MBTI

Well here we are another week into the semester, and things don’t seem to be slowing down. This past week in 311 we discussed, with Debra, our Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBIT) results. However, this year was the first year that the peer mentors were able to take the second form of the test, which goes a little more in depth than the first. It breaks the standard eight traits down further into five more categories each. Therefore, instead of just having four letters to define ourselves, we now have twenty traits that define who we are.

This dives so much deeper into who we are and why we do the things we do. Understanding this is the key to success here at college and in life. The only way to improve upon ourselves is to analyze our mistakes and learn from them. It would be quite hard to learn from a mistake if you don’t know why you made, or simple that you made one at all. You will hear numerous times in this class that you learn from thinking. This might sound very logical and easy to do. However, when you get into a routine and do the same things week in and week out, you never stop and take time to think about what you are doing and why you are doing it. The purpose of these blogs is for that very reason, to give us a time to reflect on what we are doing and learn from it.

Personally, I got a lot out of the blogs last year. I had never really done anything like this prior to Hixson. My freshman year we didn’t have to write a blog, so it was all new to me. I never used to take time out of my day and think though what I was doing, I would simply do. After awhile I noticed that I was taking more and more time to reflect on my daily routine and the way I did a lot of things. I made a lot of changes in my life last year, and almost all were for the better. I know this class will open your eyes to a lot of things, as it did for me last year. I cannot wait to see what changes are in store for me this time around!

P.S. Despite what it might have sounded like in a previous post, I will really miss Allie when she is off in the “real world” after she graduates J

Second Meeting

Well we are officially getting in full swing with the semester. Classes are getting harder and assigning homework. Meetings are filling my schedule along with the extra time spent on projects. Oh the joys of school.

This past week we went through chapter two in the book. The topic of this chapter is helping students transition from high school to college. The one thing that stood out to me was the list of things that are different from high school to college. It really is important to bring up all of these things with our classes next semester. Even though you might not have had troubles with certain things, doesn't mean that won't either. You have to assume that between all of your students that at least one will have problems somewhere along the line. You never know what to expect, so being prepared for anything is the biggest thing to do.

Greg and Josh lead the session last night, and I think they both did a wonderful job. I really liked the Skittle activity. It got everyone involved while eating candy, which is never a bad thing. It was nice to hear what everyone had to say, and how they felt on certain issues. I already feel that new friendships are forming, and can't wait to for the end of the semester to see how they will grow.

The Start of a New Year

After reading chapter 1, there are a few things that I think are important to remember for the Fall. One of the biggest is knowing what we are here to do. In the chapter they contrast the role of a tutor and a peer mentor in a nice list of bullet points. After my experience of being both a tutor and peer mentor last semester, I have to agree with all of the points. We are not here to lecture the students about actual course material, we are here to guide them through the transition to college while answering question they might have along the way. Also, at the end of the chapter there is a list of responsibilities of a mentor. They are all important, but the two that I think are most important are: be optimistic and reflect often. Just like in the fish movie, you need to choose to be upbeat and happy and "be there" for the students everyday. Another key element is to reflect often. What worked best last semester, for me and my co-mentor, was to have a talk about the previous class. What went well, what kept the students engaged, what didn't go the way we thought, and how can we improve upon what we did. This is important if you are going to have a successful semester within your section.

I am very excited to get to know all of the fellow mentors! It's weird thinking back to a year ago and trying to imagine when all of the past mentors hardly knew each other. Then thinking about the end of last semester and how much our relationships have grown over that year. I'm excited to start over with new people and build new relationships this semester and next Fall.