Interview gone wrong...

In class today, we talked about different interview styles. Interviews can be serious or playful, they can be structured or free-flowing, or they can be comfortable or awkward. There's an example of an interview that started with some structure, and then totally derailed. There are a few attempts at getting back on track, but then the speakers get distracted again.  There are some excellent, positive listener cues used throughout the clip, though! 

Something wrong with my...pants?

I was picking up on some interesting nonverbals in my Enriched English 11 class yesterday. While I was talking about the 1920s, I noticed a couple students staring downward towards my pants rather than at my face or hand gestures. I figured it was nothing until I glanced over at them a second time, and they were still doing. I was suddenly flooded over with embarrassment and self-consciousness.  What if I had a spot or spill? Or even worse: what if there was a hole in my pants?!  I had so much intrapersonal communication going on and so much psychological noise, that I had to stop and ask what the distraction was. It turns out that the braided part of the end of my belt was peeking out and unidentifiable. It was both a mystery and distraction to them.

As soon as that mystery was solved, I was able to go on with class without any problem(s).

Source: http://lubbockonline.com/sites/default/files/wp-images/pants1.jpg

Territory Examples

One part of nonverbal communication that we study is territories. There are three kinds of territories: Primary (where it really IS yours), Secondary (where it is temporarily assigned to you), and Public (where it isn't really anyone's, but it feels like yours). This past week I came across three examples of public territories in my life.

Source: http://www.hsgamecenter.com/img/logos/teams/Basketball/5bfff95df67f4f0d8523c56725b6bfeb.png

The first examples was on Saturday.  This past Saturday, the KM Speech team competed at Chatfield's high school. Although I have never attended school there as a student, I kind of feel like this is "my" meet. You see, my husband and my best friend both attended high school there (coincidence only), so I went to many events at that particular school.  Because of that connection, and the many fond memories I have in that building (speech meets, proms, dances, plays, concerts, games..), I feel like I'm going home.

source http://fitnessm621.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/TAEBO.jpg

My second example is from kickboxing class.  I have a certain spot in the room that I always like to be for my "place" in class.  This is another example of public, because although I pay to go to Northgate, I do not pay for this particular spot in class. I really like to be in the front row on the far left facing the instructor.  I have no idea why, but that's where I like to be.  There's another woman who sometimes gets there a few minutes before me. If she beats me to class, she takes "my" spot.  Since I'm not in "my" spot, I feel a little off for the first few minutes of class or so. It's silly, but it's true, and it makes for a great example of territory.

Source; http://kttc.images.worldnow.com/images/9262471_BG1.jpg

Here's my third example.  Last night my husband and I were talking about how grateful for the warmer weather, so we can start running outside more. He was especially grateful since he is training for his next marathon and has some long runs in the near future.  While we were talking, we kept referring to the fact that we hoped "our" trial was cleared off and not too puddle-ridden. We both love running on Cascade Trail since it is along water and near our home.  Neither of us have any ownership to the trail, it's public property, but we both feel like it is ours because we run on it so often, and it is really close to home. This is another great example of public territory.

Conferences

Earlier this week at Parent/Teacher conferences, I put something from Kelli's presentation in action. There were a few parents that night that seemed a little uncomfortable.  To help make them feel more comfortable, I thought I would try doing a little mirroring, like we learned from the presentation last Friday.  I would turn my body, slouch, fold my hands on the table, or lean forward as I saw the different parents doing. The ones I mirrored with seemed to become for comfortable, more talkative, and I ended up having longer, more meaningful conferences with those parents. The parents that were challenging to mirror, seemed comfortable right away, or seemed to be in a bit of a hurry all kept their conferences significantly shorter.  It was an interesting experiment, and I learned that mirroring really does work!

source: http://www.haven.ca/shenblog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Mirroring-300x225.jpg