Hello Hixsons!
So I know I already blogged for this week about MBTI, but just like the test found I really like to talk, so I’m posting again about the sessions we attended for class over the weekend.
Since I was unable to attend ISLE on Saturday (sorry about that, I’ll explain why in a bit) I attended 3 sessions of the Learning Community Mini-Institute on Friday. The first one I attended was Underprepared vs. Underperforming, which talked about freshmen transitioning to college. It was a great discussion about how some freshmen are not mentally ready for the rigors of college academics, while others just aren’t living up to their potential. It was a great discussion and it definitely made me realize that some of my students from last year fell into these categories.
The second session was How Peer Mentors Can Facilitate Student-Faculty Interaction. This session was more for learning communities associated with majors or colleges than for our program, but it did make me realize that for UST 111 my freshman year we all had to interview a faculty member in our major and the freshmen did not have to this past year. I think it is really important for students to get comfortable with the faculty in their department and that maybe this assignment should be implemented again this coming fall.
The final session I went to was on Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and was actually led by Allie’s roommate! It was a pretty small group and I’ve already been to a couple sessions like this one in the past, but it was still fun and informative.
I did not attend ISLE yesterday because I recently became a member of Students 2 Students peer educating with Prevention Services. These were the students who work the Free Condom Wednesday and Thursday tables and came to speak about safer sex during UST 111 freshman year. I attended Certified Peer Educator training for this group and it was a great experience. We went over a lot of things that will be really helpful in the fall like presentation and listening skills, and also how to respond to someone who is in trouble and referring them to someone who can better help them if the problem is too large for you to solve. You all will learn as the semester goes on how important these skills are to have while peer mentoring. I’m also pretty excited that I will be certified for peer educating since I enjoy it so much. Makes me feel a bit more official :)
Hope everyone had a good weekend and I will see you all Tuesday night!
--Chels
Sunday, January 30
Wednesday, January 26
MBTI
Hello out there :)
So last night we had our first long class and a good one I might add. I love MBTI. Being a psych major and all I love personality tests and learning about myself and others through them. I am an ENFP and, as Debra put it, very comfortable in that classification. I was really excited to learn that we got to do the Step 2 reports which go a little further in depth. I only had a few outliers but I feel like they were pretty spot on.
Overall, it says ENFP's are typically enthusiastic innovators. They have a lot of imagination and initiative, and they are spontaneous and enjoy action. They dislike routine and become easily bored. They are concerned about people and understand others' needs and aspirations. I would say this description is VERY similar to my personality.
The outlier I feel that was most like me was the "questioning vs. accommodating". I was out of type and pretty clearly a questioner. I do ask LOTS of questions but I feel like they're necessary. I am a person who likes to know things, so when I don't know something I feel like asking someone is the obvious thing to do. I do realize that sometimes people do not appreciate the types of questions I ask or that I ask them at all, but I just feel like at the moment I need to know what I'm asking about. I feel like more often than not my tendency to be a questioner is positive, which is good since I plan on asking lots of questions in the future :)
I think my "perceiving" is probably the clearest of my preferences. The bullets for that preference are very descriptive of me. Some of my favorites were "believe a solution will emerge regardless of where you start" love being surprised and taking things as they come" and "dislike having too many plans with too many details". I have always described myself as a "fly by the seat of my pants" kinda girl, and clearly MBTI discovered that as well.
Sorry for the novel! Also discovered by MBTI was that I'm talkative (shocker). Hope everyone enjoyed MBTI as much as I did. Hope to see you all Friday at the Learning Communities Mini-Institute!
--Chels
So last night we had our first long class and a good one I might add. I love MBTI. Being a psych major and all I love personality tests and learning about myself and others through them. I am an ENFP and, as Debra put it, very comfortable in that classification. I was really excited to learn that we got to do the Step 2 reports which go a little further in depth. I only had a few outliers but I feel like they were pretty spot on.
Overall, it says ENFP's are typically enthusiastic innovators. They have a lot of imagination and initiative, and they are spontaneous and enjoy action. They dislike routine and become easily bored. They are concerned about people and understand others' needs and aspirations. I would say this description is VERY similar to my personality.
The outlier I feel that was most like me was the "questioning vs. accommodating". I was out of type and pretty clearly a questioner. I do ask LOTS of questions but I feel like they're necessary. I am a person who likes to know things, so when I don't know something I feel like asking someone is the obvious thing to do. I do realize that sometimes people do not appreciate the types of questions I ask or that I ask them at all, but I just feel like at the moment I need to know what I'm asking about. I feel like more often than not my tendency to be a questioner is positive, which is good since I plan on asking lots of questions in the future :)
I think my "perceiving" is probably the clearest of my preferences. The bullets for that preference are very descriptive of me. Some of my favorites were "believe a solution will emerge regardless of where you start" love being surprised and taking things as they come" and "dislike having too many plans with too many details". I have always described myself as a "fly by the seat of my pants" kinda girl, and clearly MBTI discovered that as well.
Sorry for the novel! Also discovered by MBTI was that I'm talkative (shocker). Hope everyone enjoyed MBTI as much as I did. Hope to see you all Friday at the Learning Communities Mini-Institute!
--Chels
Sunday, January 23
Psshhh know it all....
Hello all!
First off great job to Josh and Greg on your first time leading class! You guys did an excellent job of getting everyone engaged and keeping us all on task. Loved the Skittles too.
I enjoyed discussing our fears about college and how they have changed over the past few years. Whenever I look back to my freshman year I think of how some of the simplest assignments stressed me out, yet I had SO MUCH more free time than I ever do now. I would nap a couple times a week, spend an hour or so in the dining center at each meal catching up with friends and still put off studying for a test until the night before because that’s always how I did it in high school. Luckily, I excelled freshman year but it was a drastic change from my high school where I knew the teachers personally and I could easily get the due dates on assignments switched to fit my schedule with my wonderful negotiating skills : ) College and high school differ so greatly and it’s good to reflect on how far each of us has come over the past few years from our transition from high school to college.
The chapter discusses the important of First Year Programs at colleges. As a first year student I didn’t understand how important these were to us, but now I realize how much they impacted my first year. Of course I’m grateful for the Hixson program and everything it has done for me over the past 3 years of college, and what it will continue to do for me until I graduate, but that first semester I thought I was a know it all, and if I didn’t already know it I could figure it out on my own. I was (of course) wrong. The program to this day continues to teach me things about college but more so life in general and my growth as a student. It has even led me to what I hope is my chosen career path in Student Affairs and working with programming like this at a university in the future.
Hope everyone had a great weekend. I know I did! See you all on Tuesday for MBTI. Woo!
--Chels
First off great job to Josh and Greg on your first time leading class! You guys did an excellent job of getting everyone engaged and keeping us all on task. Loved the Skittles too.
I enjoyed discussing our fears about college and how they have changed over the past few years. Whenever I look back to my freshman year I think of how some of the simplest assignments stressed me out, yet I had SO MUCH more free time than I ever do now. I would nap a couple times a week, spend an hour or so in the dining center at each meal catching up with friends and still put off studying for a test until the night before because that’s always how I did it in high school. Luckily, I excelled freshman year but it was a drastic change from my high school where I knew the teachers personally and I could easily get the due dates on assignments switched to fit my schedule with my wonderful negotiating skills : ) College and high school differ so greatly and it’s good to reflect on how far each of us has come over the past few years from our transition from high school to college.
The chapter discusses the important of First Year Programs at colleges. As a first year student I didn’t understand how important these were to us, but now I realize how much they impacted my first year. Of course I’m grateful for the Hixson program and everything it has done for me over the past 3 years of college, and what it will continue to do for me until I graduate, but that first semester I thought I was a know it all, and if I didn’t already know it I could figure it out on my own. I was (of course) wrong. The program to this day continues to teach me things about college but more so life in general and my growth as a student. It has even led me to what I hope is my chosen career path in Student Affairs and working with programming like this at a university in the future.
Hope everyone had a great weekend. I know I did! See you all on Tuesday for MBTI. Woo!
--Chels
Saturday, January 15
Welcome back, welcome back.....
Hi all!
Well this is my first blog post in quite some time so hopefully I can get back up to speed. This will be my second time around as a peer mentor with the Hixson program and I am very excited for what the year will bring. Being a peer mentor last year was a very rewarding process and I am eager to build on my experiences from last year and also what I will learn this semester from all of you to be an even better peer mentor this coming fall.
With that being said, last year when I took UST 311 for the first time, I did not take the reading very seriously and concentrated more of my time on assignments and that activities we did during class. I always at least skimmed through the reading, but I thought the topics covered by Heath and Allie and how they were presented in class would be more beneficial. This semester I’m going to strive to get more out of the reading than I did last year.
While reading through the first chapter last week, I realized how important it is to establish early on exactly what our job description is as a peer mentor. Sometimes we all get caught up in the moment and lose sight of what we should do, or we just don’t understand from the beginning. Next fall it is so important to understand what is expected of you as a mentor and for your students to know what they can expect from you as well. The lists on pages 7 and 15 are really important to remember because they are central to the formal peer mentoring we will be doing in the fall. I encourage you all (new and old mentors) to read through them and really take in what they are saying.
I thought class was a lot of fun this week and it’s exciting to think about where the 16 of us will all be at the end of the semester and the end of the year. We all grow and change so much and build really great relationships and I can’t wait for that to happen in our group (give it time, it WILL happen). I made some really great friends last year with people I would otherwise never have met, and I know that will happen within this group as well. Can’t wait to see you all Tuesday!
Well this is my first blog post in quite some time so hopefully I can get back up to speed. This will be my second time around as a peer mentor with the Hixson program and I am very excited for what the year will bring. Being a peer mentor last year was a very rewarding process and I am eager to build on my experiences from last year and also what I will learn this semester from all of you to be an even better peer mentor this coming fall.
With that being said, last year when I took UST 311 for the first time, I did not take the reading very seriously and concentrated more of my time on assignments and that activities we did during class. I always at least skimmed through the reading, but I thought the topics covered by Heath and Allie and how they were presented in class would be more beneficial. This semester I’m going to strive to get more out of the reading than I did last year.
While reading through the first chapter last week, I realized how important it is to establish early on exactly what our job description is as a peer mentor. Sometimes we all get caught up in the moment and lose sight of what we should do, or we just don’t understand from the beginning. Next fall it is so important to understand what is expected of you as a mentor and for your students to know what they can expect from you as well. The lists on pages 7 and 15 are really important to remember because they are central to the formal peer mentoring we will be doing in the fall. I encourage you all (new and old mentors) to read through them and really take in what they are saying.
I thought class was a lot of fun this week and it’s exciting to think about where the 16 of us will all be at the end of the semester and the end of the year. We all grow and change so much and build really great relationships and I can’t wait for that to happen in our group (give it time, it WILL happen). I made some really great friends last year with people I would otherwise never have met, and I know that will happen within this group as well. Can’t wait to see you all Tuesday!
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