Hi all!
So yesterday I attended a learning communities mini-institute session for new or future peer mentors and how to transition into that role. It was put on by Craig Zywicki (sp?) who is in charge of SI at the Academic Success Center. I was a little nervous going in because the group was very small and had a few staff members who are the heads of learning communities within their department, but it ended up working out great because they had a lot of great input considering they have done this before.
We paired up to do discussions and I was paired with a staff member in charge of the mechanical engineering learning communities. We talked about things I was worried about and ways I could support my men-tees effectively. He said that doing things actively and in the allotted time frame for the week is the best way to get through to students. Trying to schedule things outside of class can get rough and usually has a low attendance count, so to try and get it all out in class. Also, he eased my fear of lesson plans by letting me know that almost no professors knew how to create a lesson plan when they started, but you figure it out as you go, which made me much less apprehensive.
His counterpart in the mechanical engineering learning community was there too and she said that ice breakers are great and getting the students to talk to each other instead of just listening to you talk is the best way to start out. She said that in the beginning low-risk icebreakers are the best idea, so stick to one-on-ones with partners instead of throwing them out there in front of the whole group. This way they can ease into each other, and eventually get more comfortable with each other as a whole.
The most important thing I learned though is that I am not going to be perfect at this, especially not in the beginning, but that's ok. I just need to learn from the mistakes I make and move on. Also that communicating with my other peer mentors is the best way to learn new and interesting ideas for class, or to get advice on how to handle situations they might have already been through.
I would say all in all the session I attended was very informational and helpful to me, and boosted my confidence and excitement for becoming a Hixson Peer Mentor. :)
-Chels
