Tuesday, March 5, 2013

EDUC 6165-7 :: Week 1 Blog

"For your blog this week, think of someone (e.g., family member, celebrity, politician, friend, or professor) who demonstrates competent communication within a particular context. What behaviors does this person exhibit that make him or her effective? Would you want to model some of your own communication behaviors after this person? Why or why not?"

 The people whom I chose for this week's blog sre Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist, and Carl Sagan. 

 Dr. Tyson is a very competent speaker in that he can take the most complex and hard to understand topics of quantum physics and explain in lay-mans terms in a very fascinating and magical way. I love listening to him talk. He made a good point about how teachers are special and what special teachers do. I replay this short video every time I get down on myself or had a bad teaching.

He is very inspirational just as Carl Sagan was. I think of these two as my favorite speakers of all time. Carl Sagan had a way of being very magical in his lectures and was so fascinated with the subject matter that he made you become fascinated as well. Here is my favorite opening of his from his show "Cosmos." His words are inspirational..."we're made of star stuff..."

I do try my best to be inspirational to the adult students in my night classes. I love what I teach (child development courses) and I do use some of their techniques to get my students to love the subject matter as well. I bring in my real-world experience and also the things I have learned. I make the subject matter interesting and I am passionate about it...just like Dr. Tyson and Carl Sagan.
Posted by at

6 comments:

  1. Karen DavisMarch 7, 2013 at 10:07 AM

    Thank you for sharing the two video posts. It was very inspirational and I see what you choose them to model. They are both confident and you stay focused on what they were saying the whole video!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kim MartinMarch 8, 2013 at 6:49 PM

    Hi Karen,
    I appreciate how they are able to make something so complex seem so easy to understand! Geniuses indeed!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wendy NewbyMarch 9, 2013 at 5:35 PM

    Kim,
    Great videos! I need those moments of inspiration to fill my soul. I was reflecting on their communication and came to the conclusion that some of the effectiveness is their ability to speak with confidence about the research and experience of the subject and the passion of life long learning.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tracy Hill HalversonMarch 9, 2013 at 7:29 PM

    Great inspiration! I need to have more of this in my life. Thank you for sharing. I think if I was to listen to these type of people more I would become a better communicator

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMarch 10, 2013 at 5:01 PM

    This is great! I have never even heard of these two people before but I really love Dr. Tyson's enthusiasm. I wish I could be more like then when teaching Science!! Thanks for including those video clips.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Theresa JohnsonMarch 10, 2013 at 5:22 PM

    Kim, thank you for sharing the video segment! I look forward to seeing more posted from you! These speakers were very encouraging! I look forward to hearing more of their work.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)