Past peer mentor panel, DST, and Retreat!

Being a part of the past peer mentor panel in class on Thursday was a very interesting experience to me.  I had a lot of fun answering the questions do not get me wrong, but sometimes it was not easy to think of a good example of problems I had with my group last year.  Even though it took a long time for my group to open up last year, they all got along really well (thank goodness).  In my opinion the hardest thing I had last year was learning to deal with personality differences between my co-leader and myself.  We did not go to all out war and duke it out, but we just had very different styles of teaching.  Something that I want to take away from the panel was Megan's system for make up assignments.  She had a very precise way of handling make ups that would be beneficial to the student.

Now for DST!  I do not think there are words to accurately describe how amazed I am at how it turned out.  We all know the credit for how it turned out goes to Josh and his awesome editing skills! Woot! Woot!

Finally, our final retreat of the year.  Bowling! I had a ton of fun bowling with everyone.  It was a great way to spend a stormy day and to do something fun together.  If anyone is willing to do it again randomly next fall I would be happy to do it!!

Final week of learning sessions

Last Thursday was our last class with learning sessions.  I have to give credit to Makayla and Nicole their chapter was a challenging one to teach.  I had it last year.  Most of the chapter is a bit of review of previous chapters so you have to find a balance of trying to teach new material and incorporating bits of the old material.  The "dating game" for peer mentors was a really fun activity and helped solidify the importance of peer mentors and used the peer mentors that are most commonly used by students on our campus. We need to be aware when other peer mentors on campus could be more helpful to our students than us.  I think it is also important to recognize some of our duties as a peer mentor for the Hixson program will overlap with other peer mentor positions on campus.

We were also able to finally figure out when our class will be held next year.  I think we have had the chance to understand the difficulty scheduling this class when we look at the difficulty we have had getting time to film our DST.  We have had the chance to learn from our mistakes with this DST project so that we can encourage our mentees to not make the same mistakes next fall.  I am excited to see how our DST turns out on Thursday.  It always amazes me how various clips can be incorporated together with some editing and form a pretty good short film.  

Resources: They can help us all

Shawn and Katie provided us with some very good situations to consider about making referrals in the Fall.  I decided to answer the questions for the second situation.  This seems to be a fairly moderate problem as far as urgency goes.  Since other people on their floor have recognized the tension and roommate tensions make for an inconducive environment for living/learning.

The first question I would ask Timothy is to expand on what he means by his roommate is "plain crazy."  I would also have him elaborate on what specifically upsets him about his roommate.  The next step would be to ask if he has sat down with his roommate to discuss the issues he just elaborated on.

One thing I would do is to explain to Timothy that roommate problems are very common and talk about different experiences people I know have had with roommate difficulties.  I would also mention that my friends that are CA's (Josh :] ) are experienced in these situations and are always willing to help figure out possible options.  Before referring Timothy to his CA I would suggest that he talks with his roommate by himself first, but if he feels like that is unreasonable, I would suggest seeing if their CA could mediate a conversation between the two of them.

I would then follow-up on the situation by asking Timothy in the following week if he had talked with his roommate and/or CA.

Making referrals is an important part of being a peer mentor.  It is a great feeling when you can help a student with the difficulties of adjusting to college, but at times you have to be mature and recognize when you are not equipped for the job.  Knowing the resources available allows us to help our students more than we could help them.

I found a few quotes that fit well when you need to refer a student to another resource.  These quotes are not only important for the student to know, but us as peer mentors when we are reluctant to recognize when we are not equipped.

"Don't be shy about asking for help.  It doesn't mean you're weak, it only means you're wise."

"Needing help doesn't make you weak, in fact quite the opposite.  It makes you strong, smart, resourceful, and realistic.  Being prideful is a weakness.  Asking for help when you know you're in over your head is STRENGTH. Don't ever forget that!"

Sometimes we need a little motivation

Hope everyone had a relaxing Spring break. I was in Ames for most of it working on campus, but I spent most of the time making duct tape flowers for our pens.  Not a terribly hard way to spend the day. 😃


Last week Kayla and Courtney did an excellent activity to demonstrate internal and external motivation.  For my part I had to use positive motivation to encourage my partner to create the best card possible without doing any of the work.  I did not find this difficult because I try to be a positive person in general and I enjoy trying to spread my positive outlook.  I feel like having a positive outlook coincides with internal motivation.  If you are in a bad mood you are less likely to want to complete goals you have.  I tend to be extremely internally motivated.  I do what I need to do for myself because I know it will help me achieve my goals.  Some students do not have this ability and rely more on external motivation.  They may need someone to push them to achieve their goals.  These are the type of students we can help the most as a peer mentor.

Allie also did a presentation on financial literacy.  Every time we go over financial literacy I learn a little something new.  It also reminds me of how fortunate I have been to receive this scholarship.  Without it I doubt I would have been at ISU and I know if I had been I would be in far more debt.  Knowing more about financial literacy not only helps ourselves, but allows us to pass on our knowledge to other students.

Educating girls could change the world (Diversity event)

I attended the documentary and discussion called Girl Rising last Thursday.  It was all about girls education around the world especially in countries where girls education is not encouraged, but did you know that educating girls yields the highest return on investment in developing countries.

The documentary told the stories of eight girls from various countries around the world and their journey/struggle to getting an education.  Between stories the documentary gave different statistics including 66 million girls are out of school across the world.  That is a huge number!

All of the girls had great stories.  The one that I found the most memorable was that of Suma from Nepal.  Suma was a Kumlari or a bonded laborer starting at just six years old.  Being a Kumlari allowed her to have food and housing that her parents could not provide.  Suma's first two masters made her work hard and did not treat her well.  At 11 years old she was bonded to her third master.  At his home there was a lodger who was a school teacher.  He convinced Suma's master to enroll her into a night class specialized for people like her.  They not only learned from the teacher's, but they told the teacher's about being a Kumlari and learned that it was a form of slavery.  It was also illegal.

The teachers were very courageous and would go to the homes of the masters and demand they let the girls go because it is illegal.  The teachers would return every day until the master agreed to let the girl go.  That is how Suma became free from being a Kumlari.  She, and other past Kumlari's, go around to homes where they know a Kumlari is being kept and sing/tell the masters that it is illegal and they know.

This was a very interesting documentary and I am very glad I went to watch it.

ISCORE round 2

ISCORE has proved to be an enjoyable and informative experience again this year.  Sadly, I was only able to go to two sessions in the morning.  I didn't even get the yummy sounding lunch.

The first session I attended was called Roses or Tires? Why It's Important to Pay Attention to Our Differences.  Despite a lot of technical problems this was a pretty interesting session.  It reminded me a lot about our discussions about diversity and being aware of our individual differences.  One question the posed to the group was would you feel, your sense of self would change if you were to change one or more of your personal characteristics.  One person felt that it wouldn't because sex, race, age, ethnicity, and other diversity characteristics only show part of who you are they do not dig deeper.  A woman disagreed saying that she had just had a child so to her being a woman is very salient right now and she did not think she would have felt the same if she were a male.  Either way you look at it this is an interesting question.

The second session I attended was Addressing a Colorblind Approach to Race in Schools: Professional Development as a Tool for Improved Student-teacher Interactions.  This session was interesting because it was about a program they are hoping to initiate at Ames Middle School.  One of the associative principles discussed how taking an approach that does not discuss race or that wants to only be politically correct does not benefit students.  He said that it can actually foster stereotypes regarding race.

I hope each of you were able to gain something from ISCORE.

So much in a short period of time

This last week has had a lot going on all at one time just with Hixson not to mention everything else.  I'm sure there are plenty of tests and projects due this week, but just remember we have just a few days left before spring break.

Let's start with class on Thursday.  This weeks learning session was led by Nicole and Matt and was all about leading groups effectively.  The role playing activity was great practice.  The jelly bean activity they explained sounded like it could have been fun and is something to remember for another time.

Sunday was another fun retreat!  We had four more awesome ice breakers giving us the opportunity to learn more about each other and to become a cohesive group.  It was nice to have a more serious ice breaker because we had the chance to learn things about each other that are deeper and more meaningful.

The other big thing about the retreat was making up for our snow day.  Sam and I presented our chapter on problem solving with individuals.  Hopefully everyone was able to jog their memory on SMART goals and connect them to positive goals and found some ways to think outside of the box.

Groups and the importance of social media

Last week was all about working in groups.  As students we have frequently worked in groups some of which were more efficient and rewarding than others.  One thing that was discussed was the different roles people can take on in a group.  I thought it was kind of fun to build the little lego man, but it was difficult to try and take on a role that I do not usually play.  In fact I felt like many of the roles were intertwined with each other.
Out of all of the chapters in the book this one is one that you can frequently look back on to try to find concrete ways to improve the group atmosphere in your recitation sections.  It may be important when the group is doing the DST project as well.
The other major topic of the week was social media week.  This is probably one of my favorite weeks during the semester.  Not only is it fun to interact with the other peer mentors and then the students in the fall, but it is fun to see the students realize how important their social media image is.  By the end of the week in the fall you can really see who realized the importance of social media and who did not.  Thank you all for making this semesters social media week a successful one.

This week we focus on interpersonal communication.  Interpersonal communication differs from advice giving in many important ways.  These include letting the person discover a solution to their problem with guidance rather than telling them what to do.  Interpersonal communication also requires a lot more time and commitment than advice giving.  We will be using both types of communication with our students, but for many problems they will face we want to aim to use interpersonal communication. 


One way we practiced this was to split up into pairs.  Each pair was given a scenario.  One person in the pair was to act as the student and the other the peer mentor.  I think this is one of the best ways to practice how to use interpersonal communication and to recognize how it can differ from advice giving.


Both advice giving and interpersonal have their place when being a peer mentor the challenge is to recognize which one is the appropriate one to use in the situation at hand.


I also wanted to mention how much fun I had at the retreat today.  It was a great way to get to know everyone just a little bit better.

Cultural Diversity

Recognizing that every individual has their own personal culture is an important thing to do when working with any group of people, but as a peer mentor it is vital.  Not every student you mentor will have the same background as you even know they are all from Iowa.  One of the best ways to recognize and to appreciate an individual culture is to first identify your own.  Josh had a great activity to start the process of recognize parts of your individual culture by narrowing down what values or beliefs are most important to you.  I did this by thinking of how the values or beliefs have affected me in my life then when we narrowed them down more I thought about how one value could encompass another. 


The ism's activity that Chelsee lead was a little more difficult for me, because I try really hard to be aware of these thing in my daily life.  I will not lie though there are times where I notice I have some ism's in my life.  The important thing is to recognize when the ism's you hold are creating a negative situation and to address that in a positive way that allows you to grow as a person.


Cultural diversity is an important topic for everyone to learn and it is a process that you need to continue to develop throughout your life.  It is not an easy topic to discuss at times and makes many people uncomfortable, but those are the people that need it the most.

Leadership confrences

Friday's learning communities mid-year instate was not an easy thing to fit into my busy schedule, but the sessions I attended were worth the stress.  The first session I attended was Mentors Who Teach: Balancing a high wire act by Kurt Earnest.  This is not the first time I've seen Kurt talk; he is an amazing speaker and I have enjoyed both times I have heard him.  Kurt talked about how difficult it can be to balance the various facets of teaching in the classroom. 


The second session I attended was the intergrating leadership into your learning communities by Clinton Stephens.  This session was not as helpful in my opinion and was more difficult to find applicable ways to involve it in our program.


I thought I.S.L.E. was a lot more fun.  The keynote speaker Delatorro McNeal was so interesting.  He had a ton of awesome leadership quotes that I wrote down.  I also loved that he used pitch perfect and the grid iron gang as examples of leadership in our movies.  One of the things he said that he said was that the toughest person to lead is always yourself.  I stayed to watch Delatorro in the first session as well.  He gave 7 tips to write your own ticket in college and beyond.


The only thing I was disappointed with was the flash session You do it wrong.  I just did not get anything good out of it.

MBTI... YAY!!!!!!!!!

MBTI is definitely one of my favorite topics that we cover in Hixson, but part of that is likely due to my major of course.  Having go through my mbti several times I decided to reflect on how I used my mbti style or how I could have used it better last fall.


Starting with extraversion.  I highlighted "prefer active participation rather than passive observation" because I like to keep people up and moving by using activities rather than just lecturing in class.  I also highlighted would rather talk than write about a topic.  If you look at my first blog from last spring I clearly state that I strongly dislike blogging.  It is not my forte.  The other thing that I highlighted under extraversion was get bored without activity, so you make it happen and often engage others in the activity.  This is just another statement that proves my point about using activities in the classroom versus lectures.


The other personality factor I focused on was the perceiving function.  I specifically highlighted have an overview of a plan but not necessarily the specifics to accomplish it.  This is how I use lesson plans.  In my opinion lesson plans are just to keep you on track, but if you get off onto another important topic it is perfectly acceptable.  I also thought about how I use a plan to provide direction, but I only follow it flexibly.  The last thing I focused on was how I welcome a moderate amount of routine in my life.  This has become a necessity for me actually.  Without a little routine there is no way I would have been able to balance two jobs, my classes, an internship, and being a peer mentor this year.

Week 2

I chose to continue my time as a peer mentor because I fully enjoyed last year and wanted to continue to make some type of a difference in the lives of the new Hixson scholars.  I love being able to look back and see the growth that I experienced as a leader and to see the growth I saw in my fellow peer mentors as well. 

Some personal characteristics that I have that help with being a helping person are being very open and being a very positive person.  Both of these characteristics help others be able to approach me and to feel comfortable approaching me.

While we were talking about the concerns new freshman may have I was spending a little bit of time reflecting on the concerns and issuses that the students in my recitation had.  The one that was the biggest for my group was home sickness.  I tried to suggest that the students find new activities to get involved in on campus so they would have different ways to distract themselves from home while also becoming acquainted with their new cyclone home.  Another concern a few students in my section had was trying to figure out their major.  In my opinion these were the most fun concerns, because I had the chance to suggest majors based on what they told me their interests were.  I also suggested they went to the career fair and to just talk to people in the departments they were interested in.

I am excited to see the further growth I will have as a leader this year.  I am also looking forward to finding new ways to help the new freshman navigate their concerns.

Peer Mentor: Round 2

Hello everyone!


I am at a little bit of a loss for words on these get to know you introduction things.  We seem to do them in every class we have the first week or two of a new semester.  I also will be going a little out of order here as far as the prompt for this post goes so be aware.  But, I'll start with a little introduction of the title of my first post this semester. 


I am trilled to say that this is my second year of being a peer mentor.  I would say that I have grown quiet a lot in the past year and I would hope that Allie, Chelsea, and Debra would say the same.  I choose to apply as a peer mentor the first time because I felt there was something my peer mentors had lacked and I thought I'd try to do a better job (and hopefully I did).  Thus I would say a time when I was at my best has been both times I made the decision to become a Hixson peer mentor.  I know it sounds like a suck up thing to say, but I have truly grown a lot in this last year and I look forward to the growth that is to come.


Now to get to the fun stuff about me!  I grew up in a town called DeWitt on the eastern side of the state.  I am a very outgoing individual as I'm sure you all will learn.  My parents divorced when I was 7.  They did manage to have a brief reunion a few years later during which my little brother, Lucus, was born.  Lucus is 9.5 years younger than me and he is the pride and joy of my life.  He is now 11 and in 6th grade.  This semester I am continuing an internship at a youth shelter in Ames which has proven to be challenging and almost always full of excitement (good and bad).  I also work two jobs right now.  One is on campus at the Student Scheduling Office and the other is at Kohl's.  With all of this you can bet that I tend to be a very busy person, but I like to stay that way.


I don't really know if I could say it is the thing I enjoy doing the most, but I do enjoy cooking, more specifically baking, quiet a lot.  I may just have to bring some treats in for the class this semester.


Something I enjoy learning is, oddly enough, anything to do with my major, psychology.  I have just started my senior year and I can honestly say I have liked every psychology course I have ever taken.  I will be going to grad school next year for child psychology, but I don't know where yet.  Eventually I would like to get into play therapy and either work in a clinic or in the court setting as well.


This year I just hope to continue to grow as a peer mentor through better communication and finding more ways to engage the students in learning.


Finally the role I feel I will play in the Freshman students transition to ISU is as a role model and as someone they can come to with questions, thoughts, concerns, and whatever else.  I will be someone to help them navigate the stresses of leaving home, learning to live with roommates, making new friends in a different environment, finding ways to become involved, and a variety of other things as they arise.


I am excited to get to know all of you throughout this next year so let's make it a great one!