Interpersonal Communication and Retreat

This week Katie and Coreen presented about interpersonal communication skills. I think it was really great that they had us role-play some situations we might face and really think about what we would do in those situations. Our little group had an instance of a student being homesick and coming to us because they are struggling with that feeling. Like in a lot of the situations we were given, and in real life, the situation called for both advice and problem identification questions. I think it was great we had some practice to reflect on some possible situations that could come up in the Fall.

Personally, this is one of the areas I really want to improve on. My instinct is to go to advice-giving right off the bat. Last spring I started using my friends and roommates as guinea pigs for working on developing ease when I need to use interpersonal communication and I think it helped a lot. I am still a long ways away from really smoothly using this in surprise situations, such as if a student came up to me after class, but I’m decent at it in structured situations that I know issues could come up, such as one-on-ones.

At the retreat I learned a few icebreakers that I really want to use this Fall. I think that we had a good spread of icebreakers that could be used for any mix of students. I don’t think I’ve played any of them before except the desert island one but in a much different context so it was nice change from my perceived notions of it.