Certified! :)

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