Engaging Diversity

Last week we had a guest speaker, Denise Williams who is part of the ISU Faculty and presented a terrific lecture on diversity, and she wasn't at all afraid to probe us and put us on the spot. I have been to numerous diversity events on campus and love getting new perspectives on how other people generally feel toward stereotyping and discrimination.
One thing I really liked was that she showed the video from NWC which not many people had seen however I attended the event last year and it was really eye opening.  Another part I really liked was that picture activity where students could text in answers to her question. This activity gave me numerous ideas to implement in my UST 111 lesson plans, and was an extremely useful experience. I feel like an activity like this in a way breaks down different barriers and encourages a more open environment and discussion amongst the group presented to. Another big plus was the ice cream and toppings! That is one thing I really enjoyed when my peer mentors were able to bring snacks and treats and I hope to be able to do the same for my section. Getting to the end of this semester I am getting really excited about becoming a peer mentor and will be looking forward to it throughout the summer and my internship.

Reflection on DST progress

I wasn't able to attend last weeks lecture where we discussed the DST project because of an internship interview in des moines; however I have been able to attend two sessions of filming. The first session was a scene in my old dorm hall, Roberts Franklin, where sebastian still lives. It was a very productive day of filming, and I believe the scene we filmed will be a comical cornerstone of the project. The second session was also successful because there was a greater turnout, and more people were actually able to attend letting us get a tremendous amount of filming done.
My biggest contribution to the project so far has been the first session of filming where I was in a tae kwan do outfit and really got into character. Although I did not sign up for editing on the project, I would really like to have a part in finishing it up and polishing the finished product. Overall I have really enjoyed this project and look forward to seeing everyones' hard work be exemplified in the finished product.

Etiquette Dinner

Tonight I attended the etiquette dinner that provided a complete over hall of any idea I had regarding personal etiquette. After leaving this dinner I feel like I would be ready to have an interview dinner with Donald Trump. The speaker was very keen and even said she practices good etiquette at all times and always critiques her husband.
Overall what I took away from this dinner was knowing how to present yourself in situations where it may make or break an opportunity to better your life and career. I am really glad I attended this dinner and I feel I will always remember how to conduct myself in formal situations as well as the proper ways to use cutlery.
I really enjoyed learning how to better my etiquette and felt that all of us peer mentors respected the importance of good etiquette in interview settings and really enjoyed being part of a group learning experience. 
 

Days to Weeks, Weeks to Months, Months to Years

I am making this post on probably the most busy week I have had yet in my college career. This weekend I had quizzes, worksheets, and the first exam to grade for the class that I TA for which took up a lot of time, then I have two papers due for my classes, I had to edit my resume and begin drafting a cover letter for a summer internship in Alaska that I am extremely passionate about getting, and on top of all this my parents wanted to come up and take me out to eat. I have also attended several group meetings already this week for different groups that I am involved with like the Society for Technical Communicators, The Live Green Initiative, and the Sustainapalooza planning committee.
I regret not having read the chapter in Students Helping Students prior to this post, but I will have it read by class on Wednesday which is better later than never. I really enjoyed last weeks lesson plan on problem solving, and especially the discussion regarding being direct without being confrontational which is definitely the type of person I am. One thing I can take from the lesson and my extreme week of being busy is being able to be checked into what is going on around me and leaving conflict at the door especially in the position as peer mentor because its not just your partner but all your students that are counting on you to be fully  invested into each class.

Reflection of Lesson Plan First Experience

Last week my partner Lauren Huebbe and I developed an assigned lesson plan to teach a chapter out of our UST 311 A textbook, Students Helping Students to our fellow peer mentors in-training. This experience allowed me to break the ice on creating, developing, and implementing a real lesson plan, and overall the lesson went very smoothly. After learning from Amy's lesson and meeting with Allie and Silas prior to the class, we were really prepared for what was to come with presenting to our peers.
        I feel very confident now in my ability to address a topic and find a constructive way to create a lesson plan while knowing that no lesson plan is fool proof or written in stone. One thing I took away from Amy's lesson was being able to ask a question then ask another question to the response of a peer in order to further the discussion and make more connections. One thing that Lauren and I were able to do that helped our plan was divide the group into two, and split up to each group in order to mediate the activity and answer any questions our peers had about the activity.
       I am glad that I decided to get our lesson plan out of the way early and set the tone for the rest of the lesson plans. I really enjoyed the experience it offered, and I learned a lot about myself and my presentation skills and what I need to work on. I am really looking forward to the other lessons and being able to learn and take away from what others bring to the table.

Learning Community Annual Conference

Unfortunately I was only able to attend one session of the conference and the lunch. The session I attended was over identifying and utilizing personal strengths whether it is in yourself as an individual, or in a member of your group. The speaker presented an overview of an ISTRENGHs assessment which is very similar to the MBTI except it covers more and provides a broader scope of traits specifically strengths of an individual.
         One thing I took away from the meeting and the speaker was that as a peer mentor or any leadership role, you should always be striving to identify what your strengths are and develop new ways to utilize them when presented with different situations that require a different strength to overcome. The way I would apply this as a peer mentor would be to use this type of mindset whenever I am aware of a difficult situation that way I would find new ways to utilize either the strengths I have, or utilize the strengths of the people around me.
         The lunch was really good, and it was fun to sit around and discuss different sessions of the conference with other peer mentors and Silas. Everyone seemed to enjoy what each session had to offer, and after discussing it we all agreed that it was a very useful and applicative conference.
         This is the week that I am presenting a lesson plan over Ch. 3 in our Students Helping Students Book for the Hixson Peer Mentor class, and I am really excited to get my first experience with creating and implementing an actual lesson plan. After meeting with Silas and Allie, I feel like they were able to offer my partner, Lauren Huebbe, and me a lot of great ideas for the lesson plan which really helped us understand what makes a good lesson plan great. 

Week 3 ISLE

The ISLE ISU leadership conference was a great way to gain a different perspective for approaching the leadership role of peer mentor. The first session I attended was concerning leadership roles and styles, and really helped me connect to what type of leader I have been in the past and what type of leader I hope to become. This session defined different aspects of leadership roles, and what it means to be an efficient and impacting leader.
The second session I attended was dedicated to meeting agendas and helped participants understand what is necessary to achieve focus and involvement in their specific meetings. What I really liked about this session was the acronym SMART which had to do with goal setting. The acronym stood for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. I had never heard of this acronym before, and after becoming aware of how to apply it, I feel like I have a better understanding of achievable goal setting.This session also discussed the differences between intentions and outcomes which helped me further understand what realistic leadership goals to set for myself, and what realistic goals to set for the meetings that I will be conducting.
Overall I found the conference very beneficial, and it made me think a lot about myself. The sessions made me realize that the control is in my hands as an individual leader, and it is up to me to determine what type of leader I will be, and what type of impact I will make on the peers I mentor.

First thoughts/Students Helping Students ch.1-2

To be honest I am not much of a blogger, however my first experience with blogging was with the recitation section of UST 111. Blogging can be useful if used responsibly, and following blogs can definitely become a huge waste of websurfing time. I am looking forward to the experience with the different assignment requirements associated with our Hixson blogs and correspondence between all the peer mentors.
       The beginning of Students Helping Students helped further my understanding of the role a peer educator plays in colleges all over the world. The book uses a lot of great definitions and exercises to trigger a new way of thinking and approaching the role as a peer mentor. I personally found the five principles to guide peer mentor work as extremely applicable to situations I experienced as a first year college student, and becoming aware of the principles helped me focus on my individual growth and different adjustments throughout my previous semesters.
       The beginning of this book builds the framework of becoming and sustaining the active role as a peer mentor, and provides the reader with different lenses in which to view their specific situational call to leadership and mentoring. This book reads as if it were a handbook which contributes to its readability, and the different hypothetical scenarios and exercises included trigger individualistic lesson responses. Overall I am excited to continue reading this book and take all that I can from the lessons and experiences it has to offer.