My boyfriend is a firefighter and is an excellent competent communicator within a particular context. He is often invited to speak at functions, events, and school environments. I have witnessed him communicate with children and teachers in a classroom setting. He was very relaxed and calm while speaking, as he smiled often and used direct eye contact. He was very friendly and polite and used phrases such as, "that is a wonderful question," referring to the questions that were asked by children and teachers. He would sometimes use humor to keep the children engaged and focused on his topic.
I would love to model some of his communication behaviors. Reason being is that his politeness and friendliness kept everyone engaged on his topic. His eye contact was fluent and made everyone feel comfortable while using a calm voice. He was very professional while communicating with the students and teachers and was an effective listener. The students loved that their voices were heard during the question and answer portion and was even more excited that a fireman was willing to listen.
Latasha,
ReplyDeleteIt takes a special person to be a great communicator with young children! They are the most difficult audience sometimes, especially when you never know what is going to come out of their mouths! I have had issues with firemen in my classroom in the past - many have not known how to effectively communicate with children from tone of voice to word usage to reactions. You are fortunate to have someone such as your boyfriend do these important presentations with your kiddos!
Amanda
Latasha, I enjoyed reading your post. It is always great to hear of community workers who can connect with our students in the classroom. Keeping the right tone and using the right words are important when communicating so well done Mr fireman. He seems to have the key skills that an effective communicator must possess. Thanks for sharing.
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