Final Week!!!

I was super excited to finally get my partner!!  I ended up being a part of one of the groups of three so I am partners with Anthony; however Joey is Anthony’s other partner, so I will be doing a lot with him also.  I feel strongly that we will be able bounce off of each other to be the best mentors we can be for our recitation.  Knowing Anthony has two recitations I know that I will have to be very on top of things, so if he ends up needing to be with his other group I can handle everything myself.  Along with that when we are working on lesson plans and everything like that it will be nice to have an extra person to work with. 

The only other thing we did on Tuesday was some ice breakers…I love icebreakers!!  I have always found doing ice breakers fun because you are able to learn a lot about others while having fun.  I also find it interesting that there are so many different ice breakers that accomplish the same things.  Next, year I plan to use different ice breakers throughout the year to let the first years have fun and learn at the same time. 

I can’t believe this semester is almost over already.  We have come a long way as a group and I think we are ready for next fall all the new Hixson mentees, at least I know I am! J  I hope everybody is having a good dead week and good luck on finals next week!  See everyone later today!

Stories of Undocumented Youth

The diversity event I went to was, “Stories of Undocumented Youth.”  This film and discussion was very eye opening, I never knew there was so many youth that were/are undocumented in the United States.  Every year there are around 65,000 high schools graduates that are not able to continue their path through life in the United States because of not have the right papers to make them US citizens.  This eye opening  event was started with the film “Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth,” which was about four youth that have lived in the United States for as long as they can remember but their parents were illegal’s. When these high school graduates came of age they had problems getting jobs and going to college, because they were not US citizen because of their parents’ actions.  However, since the DREAM Act was passed those individuals that are undocumented now have the opportunity to gain permanent resident status here in the US and follow their dreams.  Following the video there was a short break followed by a discussion on this issue, which was also very eye opening.  

Before attending this event I never had put any thought into the fact that individuals all over this country of all different races and backgrounds are affected by their parents’ choice to come to America illegally.  There is nothing that makes them any different in the everyday life, until they find out they have no papers saying they are American citizens.  If I was one of those individuals that found out I was “undocumented” I don’t know  what I would do….I would be devastated that I couldn’t follow my dreams and lost when  I had to give up everything I had  ever known.  I feel that the DREAM Act was a great piece of legislation for our government to pass because now individuals are able to pave their own paths to life.  Undocumented youth don’t have to be punished for what their parents did anymore. 

Scavenger Hunt!!

I hope everybody had a great VEISHEA!  It was a great week for the Hixson program with Christiana getting her award and all of us getting so much work done on our video.  This past week in class we had to do a scavenger hunt of important places to know about on campus.  I found the Scavenger hunt relaxing, educational, and fun.  Some of the places we had to find were the Thielen Health Center, the Study Aboard office, the Financial Aid offices, and the Student Services main offices.  We were also gave points for every sculpture, piece of art, and donated object we could find around campus.  We did this scavenger hunt, so we would know where some of the commonly needed places by first year students are located, so we can better help our groups next year. 

I wish I could have come to more of the retreat yesterday; it looked like you guys were having fun.  I am happy to say I think the movie is going to be a success!  Big thanks to Zach and Brandon for all their hard work with the video! Well that is all for this week, see ya’ll tomorrow.  I CAN’T WAIT for tomorrow so I can find out my mentoring partner!!! J

GOALS!!!

I hope everybody found Zach and my lesson at least a little interesting.  Our lesson was about goals and using the SMART and 4 M’s methods to make goals more realistic.  I found the SMART goals method is what I use the most, it might be because I have know about this method longer or just because I like using this method more.  The SMART goals method entails five things a goal should be, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-limited.  The SMART goal that I made for myself this past week is that I will know the names, one fact, and the county that each person in my recitation is from and I will know the names of at least five other students by the third week of classes.  By using the SMART method by goal would be classified like this.  My goal is specific because I am going to know the names, one fact, and county of each member in my recitation and the names of at least five other students.  My goal is Measurable because after each class I can see what I know about each of my mentees and on Mondays I can see if I can remember any new mentees not from my recitation.  The goal is Attainable because I know I can memorize things if I try.  It is Relevant because I need to know these facts to foster better relationships between me and my group.  Lastly, it is Time-Limited because I gave myself three weeks.  As you can see using the SMART method makes the goals very specific and makes you think about every little thing obtaining to the goal.

            The 4 m’s in the 4M’s method stand for motivation, making commitments, modifying the environment, and monitoring actions.  Even though I like the SMART method more, this method can also come in very handy when working on making goals and achieving them.  For my goal above my motivation is being the best mentor I can be for the individuals in my group and the whole program.  Those that can help me achieve this are my follow mentors because we are all trying to do the same basic thing.  I will modify my environment by making sure that when students are doing their intro there are no distracts in the room, so we can pay attention and get to know each other better.  Lastly, I can monitor my actions by seeing what I remember after each class.  Setting goals have always been important to me because goals give me something to work for and I love having something to work forwards. 

I hope everybody is enjoying this beautiful weather, I know I am!  See everybody Tuesday for sure and maybe Monday to work on the video! J

Digital Storytelling

Hope everybody is having a great weekend and loving this beautiful weather, I know I am!! J This past Tuesday in class we talked about our Digit Storytelling project, which I think is going to be a blast to film!  As a freshman I remember our video being a ninjas and fighting theme, so we had ninjas taking over the campus and attacking random people throughout the day.  Not only did we have ninjas, but we also had a Debra look like (me).  I think we will be able to make a great video this year, because of all the thoughts that have been talked about.   

This year our project is using music to tell about resources on campus and how to be a reasonable leaner.  I feel that using little clips from all kinds of songs is going to be fun to figure out and is going to make a pretty entertaining video at the end of all of this.  I believe that we got some great things figured out in class and through our brainstorming we should be able to come up with a script pretty easily.   Using the timeline of a pretty common weekday school day was a great idea; we were/will be able to come up with so many ideas.  Well the time has come for Zach and me to finely present our lesson.  I am pretty excited to do our lesson Tuesday, so fellow mentors get excited!!  

Facilitating Learning

I don't know about all of you, but I think I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the Spring semester!  Only five weeks left!  Last week we discussed facilitating learning and one of the major things we talked about was learning styles.  There are seven different learning styles that are the most common.  Among these seven styles the two I use the most are Bodily/kinesthetic and Musical/rhythmic intelligence.

I really enjoy exercising, being healthy, and learn about health issues.  Therefore, when something can be intertwined with those areas I understand them better.  When I can study while exercising or relating what I am learning to health I understand it the first time instead of having to go over what I am studying a hundred times.   Now for Musical/rhythmic intelligence I have always loved dancing and singing (even though I am not good at singing).  For many years of my life dance/twirling has been a big focus for me, which is probably why things come easier to me if I can put it into a routine to a rhythm.  An example of this is when I had to learn the bones of the body I made a song up with all the names and how they are connected.  Now when I am studying having country or music with no words playing softly in the background makes it easy for me to concentrate and learn what I need to faster.  Also if I can’t concentrated I give myself a little break to go twirl, when I come back I can focus a lot better.

Remembering that there are at least seven different ways to learn is important, because in our classes next semester we will probably have every one of those learning styles represented.  I hope everybody had a good start to their week and are looking forward to working on our digit storytelling project this evening! J

Commutating!!

Communicating can make or break a relationship which is why I feel that I communicate with different people in different ways.  With professors and people I work with I communicate in a professional way through e-mails and face to face talking.  When it comes to talking with friends and family I am very open and I communicate in all ways, face-to-face, e-mail, and facebook, whichever way is the easiest.  With both the professional and close people in my life I find that communicating face to face is what I prefer to do.  When I am communicated with people I find it very helpful to be able to see the body and facial expressions they have.  I will be communicating with my students face to face, so I know what they are actually thinking instead of just what they can think up to write down in an e-mail or blog.

Now for the tweeting we had to do this past week, I am not sure I like the fact that we were told we had to tweet 20 times.  Some people may not like to share as most about themselves as others on a daily bases.  Some may say that those individuals need to open up more, because you many need to does this later in a job, however not everybody is going to in a  job that communicates that way.  Some people are in a career that only involves talking face to face, e-mailing, and blogging.   I, myself found tweeting fun and different, I have never really changed a status that many times in a week.   I do feel though that it is good for students to learn about twitter and try it.  I think that figuring out a game to play would be the best way to get students excited about twitter and help them get the experience they need with it.