Peer Mentors

This week we talked about other peer mentoring groups. I thought Megan and Cory did a great job. I liked the activity we did and they had great discussion questions that went with it. Doing the activity helped me compare and contrast other peer mentor groups with the one that I am in. It helped me see that there are a lot of similarities because one of the main reasons for a peer mentor is to assist and help others fit in or answer their questions. The group also usually consists of similar groups of people, whether it be the same major or the same financial situation. There are a lot of differences between peer mentor groups though, like what their meetings consist of, how frequently they meet, or even how personal their meetings get. I think that the Hixson program allows freshman to become friends with the students in their recitations and with the advisers and peer mentors. I think that this is one of the main reasons for peer mentors at Iowa State. I know that I was very nervous my freshman year and it helped to have that small class to go to where I was able to discuss with classmates and learn about campus and things that were not part of my curriculum. I feel that I have grown tremendously since my freshman year and I think that Hixson was part of the reason. I am excited to be a Hixson peer mentor next year and help the freshman get accustomed to college life and to help them feel like they belong here. That is what peer mentors are for!

Diversity Diversity

Denise Williams came during class this week and she was great! I went to her diversity session one Friday about a month or so ago. I was excited to hear that I would get to experience it again. We watched the video, "N*gger W*tback Ch*nk" (I think that is how you spell it) and it really is a funny video about stereotypes about asians, African Americans, and hispanics. Denise asked the question, "why do we all get the joke?" We all the get the joke because in this country, we care more about money and advertising and being better than everyone else. Money should not be the most important thing in the world but people use stereotypes to advertise and they make money off of it. Every commercial is filled with ten commercials and sometimes there are more commercials and advertisements than there is the actual show. Some tv shows have a lot of stereotyping in them. Everyone sees commercials and billboards that word gets around and soon everyone thinks this advertised statement is true but it is only a stereotype. It is shared among friends of friends of friends and becomes wide spread! Denise also brought up a good point about stereotyping and how to somewhat overcome it and if people could do this, we could get past all of the stereotyping.

Whenever I meet someone or see someone walking by, I am always stereotyping people. Everyone does it unconsciously and some are worse at it than others. I am going to work hard on not stereotyping people and when I do stereotype someone I am going to ask myself "why did I think that?"I think being able to ask myself this question is going to help me be a better peer mentor. If I am able to not stereotype someone at first glance then I will be able to be a better person and a better teacher that will not show a hint of resistance if my stereotyping is negative. I will also be able to have a better experience and let my mentees have a better experience because I will be more relaxed and open.

Ethics

This week we talked about ethics. I learned a lot from Easten's and Alex's lesson plan and also from the book. I learned that it is not recommended to become friends with your mentee, but it depends on the situation I think. I can see how becoming friends with them could shift the atmosphere in the class room. It could cause problems and the person that you become friends with might not look at you like a teacher and might not take you seriously. That could cause a lot of problems. Another thing we talked about was that if there is a problem, or past experiences that went bad, with a person, it is better to talk to them face to face and probably one on one, not in front of the whole class. You need to tell them the truth and be honest about your feelings. The other option would be to ignore the situation all together which won't solve anything and the problem will continue and it will probably ruin the experience for others. Or, you could egg it on and make the situation much worse, this would be the last thing I would do. If I have a problem with a student or another peer mentor next year, I will confront them and make things better because there is nothing worse that feeling awkward around people you have to spend a lot of time with.

Digital Storying Telling Project

This week, we had a work day for our digital storying telling project. Our true life video is going to be really good and informative. It is short, fun, and to the point on very diverse topics about important things freshman should know. I think that this video is going to help inform the Hixson freshman next year in getting comfortable with campus and using its resources. Since us peer mentors have gone threw the experiences of being freshman, we know what it is like to be a small person in this very large campus and it can be overwhelming at times. We had our own thoughts and fears and things that we wish we would have known coming into college. These ideas might be the same as a lot of the incoming freshman next year. The video will also be a good introduction to the video that they are going to have to make during the semester and will help give them ideas on what to do (or not to do) in their own movie. I was an actress in the video and I know that there were some problems getting everybody together on the scheduled time, but we were able to find a different day that worked for most people. I think we got the filming done on time and now all that is left is the editing. I think that our movie is going to turn out great because we have such a great group of peer mentors! :)