MBTI

Well this past week has been an extremely busy one. Between Christina visiting and having multiple exams, the weekend was a much needed break. However, it's always exciting when Christina does visit us. I think a lot of the first year students really enjoyed getting to know the lady that has made their stay here at ISU possible.

MBTI was also this week. Even though I've heard the information many times, it's always interesting to see what else you can learn about yourself. I think it's very interesting to see how I've changed since freshman. Some of my preferences, like E, have increased, while others have shifted more towards the middle ground. For example, I would say I am a pressure prompted worker. This probably started in high school when the course work was easy and I only spent about an hour doing all of my homework. However, now that college has kicked my butt a few semesters, I tend to try and start big projects early. I still end up finishing things the night before it's due, but unlike before, I usually have a decent start it.

Overall, I think doing the MBTI surveys is a great idea. I don't think some of the freshman realize how much of a tool it can be, but I'm hopeful that at most took something away from it :)

Summer Orientation

My name is Anthony Simon, and I am a 08’ Hixson from Delaware County. I am a senior in Aerospace Engineering, with a minor in Nondestructive Evaluation. I live outside a small town in eastern Iowa called Worthington. When I was younger my dad was in the military, and that made us travel all over the world. Before I was five years old, I had already lived in two different states and another country. I also have six younger siblings, the youngest of which just turned two.

Shortly after coming to Iowa State I started getting involved in various activities. I was the house president in my dorm hall, I joined the ISU Ski & Snowboard Club, and I played multiple intramural sports. Over winter break I went with about 200 other students to Winter Park, Colorado, with the Ski & Snowboard Club. Since my freshman year I have joined other clubs and participated in other activities, one of which was becoming a Hixson Peer Mentor.

This fall will be my second year as a peer mentor. As a peer mentor, I will be helping out with the large lecture on Tuesday nights. I will also be leading two recitation sections, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with one of the other peer mentors. The Hixson retreat is Friday, August 26th. All 100 students (your class of scholars), peer mentors, graduate assistants, and Debra will be going on the retreat. It gives you the opportunity to meet and make connections within your section, as well as with other Hixsons. You better be ready for an exciting day!

I also work in the Hixson Office. Our office is upstairs from where you check-in for orientation, so please stop in and introduce yourself. The office is also home for the National Student Exchange (NSE) program. This gives you the opportunity to study at another university within the US while still maintaining your Iowa State student status. We have a booth setup at the Resource Fair, so we hope to see everyone there. The photo to the right is me at the resource fair-- so stop and say hello!

I can’t wait to meet everyone. Have a great summer!
- Anthony

Goals

Hey everyone!! VEISHEA 2011 is upon us. If only, like Chelsee, I did not have homework and quizzes all week long. Zach and Karen did a wonderful job leading class last week. It is amazing how quickly the semester is flying by. In a few short weeks we will be finished with 311, and expected to be excellent mentors!

The goal I came up with for next year relating to being a Hixson Peer Mentor was: Learn every 2011 Hixson by first name by the end of the semester. Last year I felt like I knew a lot of them by name, and could at least recognize the rest. However, this year I want to know them all by name. I feel like this task, despite sounding difficult, should be very achievable. With me leading two sections next year, I will directly interact on a regular basis, with a quarter of the students. Then another quarter will be in my sister sections. So, I should have very little problem learning about half of the students names. The last half will be the difficult part. I plan on attending almost all of the Monday night lectures. So, while I am there, I need go out and make a point of talking to all the students I don’t already know.

I have two more goals for next year’s class. I want to increase the interaction between my sections and our sister sections. Last year we had a couple of classes together, but they were all towards the end of the semester. I want to start the interactions between sections much earlier in the semester. The semester goes by VERY fast, and if you do not plan ahead you will miss those kinds of opportunities. I think increasing sister section activities will open up even more friendships between students. If they are ‘forced’ to interact with more people, they are more likely to find someone with similar interests.

I also want to increase how much time my section spends together outside of class. I know my freshman year, at the very end, we all went over to one of our mentor’s apartments and had supper and played rock band. I thought it was really fun, and our section bonded a lot through that experience. Last year, we really did not have a good spot to get together. So, we just decided to go out to eat at Hickory Park. Ideally I want to try and have at least three get-togethers outside of class. I feel like the students will enjoy it, and they will all get that much closer to each other. One positive about this is, next year I will have a decent size apartment, and could very easily have my entire section over.

This semester is going by very fast. However, I am really enjoying the time we are all spending together. I really like getting to know everyone and what experiences they have been through that make them who they are today.

Facilitate This Fixed

Sorry there is something wrong with the text, for some reason it is not formatting correctly. I don't know what it was about this post, but it didn't like it.

Hixson Peer Mentors we are facilitators, but what does that really mean? We are here to help the students make the transition to college successfully. Some might have some problems, while others will not. We never know what to expect. Going into the fall semester last year, I could have never predicted what leading the class would be like. There were questions or response that I would have never expected no matter how long we prepared in 311.

We made a huge list of reasons why students might struggle while at ISU. I’m sure we could have spent the entire hour listing off other reasons. There is no way to know what each student will struggle with. Some might know all about financial aid, while others know how to budget their money. The way we can help our students the most is by being adaptable. We need to be able to change the way we do things, or change our daily schedules and spend some time outside of class with certain students. Some of them might just need that little extra help to be successful in college.

What I found effective last year is to leave open time during or at the end of class for questions about whatever. This is really important during the financial aid week. Last year we spent almost the entire class going over question that the students had, and you would be surprised at some of the questions they had.

Overall we are just here to help guide them. Show them a few things and let them do everything themselves, and when they have questions being able to help.

Facilitate This

Well the storm turned out to be not too bad, for us at least. So, we just got a free 15 minutes J

As Hixson Peer Mentors we are facilitators, but what does that really mean? We are here to help the students make the transition to college successfully. Some might have some problems, while others will not. We never know what to expect. Going into the fall semester last year, I could have never predicted what leading the class would be like. There were questions or response that I would have never expected no matter how long we prepared in 311.

We made a huge list of reasons why students might struggle while at ISU. I’m sure we could have spent the entire hour listing off other reasons. There is no way to know what each student will struggle with. Some might know all about financial aid, while others know how to budget their money. The way we can help our students the most is by being adaptable. We need to be able to change the way we do things, or change our daily schedules and spend some time outside of class with certain students. Some of them might just need that little extra help to be successful in college.

What I found effective last year is to leave open time during or at the end of class for questions about whatever. This is really important during the financial aid week. Last year we spent almost the entire class going over question that the students had, and you would be surprised at some of the questions they had.

Overall we are just here to help guide them. Show them a few things and let them do everything themselves, and when they have questions being able to help.

Can you hear me now?

· What is your favorite way to communicate? What is a common communication tool that you don't like to use?

· How has your communication style or mediums in which you communicate changed since coming to college?

· Do you communicate with different people in different ways (ie professors, friends, family/e-mail, facebook, face-to-face)? What has been most effective for you?

· How did you honestly feel about the Twitter activity or just Twitter in general?

· How do you plan on communicating and keeping tabs on your students in the fall?

· What are some ways to use Twitter with your students, or get them excited about their week of Twitter this fall

Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend. I just noticed that I forgot to blog on the week Chelsee and Brandon lead the class. So, I will be doing 2 posts this week. This semester is already flying by, and pretty soon we will be getting paired up for next year. I cannot wait to see who I will be co-teaching with! I’m going to run through some of the blogging prompts from Brandon and Chelsee.

I usually find myself communicating a lot online through emails. Most of the organizations I’m involved with communicate through emails. They let everyone know when/where we are meeting very easily. I also communicate with friends and family through email quiet often as well. If people are working and cannot answer their phone or go on Facebook, they can usually check their emails throughout the day. I’m still not sold on twitter. I have it and use it sometimes. I read a lot more tweets than I contribute. I really don’t update my Facebook status that often, and I feel like tweeting is very similar to a Facebook status.

My communication style has changed drastically since coming to college. Before college I was not big into Facebook. I would go on maybe once a week just to look at a few things. Now I am on Facebook all the time. I will leave it open just in case someone needs to talk to me. I am the same way with emails. I only used to use emails to send very important things or talk to people on campus like the Financial Aid Office. Now I send emails like they are text messages to some people. I also keep Google Talk open on my computer so I can communicate with close friends very easily. This might sound lazy, but my roommate and I usually keep our doors shut if we are working on things, while also listening to music. So instead of going to bother the other with something trivial, we will send messages or emails to each other. Then if we are not busy we will come out and talk.

No matter how easy and useful online communication is, I still like either talking face-to-face with someone, or at the very least over the phone. There is simply no replacing the connection you get while talking to someone in person. This is often not needed, but I still like to do it. Next fall I plan on sending emails, text messages, and Facebook messages to my students as the basic form of communication. If it is something more important I will talk to them, in person outside of class. Last year I told my students that they should be able to get a hold of Jenna or me at any time of the day. I’m was, and still am, up all night, and she was up in the mornings. I also have a smart phone, and get all my emails sent directly to my phone. So, if they ever needed anything, as long as I was not super busy, I would get back to them almost instantly.

Well that’s enough for this post. On to the next one!

Being Diverse

Well here we are another week into the semester. They keep going by faster and faster, and pretty soon it will be summer. Jenna and Cory did a great job last week covering diversity. I really liked the activity. I like how we couldn’t just ask questions about what our sticker said. You had to interact with one another and in conversation slip hints to the person you’re talking to. The point of the activity was to bring up stereotypes we might have about certain things, and we need to discuss them. There is no point hiding from these things. Last semester I went to a diversity event called Niger, Wetback, Chink. It was all about the stereotypes people have of African Americans, Mexicans, and Asians. Some of the stuff they did made some people uncomfortable, but I think it opened their eyes to some of the things people go through on a daily basis. Our jobs as mentors, is to open the eyes of our students next fall. Most of them are going to be from a small town where they weren’t exposed to any cultural diversity. ISU is a very diverse place and some of them might have trouble adjusting to this.

I attended ISCORE on Friday, and the only session I could make it to was about the single story. It was an interesting topic. It talked about how only knowing one side or very little about something can really influence how you look at people. You need to postpone judgment until you actually know who they are and what they went/are going through. I thought the way they presented things was a little slow. All we did was watch a 15 minute video, which was very good, and then work by ourselves for almost the rest of the time on a worksheet. Again, the worksheet was pretty neat, but they way they did their presentation wasn’t the best.

I look forward to Brandon and Chelsee leading the class this week. I will see everyone on Tuesday!