand them. Through the process of leading discussions, I was able to slow down to let others complete what they were saying. This small thing was a huge area of growth for me because I had always thought I was a good listener, but when I took the time to really understand someone else, I found that I was just skimming the surface, and not allowing myself to go deep with other people.
Lifelong Development Reflection
As a result of the experiences documented by these artifacts, I will continue to develop in communication by familiarizing myself with helpful analogies and visual representations, so that I will be able to craft better presentations, lectures, sermons, and teachings, and be more confident in what I am talking about. Next time I will be more concise, honest, and clear about what my opinions are so that there will be fewer things that burden communication. I also plan on allocating more time in my discussions, so that I will not rush people to get to what I want to say, but allow them the opportunity to be understood.