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

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

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!

2 Is Better Than 1

Yay for co-leader pairings!

I'm beyond stoked to be paired with Mr. Taylor Burgin and I think he's kinda excited too. I think all of our pairs turned out really well and I think all of us are going to work together wonderfully.

As for class last week, I thought the 2 hours flew by. The panel did a great job of answering questions, and I think it helps us immensely that we have Randi and Kris to go to with questions if we ever were to need help. I also loved our lil famous pairs game and I'm thinking we might need to incorporate that into our recitation in the fall.

I can't believe were already at dead week! This semester and class literally flew by. And our last 311 class is this Wednesday! Can't wait to see everyone there, and hopefully we'll all keep in touch over the summer!

Early good luck on finals! :]

A Little Thing Called Confidence

Well hello there everybody, hope your all doing well today,

ok so VEISHEA got the best of me and I totally forgot that I had to blog, or that I had any responsibilities for that matter...

Alright so confidence! I feel VERY confident about all of our abilities for the coming semester and am so excited to finally get going on it. At the beginning of the semester I was pretty overwhelmed and apprehensive about how I would do as a mentor, but as the semester is progressed I feel more and more prepared. My confidence in my lesson planning and presenting to other has increased and I feel like after the first couple classes are under my belt I will be good to go.

Hope everyone had a great VEISHEA! see you all for dinner and class Wednesday!

ps: since were getting dinner, I think Allie, Heath, and Debra should put on some sort of show for us all... thoughts?

Put a smile on your face...

Hello everybody!

Hope everyone is as excited for VEISHEA week as I am :] In fact I'm sitting in the Hixson computer lab trying to get as much accomplished within the next few days so I can really enjoy it. Working on the E-Portfolio has actually been a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I've realized lesson plans are getting a lot easier, and that thinking about finally getting to teach gets me insanely excited!

I wanted to thank Kris for coming across that great hand out we all got. Having that around will be beneficial for everyone, whether we were teaching this class or not. I've heard a lot about of the resources we have on campus, but I definitely haven't utilized them like I should. Hopefully having that around will help me get on that!

As this semester comes to a close everything can get really stressful, and I know I've been feeling that a lot lately. The past couple of weeks have been pretty intense, and I know it's only going to get worse. I keep trying to keep my chin up, and this class really helps that out. And I wanna thank all of you for that :]

Love you guys :]

Working together, we get the job done!

Hey Everyone!

So this past week was my first time teaching a class and I think it went really well! I'm not gonna lie I was super nervous before class. Actually I was kinda trippin out lol but it was alot of fun and I hope everyone enjoyed it like I did!

So since I gave all of you an accountability activity I feel I should probably do it too! I feel like I can be really effective as a group member because I don't ever leave work up to somebody else. I like to work in groups where work is divided equally between everyone, but I know that doesn't always happen. Overall I would just say that I like to do my fair share of work and maybe a little more to ensure that the project or what have you will be completed.

I think I could improve in groups by taking into account how different everyone's style of doing projects might be. I'm a girl who works well under pressure, but not everyone is like that. If I need to complete my part of a project before another person can start there's, it can sometimes be difficult for me to get up the energy to work way farther in advance then I would if the project was just done on my own. It's something I need to improve upon, or my time management skills in general lol

Hope everyone has a happy Easter and enjoy the beautiful weather :]