Course:
EDUC – 6165 – 6
Week
2 Blog Assignment
Experience
about Communication
Joanne E. Lynch
Date:
Saturday 9th November, 2013.
I took the opportunity to look at a short
film from my computer, after I was unable to gain access to a cable television
in order to observe a movie. However, I looked at a thirteen minutes, four
seconds (13.04) film called Late Bloomers, which was retrieved from YouTube. Moreover,
this story was written and narrated by Clay Mc Leod Chapman, produced by Thom
Little, and directed by Craig McNeill.
From my observation of the initial stage of the story, while the sound
for the computer speakers were turned off, were a group of students (boys and
girls), well attired in their school uniform, walking into their classroom and
took their various seats. Whereas, their teacher was standing in front of the
chalkboard drawing a diagram of the female pelvic organ, with her back turning
toward the students. As the students peered at what was on the chalkboard, they
were left open mouthed. Some even made body movements, since they were astound
by what they saw.
Subsequently, the class teacher turned around,
and then faced the students in amazement, but had a serious, scary look on her
face, rolling her eyes to and fro, which made one of the male students, commented.
After, she wrote the word VAGINA on the chalk board, above the diagram, and
then students began to peek even more, with their mouth wide open, while the
teacher seemed to be infuriated because of their reactions. Perhaps she was
asking a question pertaining to the diagram. Eventually, I saw every student
responding simultaneously, but in a terrifying manner. Few of the students’
bodies (girls) began to vibrate, but the enraged teacher continued with her
lesson, without a smile on her face. Resulting from that was my conclusion was
that the teacher had a lesson on the reproductive system.
While monitoring the class, I observed that
the students, as well as the teacher, used a lot of non verbal communication
and body language. The students interacted with each other by continuously
giving and receiving wordless signals, for all of their nonverbal behaviors –
gestures they made, the way they sat, and how much eye contact they made, sent
very strong messages. These mixed signals that were faced with, were natural,
unconscious language that broadcast the students’ true feelings and intentions
at that moment, since their eyes conveyed a far more vivid message than words
do. It seemed as if tension, mistrust, and confusion were generated in that
classroom.
Consequently, I rewind the film, and then
turned up the sound for the speakers of the computer at the beginning of the
show. I heard one of the male students
in a loud tone asking: what is that ungodly thing that is drawn on the
chalkboard? While another male student posited that it looked like an octopus.
Meanwhile, the teacher asked the students to repeat the statement – “This is a
vagina”. Stemming from this was the pulsating reaction of the girls’ bodies,
while they were seated, which made one of the girls opened her legs wide, while
fanning her knees away.
However, if I were watching a show that I
was familiar with, my suppositions would have been more accurate, since I would
have had some prerequisite knowledge about the episodes of the television.
Reference
Late bloomers –
short film – Sundance film festival. Retrieved from
I am curious about the teachers response. Did she keep on teaching ignoring the reaction she was having on the students? Sometimes in awkward situations instead of dealing with the tension in the people just keep on talking as if nothing is happening. Obviously this impedes communication.
ReplyDeleteYour post was very interesting. It seems as if some of your assumptions about what was going on was correct especially thinking about the nonverbal communication you observed. I think its easier to read facial expressions when trying to determine what is going. Sometimes they can be accurate, especially with expressions of happiness, sadness, and shock.
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