Talking the Talk

Curtis Voelker is an Admissions Counselor at Central Penn College. He spoke to the 10th and 11th grade Retail Marketing & Sales students at DCTS.  His presentation topic was communications — it was informative and engaging. Here is a brief recap:

Introductions: Students were instructed to stand up, speak directly to the class, and address the following:  Name, grade and dream job.

Students engaged in a lesson about communications

Feedback: Voelker shared positive comments about students making eye contact as well as making use of the space in the room.

Observations: Students made eye contact, smiled, projected their voice, and demonstrated poise.

The presentation continued with the Telephone game:

Start: Voelker whispers to 1^st student, “My name is Curtis and the brown lazy fox jumped over the river.” Message is passed from one student to another — 27 total students. End: blah, blah, blah

What happened?

Student feedback:

• One person was louder
• One person didn’t listen
• Not everyone took it seriously
• Had to keep repeating message so communicator got frustrated and so did receiver

What we learned about what to do: speak clearly, pay attention, use short sentences, don’t laugh, and pay attention (did I say that already?).

Presentation Topics:

1. Verbal
2. Non verbal
3. Written
4. Online

Verbal

• When/where
• Phone – tone of voice

Non-verbal

• Non eye-contact
• Head to toe
• Eye contact is key – engagement
• Scan the room
• Interact with audience makes message more powerful
• Arms crossed
• Chair not on ground

Non-verbal cues
Q: What do these say to the speaker?
A: Maybe they’re not interested, but focus on the ones that are or try to interact with them.

Written

• Write clearly and legibly
• Things to keep in mind when you write:  topic sentences, handwriting, key points, spelling/grammar, staying on topic, using your own words and citing sources

Online:

1. Everyone watches what you post
2. Be appropriate with pics
3. Friend people you know
4. Nothing can be deleted
5. Status updates – age appropriate
6. Take quality wholesome photos

Things to keep in mind when using social media:

• Highlight your college choice
• Highlight your graduation
• Captions can save it from being a bad photos (maybe)
• Profile, cover photo, likes, friends, use of emoticons all represent you

Observations about Central Penn FB page:

• Organized
• Color scheme
• Interactive (people comment and give feedback) -profile picture (simple and clean)

Reflection:

Communications is a part of the Retail Sales and Marketing curriculum. The presentation drove home some of the key ingredients that make communication effective. It is a big topic for this age group to tackle. In fact, I struggled with my delivery (for what seemed to be an entire unit) about a month ago, and for that reason I felt it was necessary to bring in a professional from the field.

Voelker unleashed student potential when he conducted an exercise to make it rain. The class was sectioned into three segments. Each was given a sound to make…When given a cue the one section snapped while the others clapped and stomped. It was a progressive wave of noise that demonstrated the impact of a successful message from the sender to receiver(s). In conclusion, the message is clear…communication is a skill that requires daily practice; it is like a muscle that needs exercise to ensure that the senders and receivers are disciplined enough to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk.

**Collins Writing Prompt – I particularly enjoyed reading one student’s reflection about the presentation. He noted Voelker’s passion for the topic and enjoyed his delivery.**