Chapter 2:  Setting Initial Goals

Communication Exercise Lets play Kahoot!

Did You Pay Attention?

Before getting things rolling for this weeks work, you may be reminded that 20% of this courses grade is determined by Class Participation.  Specifically, this is determined by 10% of the grade assigned at midterms in the semester, and then the final 10% at the end of the semester.  This will be explored in more detail in the future.  For now though, remember this is an important element of your grade.

To that, the class will be engaging in an activity to see how well classmates paid attention during introductions last week.  An important element of developing interpersonal relationships is not only speaking to others, it is also listening to others and really paying attention to learn as much about that person to help enhance the relationship.  In seeing how well you paid attention from last week, we will play a Kahoot! game with questions generated from students comments last week.  If you’ve never used Kahoot!, it is a free online gaming software where students can take quizzes like the TV show Jeopardy using their smartphones as buzzers.  Students should pair up (hopefully there are enough smart phones for one buzzer per pair by doing this), and answer the questions.  A couple of screenshots of Kahoot are below to give you an idea what it looks like:

Some example questions might include:

• Who in class said they just moved here from out of state?
• Who in class said they love to play Legend of Zelda?
• Who in class said their parents made them take this class but are willing to “give it a shot”?
• Who in class said they love painting animals?
• Who in class quoted lines from The Avengers as part of their introduction?
• etc.

A helpful tutorial video can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFFv6_6was4

Review of Homework/Setting Goals

For the first part of class we want to discuss goals.  Students should have completed through their previous homework assignment individual goals they each had in the course.  Setting social goals can be a complicated thing:  certainly there is some risk involved because you’re sharing something about yourself you’d like to improve but you also don’t want to set goals that are easy socially so that you’re overly bored in class. I always suggest to students that they talk to someone how knows them well to assist in developing individual goals.  Some common ones I often find that emerge in class include:

• Reading non-verbal messages better
• Learning to open up more and not keeping everything to myself
• Developing better friendships
• Having less anxiety when talking to others
• Learning how to try to get a boyfriend/girlfriend
• Bragging less and listening more
• Having a more confident tone of voice
• Learn how to jump into conversations more easily
• Understand social media better and not taking it too seriously
• Learn to talk about things other than the topics I always talk about
• Being less depressed
• Reading body-language better and non-verbal’s
• Learn how to put things in my own words instead of just repeating things
• Have better job interviewing skills
• Learn how to express my feelings better
• Spend less time playing video games and watching You Tube and more actually with people

There are many others out there; this is just a sample

Communication Exercise:  Highs and Lows of the Week

Each week we will spend roughly 30 minutes of the class checking with each other sharing highs and lows of the week.  The idea of this activity to get to know each other better, support one another, and then address interpersonal challenges as they emerge.  Check-ins can be a great way to refine communication skills given the wide variety of topics that come up.  Each person will individually share their highs and lows for the week (including the instructors or anyone else who is in the room) to establish the principal we are all here for each other and equals when it comes needing to develop our interpersonal skills.

Worksheet #2:

Helping One Another with Each Other’s Goals:  Part I

Part I:

Below are the specific skills each of your classmates shared as things they wish to work on this semester.  Because we are in this together, lets take an inventory of which skills we are the best at, and which we could use some work on.  For each one of these, give yourself a score from 1 to 10 (1 being low, 10 being high), how well or not so well you are in each skill.

_____   Expressing myself better so others can better understand my feelings

_____   Responding better to others comments

_____   Liking myself and the sound of my voice better

_____   Working on conversational skills

_____   Knowing when to change the subject or see if a person is interested in what I’m talking about

_____   Managing anxiety better

_____   Opening up to others more and not keeping everything in myself

_____   Improve my social skills

_____   Manage my anger better

_____   Learning how to get along with others better

_____   Make more friends

_____   Improve job interview skills

_____   Knowing better when I am annoying people so they wont want to talk to me

_____   Being better at reading the atmosphere better so I don’t look inconsiderate

If you had to pick one skill of the above you think you are the BEST at, which would it be and why?

If you had to pick one skill you are the less than best at, which would it be and why?

Part II: 

Now, go to someone who knows you well and ask THEM to rate you on these skills in a similar fashion.   As a reminder, they are:

_____   Expressing myself better so others can better understand my feelings

_____   Responding better to others comments

_____   Liking myself and the sound of my voice better

_____   Working on conversational skills

_____   Knowing when to change the subject or see if a person is interested in what I’m talking about

_____   Managing anxiety better

_____   Opening up to others more and not keeping everything in myself

_____   Improve my social skills

_____   Manage my anger better

_____   Learning how to get along with others better

_____   Make more friends

_____   Improve job interview skills

_____   Knowing better when I am annoying people so they wont want to talk to me

_____   Being better at reading the atmosphere better so I don’t look inconsiderate

Take a look at their list, did the rate the same things as you?  Or were they different?

Speak to the person you did this activity with, ask them if there are any ways you can work together throughout the term on the skills you identified.  Share your mutual plan below.