Tommy Elbert

 I really liked the listening skills we learned in this class, I feel that listening is a vital part of all communications  One Way to be a better listener is to truly be interested in the subject at hand, if you are not interested in the subject its hard to listen because you just don’t care. But when you can find a way to truly have an interest in what the other person is saying you will really start to learn.  To be a better listener you have to be open minded, let the other person talk, see what it is that they are trying to say. Don’t just write them off as wrong give them a shot see where they are coming from  A good way to become a better listener is to watch and learn from those who are good listeners, when your talking to someone that is a good listener pay attention to what they do and try to apply some of their skills to your own communications skills.

 Learning about listening skills in this class was one of my favorite things about the class because it really helped me to see that listening is a real big part of communication.  Listening Skills are extremely important, for myself this is an area of my communication that I am trying real hard to improve upon.  I used to think I was real good at listening, that is until I stepped back took a good look at myself and realized that I never listen to anyone.  I will be using listening skills I learned in this class to help to improve my overall communication skills.  Improving Listening Skills leads to improving communication skills in all aspects as it opens the door to be a better communicator.

 Non Verbal communication is all about how we communicate without the use of words.  This subject is real interesting, you are always communicating whether your aware of it or not.  With nonverbal communication you can tell what kind of mood someone is in before even saying a word to them.  Nonverbal communication can be described as “ those behaviors and characteristics that convey meaning without the use of words”.. “Kory Floyd, Interpersonal Communication The Whole Story, The Nature of Nonverbal Communication, page 209”.  One cool thing is that nonverbal communication is believed over verbal communications, for example if I was to walk into class and slouch down in my desk and just try and sleep, and you say “how’s your day going” and I’m like “Its goen great” your not going to believe me because my nonverbal’s say differently.

I chose the pictures below because they represent me over the past year; the first one is stressed out because I have been so stressed over life for the past year, that’s what I feel like on a daily. The other picture is me in a chill mode I really try to just be real chill a lot of the time because if I’m not chill lately I have only been stressing life. I really liked learning about nonverbal communication as it makes up the majority of communication and it’s a tell of what is really going on. I try to use nonverbal communication to read what is going on to see how I should approach situations

 Getting in front of class and talking has never been my favorite thing to do. However talking in front of groups is just like anything else the more you practice the better you get at it.  Getting in front of the class to speak can be kind of nerve racking but getting comfortable in those situations is a really cool thing to do. Practice Makes Perfect

 I feel a lot more comfortable getting up in front of the class then I did at the beginning of the semester.  It may just be because we have all been together throughout and all doing it.  I am on a continuous drive to get better at public speaking and am taking another speech class next semester The Fundamentals Of Public Speaking.  Its been a cool class I have enjoyed it

 Textbook, Interpersonal Communication, The Whole Story, By Kory Floyd  coming-better-listener.html coming-better-listener.html  erbal_communication.htm erbal_communication.htm