Resources

This week was Christina's and my turn to lead class.  It gave me great insight in how our classroom is going to work next year. It also made me realize how hard it is to wait seven seconds for everybody to think about the question and come up with an answer. The silence is kind of awkward for a while but I think that it will get better and become less awkward. Teaching our lesson plan that we thought would only take 20 minutes was an eye-opener because it took way longer than we had estimated. In reality, our lesson plan was way too long because we were not able to ask more of our discussion questions, but it would be a perfect lesson plan for a 50 minute class period! I think as a peer mentor, we should know most of the resources here at Iowa State because it is important for your students to feel comfortable going to you and knowing you will have the answer (most of the time anyways) or be able to refer them to the right place, but always being willing to sit down with them and look with them is a good option; it will help you bond with your student and also learn something new! I also like Amy's idea about bad versus good experiences with resources. Just because you have a bad experience with a resource doesn't mean it is going to be that way the next time, so just being open and willing to give your resources more than one try will help one stay more open minded and probably be more willing to refer someone to that resource.