Problem Solving With Individuals

I needed a little help to jog my memory of everything we did this past Wednesday from Sebastian, but as you all should now know we talked about formative and summative evaluation, and the differences between positive and negative goals.  Now, awhile back we did this activity with our smart goals and I do remember Sebastian and Brad saying to reference that when writing our blog and find out if those goals would be positive or negative and how we would change them.  Overall, this week was about having a problem and what we would do, how we would go about fixing the problem and that will help us immensely next year dealing with the mentees as they are going to have problems and seek us for help and we need to know how to go about helping them the best way. 

So, looking at my smart goals I don’t necessarily think I have any negative goals on there like ‘I don’t want to fail this class’ they all seem pretty positive in helping me get where I need/want to go.  However, I can reference something from last year that will help.  Sebastian and Brad had us break into groups and read the scenario and what kind of evaluation that was.  I remember connecting with what was on our piece of paper because it’s exactly what I did last semester.  I was dreading taking this econ class and I figured that the midterm would help me know if I wanted to stay in the class or drop it; whatever my grade ending up being I would decide to stay or go.  Unfortunately, he didn't post midterm grades so I was totally unclear as to where my standing was in the class.  I guess I was using both of the evaluations for my grade formative because I was tracking it till the midterm and the midterm itself but summative because I was summarizing everything altogether and going to decide to stay or go off of that.  I hope that makes sense, it made sense in my head! 

I know I'm not going to be able to handle everything that is going to be thrown at me next fall, and it will be hard to not be able to help everyone because I want to try my best.  Hopefully, if a student is in the same position as me I'll have a chance to offer extra help, I'll be there to check up on them with their work if they want it, suggest a tutor, talking to the professor and just try to be there anyway I can for them.

Helping Students

Reading over chapter four and then having Coreen and Katie teach class was very beneficial for all of us to learn about how to communicate with our future income freshmen.  Coreen and Katie had us do an activity where we were given a piece of paper with a scenario on it and we then had to describe how we would go about that situation.  I was able to connect what the piece of paper said for our group with a friend of mine and I knew that I would be able to handle the situation if it ever arose.  I can’t fully remember what our piece of paper said but overall it was good to know I knew how to approach the situation.  It’s also good to know that you can’t say things to your peers like you can to your friends.  Like if I told my friend they were being stupid for liking someone, or doing something I found stupid.  You can’t go about that with the freshmen because you want them to look up to you.  Yeah, your friends still look up to you but they also expect you to be honest. 

In the book it also lists of many things as to what a helping relationship means.  I feel like most of these are common sense but it’s still good to look over because like I said before you can’t just be totally blunt  with your freshmen like you can your close friends.  You want to make sure you’re there for them and that they know that.  I want to be able to have the kinds I teach know that they can talk to me about whatever and I’ll be there to listen and give helpful feedback if they want it or just an open ear if they just have things to get off of their chest.

Cultural Influences

This past Wednesday we had a fellow peer mentor, Easton, teach the class.  When he started he had us do an ice breaker that I had remembered from my first recitation freshmen year and I actually really enjoyed it then so I was really looking forward to doing that activity!  Of course the game only allows us to get to know basics about each other, but it was still fun and I really enjoyed it so hopefully I’ll be able to do that ice breaker next year with my students!

After the ice breaker we did a little talking about different cultures and what can make them diverse.  Afterwards we were sent to go back to our seats and do another activity and then talk to the people next to us and share however we felt about said question.  At first we had to list things that were our personal cultural influences so one of the things I chose to write was my religion.  We then had to say why it might be difficult for someone else to appreciate our influence.  It’s one of those things that people don’t really like to speak about because people judge so quickly when they hear what your religion is and how you feel, and yes I’m guilty of doing that.  I’m open to hearing your thoughts and ideas about whatever you feel and I don’t want to be one of those people who shove their religion down your throat, so I try to understand where they’re coming from but I can’t help that judging aspect; we all do it we aren't perfect.  Anyways, my religion has made a huge impact on who I am and what I’m doing with my life.  In the past I've gone on many mission trips to the inner city of Los Angeles, down to skid row in L.A, and Tijuana, Mexico, and it’s a very amazing experience and I would definitely say it’s changed me to be a better person and not take things for granted.  I wish everyone was able to go on at least one and experience what it’s like to help out, not just for a day like volunteering but for two weeks being totally out of your element and seeing how those people get by day to day.  That would probably be my way of them seeing where I’m coming from in a situation and hopefully they would learn something from it.

MBTI

I’m going to start with either Extraversion or Introversion.  I most definitely knew I was an extravert because I consider myself a very outgoing, enthusiastic, and loud/expressive person.  That definitely fits the bill for an extravert.  I grew up with three older brothers so I had to learn to be loud and I was very active with them as well running around the house with them messing around, rough-housing it around.   I do feel like they are a big part of who I am today.  I’ve never really been a shy or quiet person making new friends only with the exception of the people who REALLY intimidate me. 

The second one is either Sensing or Intuition.  I consider myself a practical and traditional person.  I’m not one to think of imaginative things, I like facts and things that I can prove.  I scored a 5 on both of those things and it makes sense because I’d rather do something that I know will work and usually not something where I won’t know the end result.  I don’t want to do something that won’t work out in the end because that means I just wasted time on it when I could have been doing something else possibly more important.  Also, I also do take people’s feelings into consideration before a say a comment.  I really don’t like to hurt others feelings so if I happen to, I apologize.

Onto the third is Thinking or Feeling.  According to the test I am a Feeling kind of person.  My highest scores on this accepting and compassionate.  I would agree with them because I don’t want people to feel left out and if I happen to do something I try my best to include them.  I’m also the kind of friend that someone can come to and confide in and I’ll be there to listen and they can trust me to keep it between us and help them if they ask for it.  Between tough and tender I happen to be right in the midzone, and I would have to agree with that.  Sometimes you can’t always be tender hearted to people and you have to tell them what’s up and I’m the one to do that.  I don’t want to see someone suffering and sometimes you need to be tough on someone to get that through as well.

Lastly, between Judging and Perceiving it says I’m perceiving but I’m on both sides for this one.  I like to be pretty organized, and follow a schedule a lot.  If I don’t I kind of freak out and I’m not really sure what to do.  The schedule helps me know what I need to get done and what time I have to wait before I get something done.  On one end I’m very easygoing and I’m relaxed, but once something happens to mess up that schedule of mine I may get a little frazzled.

When we had started going over the MBTI in class I had thought I was something else rather than what i got which was ESFP.  Looking over what the MBTI says I can agree what it says that I am.  Everyone is every one of these at some point so I can see where I fit in with the others as well.  I understand where I am in every situation and I’m able to connect certain situations with everything on here as well.  I really did like this experience and seeing everyone else's in class too!

Iowa State Leadership Experience

Friday I was able to attend two sessions for the Learning Communities Mid-Year Institute.  The first session I went to was about bullying and what to do if you witnessed it happening and how to prevent it from happening.  I wanted to go to this session because I wanted to know other possibilities to look into if bullying occurs and if I’m not able to take care of it, being the little ol’ me that I am.  The room was probably set up for at least 20 people however only 5 people in came including me, but I liked it because it felt more interactive.  They mentioned different scenarios that would happen and asked us what we would do about them; this helped a lot because it had me picturing what could possibly happen, although I hope I don’t have to encounter it, and what I would be able to do about it. 

Say if guys are playing flag football and out of frustration someone says the three letter F word.  The best thing to do if you happened to be on a team with the person who said it would be like “dude, that’s not cool don’t say that.”  That has a huge impact on people only if it is a few simple words.  They said silence = acceptance, so if you don’t stop that from happening they’re going to think it’s okay to say that and keep saying bad things that shouldn’t be said.  So step up and just say that it isn’t cool, and hopefully to whoever you’re saying that too looks ups to you and understands that it’s not okay to say that.  I also went to a time management session, and we talked about how to better manage your time, and where to study and how to better yourself as a student.  I’m in the process of working on that for myself.

Today, I went to two more sessions for ISLE and the first one was very helpful for me.  It was about what to do with groups and we talked a lot of ice breakers, but he preferred to use the words team builders.  He gave us many options to start with our students next year in the fall.  Some of them obviously we won’t be able to do the first day because some team builders are a lot more intimate about our personal lives rather than asking what you like to do in the free time.  There are many different team builders that we will be able to use next year and they will help us tie into the real lesson we will be doing and hopefully then they will be able to tie into what the team builder was and the lecture or whatever we happen to do.  Overall, all the sessions were very helpful for me to help the incoming freshmen I mentor next fall and I’m really looking forward to get started with their Iowa State adventure.  

Diversity Event

Thursday night I went to the MLK Legacy Series talk given by Michael Eric Dyson.  He is a Baptist preacher so when he first came out he was very energetic to say the least and he seemed very comfortable talking to us.  It made me feel very comfortable and excited to hear what he had to say.  He started off saying basically everyone used to be a racist because if you talked about race you were a racist.  I was a little thrown off by that but it has always been a big issue especially since when our parents and our grandparents were younger.  He also said MLK Jr. said racism is wrong.  Obviously we know that he was strongly against racism. That’s what he fought so hard to get rid of; to get people passionate to step up for themselves and finally create equality.

He also mentioned the black community stepping up and becoming just like one of us.  When Jackie Robinson (the first black ball player in the major league of baseball) joined the baseball world that was a huge step up for the African American community.  He was there to show people that they can do what they set their mind to; to be anything they want to be.  That strongly helped in the some of the major steps for the African American community.  In our lifetime and in our parent’s lifetimes there have been many major steps, and there have also been many firsts that have been achieved, and barriers broken.

He also mentioned something that I had never heard of or even thought of before.  When he was talking about slavery he said slavery had never been as viscous until Christianity got involved.  Christianity was a strong faith to have among many slave owners and of course going to church and reading the Bible had been very important to them.  I don’t know word for word what it says in the Bible but he mentioned something about those who do wrong should be punished and at least in the old testament it was okay to have slaves and or servants.  Since slave owners had a strong Christian faith a lot of them could be like people we would now look up to such as lawyers, teachers, and doctors.  You just wouldn’t be able to tell back then because it was just the normal thing to be able to have slaves.  Going to this presentation was an eye opener for me in a way and I’m very glad I was able to hear what he had said about MLK Jr. and slavery because some things I had never even known.