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.