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.

Reflection

This week we talked a little more in depth about the campus resources that we have. We also discussed some of the situations that may occur next year with our students. It was nice to get a list of scenarios and talk through some of them with a small group. It was also helpful to get the list of campus resources, thanks to Kris. Our group raised some concern with the role playing activity. We felt like those were good situations to talk about, however most of them would be a case by case basis of what you would actually need to do. We ended up not having to role play so that was nice. The school year is winding down, and I can't wait till next year!!! However, we still have to make it through the last little bit of this year. I have started the pulling an all-nighter thing to get stuff done, because of the massive amount of homework, projects, and tests I have in the next two weeks. So sorry if this blog jumps around or seems random or incoherent cause I'm running on 2 hours of sleep and probably won't be much better tonight. YAY school :) Hope everyone has a great weekend, I will see you next week!!

FRIDAY Refelction

This is the earliest I will have done a blog post. I think that's because I'm going home this weekend and this is really the only homework I have. I have really been enjoying the weather and sitting upstairs for class was GREAT!! Chelsee and Matt did a great job on Wednesday. I really liked their activity we had to do. I think it directly relates to what we will be doing next year in class. We will be given a problem/question from the students and we have to work with our co-mentor to solve it on the spot. All the talk about scheduling is getting me really excited for next year! I can't wait to see who I'm paired with, anyone would be great. I like spending time with everyone in class. It's going to be sad not having Heath there next year, but I think Silas will do a good job to replace him. Well everyone have a great weekend!!! I will see you all next week. :)

Reflection

This was the second class in a row that I had a test start at 8, right after after class. So, yet again, I felt distracted and really was not all there during class. We talked about, then set guidelines for what our lesson plans should include/take into consideration. I thought it was good that we established those guidelines, so everyone can look to those to make sure theirs are up to par. The retreat was also very good. I really liked the scavenger hunt idea. The texting thing was really nice and made it that much easier to do. I also thoroughly enjoyed Perfect Games. I really think that I got to know some people more than what I already had. We were in a different setting that we normally are. We were having fun, not that class is not fun, but that was more fun. Just being able to relax and have fun with everyone was good. Also being in the smaller group for the scavenger hunt was beneficial too. We had a lot more conversations that really don't take place with the large group. Overall it was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon. See everyone on Wednesday. :)

Reflection

Well this week was more interesting than most. I think that's because of the topic that Heath and Allie brought up. I think it is necessary to setup some of those guidelines before the situation actually occurs. Then no one can be impartial to the decision. I was really bummed that I had to leave early, especially for that discussion. To be truly honest I really don't foresee most, if not all, of those situation happening to me. If I'm going to drink it is usually at a small party that I know my mentees would be at. I have a girlfriend of almost 4 years and don't foresee that ending anytime soon. I am a social person, however I have my group of friends, and I really only hangout with them. So, overall I think this topic needed to be covered, for the just in case situation. I hope everyone has a wonderful break, and I look forward to seeing you all in a week. :)

ISCORE

I went to 2 presentations. The first was on "What are you?" It was given by two students that are from Puerto Rico, and they were asked all the time when they came here, what are you? So, they decided to do some research on this "phenomenon." Personally I was not so overjoyed by their presentation because I don't just go up to people, for curiosities sake, and ask people what nationality they are, and that was the basis for their research. I have a few international friends, or friends from different ethnic backgrounds, and we talk about their heritage or how things were back home all the time. However, I just don't go ask people randomly on campus. The only time I will ask is if I already know them and its really out of courtesy that I ask because I want to be open about their heritage and don't want to make false assumptions. For example one of my friends is of Indian descent and she is vegetarian now I don't want to have her over for homework or a study session and not have anything she can eat while she is here, because we often take hours to do some things. Now that's enough on the one I really didn't like.

The other one I went to was about the changing 'face' of affirmative action. Going into this seminar I thought they were going to talk about affirmative action in the workplace, because that is the only association I had with affirmative action. However, they talked about it in general. In the school systems and how affirmative action is moving towards social-economic purposes rather than ethnic backgrounds or race. There are a couple of reasons why I think I really liked this seminar. One is because the two speakers were not students, they do research/work with organizations that deal with this. Another reason was that the majority of the audience were teachers, faculty, or just older people. There were not a lot of students that attended this seminar. And the main reason I really like it is because they opened it up for group discussion like we do in class. They had us talk to the people sitting by us, and then brought it back and a few people talked about what they had just discussed. Heath and one of his friends were there, and that's who I was sitting by, so we had a pretty good discussion I think. I also thought a lot of the audience brought up very good points. One older lady said something to the extent of how the government should not hesitate to give out loans to college students because if you have a loan with a low interest, after you are done with college you can get a good job. With this job you are then able to pay off the loan, and its interest, and you are then able to pay more in taxes. So, therefore, the government is making more money because you are making more money. So, basically what she was saying was that it should be an incentive for the government to graduate students from college, and make it 'affordable' or allow them to get loans to pay for college because everyone is making out better. Overall, I thought this seminar was really thought provoking and I wish more Hixsons could have been there.

Reflection Semester almost half done :)

This week in class Kelly and I did the discussion starter. Overall I thought the chapter as a whole really sucked. It was really long and had a lot of, what I would deem as, useless information. However, the topic we chose from the chapter, and the topic Heath and Allie chose were very relevant for becoming peer mentors. I like the word-web. It seemed to get everyone involved with the initial go-around, then if anyone wanted to add more they could. I thought we had a very extensive list of things that an effective facilitator would need. Classes seem to be going faster and faster every week, which is good I guess. It just doesn't seem like we can always delve as deep into some topics as some of us would be willing to do, but what do you do. I am really excited for spring break. I really need a break, and I'm sure everyone else does too. I was also asked by and old teacher if I would be willing to come back and share some of the things I have done so far in engineering here at ISU. So I am excited to do that as well. On that note I am going to bring this blog to an end. I look forward, as usual, to see everyone at class on Wednesday!!! :)