Lesson Planning and Hixson Retreat

So...once again, I am late with this post. Don't worry. I'm going to make myself do 20 laps around the Hixson building to punish myself, so it's all good.
Our lesson this past Wednesday was on writing effective lesson plans. This area is probably one of my biggest weaknesses because I'm the type of person that doesn't plan ahead and just "wings" it, a technique which I've used successfully in the past and oftentimes with humorous results, but when it comes to facilitating a classroom, it may not be exactly the best method. I'll also have to keep in mind that in order for it to be an effective classroom, the students will be doing more of the talking as opposed to the instructors.
This weekend we had our Peer Mentoring Retreat, where we went all around Ames and ISU and took a bunch of crazy pictures for a scavenger hunt. Our group seemed to have a recurring theme of having me elevated in every picture, so it'll be funny to see all of the pictures Lisa took. I kind of experience some of the Experience Iowa State guests out...I was still in my STARS uniform when we were by Carver Hall taking pictures with the statue and I was kind of...climbing on the statue at the time holding peanut butter. Needless to say the guests were confused and we left kind of quickly. It was pretty hillarious though. We met at Perfect Games to play bowling and I reaffirmed just how HORRIBLE I am at bowling although I did get a spare and imprvoed immensely the second half. (My goal was 50, and I got 71 so that's not too bad.) We played lasertag and I ended up getting 7 out of 9...I probably would have gotten higher if I didn't happen to be Heath's favorite victim! (Allie, if you are reading this, you are now my favorite grad. assistant.)
Hope you all have a nice week and I look forward to Wednesday's class!

Guiding Values and Hard Topics

I thought the way Cody and Lauren did the class discussion was great. Typically we do TTYP, which I still think is pretty effective, but it's good to avoid getting into too much of a pattern and mixing things up a bit. All of the guiding values we talked about are important, and I liked how we were all given the opportunity to elaborate on one of them. The one I had was Positive Thinking, something I believe I try to embody to it's fullest extent. Like I said in class, I try to live in the moment and not let other things that are going on effect my interactions with others or the task at hand. I currently do have a couple of things going on. I'm waiting to hear back about some interviews and applications, I recently was told by a friend of mine whose had emotional problems for a while that she's liked me as more than just a friend the past couple of years and whenever she's been with other guys she's thinking of me, and I recently found out a friend of mine is dropping out this Monday, in addition to having some slight financial problems currently. Nobody really knows about these things going on with me because I choose to ignore it whenever there is stuff to be done and focus on it only when I can do it on my own time and not ruin somebody else's experience.
We also talked about some difficult situations that might come up as Peer Mentors. Although we laughed quite a bit at some of them, they are all serious situations that we may potentially deal with. Personally, I don't see myself being at an underage drinking party next year (I will be of age at the time though.), but if I were and saw one of my mentees there, I would probably leave. I think we also did a good job of trying to set boundaries for the Mentor/Mentee relationship. We don't want to exclude others and we also want to avoid awkward situations. Without getting into details, stuff has happened between others and I in situations where we had to keep things professional, and when that fell through it did make things very awkward. We will have to think more about these situations as we get closer to the fall and as they come up. Luckily we will have a class together where we can discuss them.

ISCORE

So apparently with Spring Break coming up at the time and me being rushed all of the time....I forgot to actually SAVE and publish my last entry... so feel free to punish me if you want.
ISCORE was actually pretty amazing. I remember the morning of I really wasn't looking forward to attending since I'd be leaving that afternoon for a Cyclone Aide Retreat. It was definitely worth it though. I went to Hannah's session over Hispanics in America. Hannah did an AMAZING job, and I was very impressed. Good job Hannah! It's important to realize that even though we as caucasians might think there is equality in America, there really isn't. We have come a long way but there is still much further to go.
The second session was over Multicultural Athlete's Experience here at Iowa State. This session really opened my eyes. To be honest, I didn't really think athletes here had as many stringent requirements, and I had no idea they had to work equally as hard in the classroom, as hard as they were working in the field. Unfortunately I see lots of student athletes not really taking advantage of there opportunities...many times in the Hixson center I see some of them just sitting around talking and not working. However, there are some I see who are working all of the time and I have great respect for all of their contributions. We shouldn't just assume that all of them are the same and don't do work (that would be outgroup homogeneity bias. Just throwing out some Psych terms for Heath and Chelsea!).
For lunch we had Native American food. It was actually pretty good, and it was good to get to sit with some of the other Hixsons and discuss the sessions...even though I'm lucky I haven't had nightmares yet about Kelly's headless emu story.
Unfortunately I had to leave ISCORE at that time to head to class and head to our overnight Cyclone Aide retreat. Once again, I really wasn't looking forward to the retreat that much, but it was AMAZING. Probably one of the best weekends I've had of this semester. We did lots of team building and get to know you activities, some of which I might try to implement with my mentees for next year. We also did some more in-depth personal activities...it was actually really good to get to hear what other people thought of me in the group, even though it was anonymous and we couldn't identify who said what about us, it was good to hear how I'm perceived by others. It definitely helps knowing how you come off to others so you can be more effective in communicating with them.
Overall, it was a very fun and enlightening weekend. I will definitely encourage my students next year to attend ISCORE. It is a very positive experience.

Recent Activities

So it's been a pretty eventful week. Being somewhat indirectly involved with the whole GSB election-scandal thing that the Daily pretty much misconstrued, preparing a Health/Wellness Presentation for IRHA tonight, doing a speaker introduction for Cyclone Aide training, and having pretty much half the class and some Cyclone Aides shadow my tour today only to end up with the guy who was supposed to pick us up at Gerdin forgetting about us, and heading to Madrid, IA tomorrow after ISCORE for a Cyclone Aide retreat. I also found out I'm a Community Advisor for Helser next year, so that's going to be interesting when August comes around with Destination Iowa State/Fall Move-In and training. Overall this week has been like a marathon and I definitely look forward to the Cyclone Aide retreat and getting to have fun.
In class we talked a bit about metacognition. Metacognition is very important when trying to avoid biases and avoiding Fundamental Attribution Error (one of my favorite phrases lately). I think it's something I actually started a bit earlier this semester, and even during Cyclone Aide training today we talked about a similiar idea. It's kind of interesting that a lot of my training actually ends up overlapping, but I guess it goes to show that it's very important when working with students.
I think that's all I have for now. ISCORE is coming up tomorrow so I will probably do a longer entry for that. Thanks to everybody who came on my campus tour today, especially with as chaotic as everything was today!

Effective Communication and Course Facilitation

Effective communication is key when it comes to instructing a seminar, but also to just everyday life. The beginning of the class was spent discussing times when communication has failed. I only used a recent example in class, but there have been several times in the past where communication has failed for me. Either somebody had taken something the wrong way, not everybody was informed of everything, or people were given false and/or misleading information. If communication fails, oftentimes the given task at hand fails and that is very nonconducive to our purpose. We want the incoming Hixson Scholars to be successful and to benefit from the Hixson Program as much as possible...that can't happen if communication isn't successful so we need to be careful to communicate properly.
We talked about the most effective ways to communicate material in the class. We discussed several different techniques: Think/Pair/Share which was pretty much TTYP, Q-SPACE(otherwise known as Q-Spot according to Cody), and lecture. There was pretty much a mutual agreement that TTYP was the most effective technique, and it is the technique we primarily use in class. TTYP allows for people to make a personal connection with somebody else and to engage in higher-level thinking and deep conversation, as opposed to just passively listening. It also holds people accountable for listening when they have to report back on what their partner has said. Q-SPACE I think will also be effective, since it allows people to discuss their ideas in more of a public forum and listen to the entire group, however it runs the danger of people just passively sitting there as well. Lecture is probably the least effective and will probably be used the least...only for logistics and information the students may not be able to get themselves. Plus lecture is the most boring and I wouldn't feel like standing in front of a room and talking for 50 minutes straight (I also find it hillarious that Chelsee, Heath, and I are all Psychology majors, ENFP, and expressed the most dislike for lecture-based classes.)
There are also some other things about communication that we didn't really talk too much about in class that I think are important, mainly having to do with speaking technique. Articulation and speaking clearly is very important...it's important that the students actually know what you are saying and aren't confused about what you actually said. Projection is very important as well...although it won't really be too much of an issue in the seminars since everybody will be close together, it's still important to make sure everybody can hear you. Eye contact is important as well..it makes everybody feel included and also makes more of a personal connection as opposed to just standing there staring into space talking.
I think I will end the entry here. I look forward to next week's class and attending the ISCORE conference. I hope everybody has a nice week!

Cultural Awareness

Fortunately for everybody my entry this week is probably going to be a bit shorter than my average one, since this is probably the busiest week of the semester for me so far.
Yesterday in class we talked about cultural awareness and cultural diversity primarily. Reading the article Ali and Heath assigned and doing the worksheet at the end of class made something a lot more salient to me...when I looked around the classroom everybody was white, the majority of the other Cyclone Aides this year are white, everybody on my conference bid team is white, and most of the people I know on IRHA is white as well. Although it's very easy to see that the majority of people in leadership positions here are white, it's not really that easy to be consciously aware of it, which I became yesterday. It was actually kind of shocking.
The article also talked about becoming aware of our biases and how it effects the way we interact with other people. It's impossible to deny the fact that one has biases...they will be there, but the important thing is to acknowledge how they effect your interactions with others. There is actually a video I remember watching in Social Psychology last year that still sticks with me. Basically two confederates were trained to act the same, having the exact same professional credentials and pretty much everything the same about their personality...but there was only one difference...one person was attractive, the other person was more average looking. Although professionally they were still the same potential employers almost always hired the more attractive applicant. This just goes to show that biases for attractiveness really do effect big issues such as employment, and that can be translated to race as well. White people are encouraged to seek positions of power more and so they are more likely to be in positions of power, and due to us being a white-priveledged culture, they will most likely get the preference for the position opposed to somebody of a different race. People of other races are oftentimes molded into just trying to fit in with our culture that they won't try to obtain positions of power and thus aren't seen in higher positions as often and make less money. Again, these were all issues I knew about, but it is something that can be difficult to acknowledge when one wants to think of the just-world notion in order to protect your conscience.
Even when I was doing Team Leader interviews for Destination Iowa State before class yesterday, the majority of the applicants were white, with only two other ethnicities being represented, Hispanic and Asian. I was only in one interview room though ofcourse, so maybe there were others there as well, but based just off of my sample room, there wasn't too much cultural diversity represented.
I honestly don't know what we can do as a solution to this, either than just acknowledge that fact and that our biases can effect our interactions. Acknowledging it is probably the first step to finding a solution though.
I think I'll end the entry here. I don't really have much else to say this week. I hope everybody has a good weekend and stay safe!

Awareness Assessment

I just filled out the Awareness Assessment Lisa and Jenna assigned us in class last week. I tried to be as objective as possible and answer about my actual self, as opposed to my ideal self or how I'd like to be. I actually scored pretty high on all of them, my highest score being a 19, and everything else being an 18 or 17. I do believe though that a year or so ago my scores wouldn't have been as high. For intellectual awarenes, last semester was actually when I started using effective studying techniques and trying to apply what I was learning in class, which I found to be one of the most effective studing techniques I've ever used. For resource awareness, I pretty much have always been able to rely on what was available to get the job or task done, and lately I have become better ar resisting impulses and delaying gratification (still working on that though with certain things.) As for physical awareness, that is also something I've taken stock of recently in the past couple years. I pretty much walk/run everywhere, and run sometimes just to blow off steam, and this semester I've been trying my best to eat healthier, so that's something I've become more aware of us as well. Emotional awarness I scored pretty high on too, which makes sense to me. I'm comfortable taking risks and putting myself out there, which is also something I've improved upon in the past year. Social awareness is also something I've developed more on recently. I am pretty comfortable around other people and have been told I put people at ease...and recently I've been recognizing the effects my behavior and actions have on other people, which has altered my behavior to be much more positive and conducive to the social situation. Finally, I also scored high on spiritual awareness. I enjoy helping my community and genuinely gain pleasure from doing altruistic deeds for others (Althogh one could argue that it's not truely altruistic if one derives pleasure from it...but I don't really like philosophy so I won't get into that.) I've recently gained more of an insight in where I want to head in life which has only increased my spiritual awareness.
So overall I didn't really see a particular area I was lacking in, although like I said earlier I can still improve a bit on all of those areas and have also improved significantly in the past couple of years, maybe even this semester as a result of being in this class.
Earlier on today I had an epiphany, similiar to what Chelsee had in class last week. I had a pretty busy day...I had to perform as Cy for EIS this morning (although it's a lot of fun, the costume gets REALLY hot and my advisor kept pulling my tail), did a group visit with some high school Physics students, and had class as usual. I have a Psych 230 exam tomorrow, so I decided earlier on this evening that I'd walk down to Starbucks to get a Vente Double Chocolate Chip Frappucino (they are absolutely amazing, but probably not the healthiest thing for you) and study for a bit. I honestly didn't really study for that long, but the thing was I actually kind of liked just sitting there and thinking. I'm so used to running around all of the time (Clint told me last week that he barely sees me and whenever he does it's like I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off) and constantly being surrounded by people and doing things, that I honestly really haven't had too much personal time or time to myself. It was honestly just nice sitting there, observing other people and just relaxing. I'm making a note to do that more often, and when I'm down in Nebraska this weekend for our conference, I might just spend some time in the hotel room resting up instead of running around the entire weekend. Doing this writing exercise for class has actually helped me gain some insight into myself and has made me a bit more introspective, probably much to the dismay of everybody who has to read the ridiculously long entries I write.
Well, I think I'm going to go off to prepare for my exam tomorrow. I hope everybody has a nice week and I look forward to doing the discussion starter this Wednesday!