This week for the Hixson's they got to experience Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Although the students versions aren't as in depth as us mentors are, I still think that the knowledge that is gained from these reports are essential. The Myers-Brigg is just a test of questions that you pick an answer and from your choices it tells you more about your personality and preferences for doing things. There are four main clarity preferences you can fall into, and with in each there is two types. The first is where you get your energy, either Extraversion or Introversion. The next is how you become aware of information, either Sensing or Intuition. The third is how you decide or come to a conclusion about the information (Thinking or Feeling). An the last is how we deal with the world around us, Judging or Perceiving.
As for myself I am an ESTP. When I first read this, I didn't really know what it meant or how it effected me. As I read further into the packet and it got more in depth with each of my levels, I really began to understand the results. For example, although I am an E, Extraversion, which is totally me because I am a very energetic person an I love being round friends, I still have an Introversion quality which it actually identified and described me quite perfectly. I love to be around friends and family yet, I still have a private vulnerable side of me that is hard for me to share with others. I avoid talking about super personal issues and if I do, it tends to make me feel uncomfortable.
It literally just stunned me that this report could figure this out about me just from me answering some simple questions. While this report tells you what you are it doesn't mean that you always are this way. It may be just that day you answered the questions in that way. It also tells you how to improve yourself with the type that you are. As a mentor and being in a leadership position this is great help. It tells us how we like to communicate then gives us heads up on what we should try and do, seeing how everyone in the world is not our type. I really enjoy the Myers-Brigg because as a college student, we are in that stage of our lives where we are figuring out just who we are and who we want to become an this gives just a little insight to this.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Scavenger Hunt
Hope everyone had a great VEISHEA week/weekend! For this week in class Allie and Silas put on a scavenger hunt for us peer mentors instead of actual lecture. We were to go around with the list of buildings we were to find and take pictures of standing in front of that building that offered that a service on the list provided. Some of the listed buildings were like the Study Abroad Center, Thielen Health Center, Student Services, and Financial Aid Office. We also could take pictures with art, sculptures, and such also for points towards the scavenger hunt. While the hunt was for fun it also had a point. I felt that it was a good activity for us mentors to participate in because next year when we have our mentees they might have questions for us about where certain places on campus are and it would be great if we could lead them right to where they need to go or if we can't physically take be able to tell them where it is exactly. It was also good to just be able to bond with your group because we have to work together in our groups later on. With the hunt we had to figure out where everything was and manage our time to get back to the Hixson Building before the time limit! This our group pretty much did, but we were like 2 minutes late or so.
We also did some much needed filming tonight and I think the movie is coming along good. See you all Tuesday!
We also did some much needed filming tonight and I think the movie is coming along good. See you all Tuesday!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
World Religions 101
This Sunday I went to the my last diversity event, World Religions 101. For this event there was a board which was run by students of different religions which included Christianity, Atheism, Hinduism, and Islam. Each student then stood up introduced themselves and the religions they were representing. Afterwards then they went through and talked for about 10-15 minutes about what their religions was about and why they believed or didn't believe. While they were talking if you had a question for anyone concerning the religion or anything at all you were able to text in a question for everyone or just one person.
I can't remember names, but the first guy talked about how he was raised a Christian and how he was never very serious about it until college and he started believing more and getting involved with church things. The next guy talked about that he was Atheist and he was raised a Christian all of his life and when he got into high school he really liked science. Yet, since science is built off a lot of proving things he couldn't believe in something that couldn't be disproved or proved. While he would like to know the answer to if there is a God or not, for now he doesn't believe in anything. The third guy was a believer in Hinduism. He explained how Hinduism has four types, like Karma, and how as a religion it accepts all religions and thinks they are all right and trying to get to the same God, just in different ways. He explained that it is more important that you are trying to get to God rather than how you do it. The last guy explain Islam, he told how he came from Kuwait seven years ago and that he wasn't a hardcore Islam at first. He then told how he deals with having to pray five times a day on campus and explain that just because your Muslim doesn't mean your a terrorist.
I think the board did a really good job for the time that was allowed of them to explain things. While I think that one of its faults was that if someone had come there for real questions, they probably were not answered because of the lack of experience. Yet if you wanted to know just a little bit about it then it proved well worth it. Overall it was a good opportunity to broaden my outlook.
I can't remember names, but the first guy talked about how he was raised a Christian and how he was never very serious about it until college and he started believing more and getting involved with church things. The next guy talked about that he was Atheist and he was raised a Christian all of his life and when he got into high school he really liked science. Yet, since science is built off a lot of proving things he couldn't believe in something that couldn't be disproved or proved. While he would like to know the answer to if there is a God or not, for now he doesn't believe in anything. The third guy was a believer in Hinduism. He explained how Hinduism has four types, like Karma, and how as a religion it accepts all religions and thinks they are all right and trying to get to the same God, just in different ways. He explained that it is more important that you are trying to get to God rather than how you do it. The last guy explain Islam, he told how he came from Kuwait seven years ago and that he wasn't a hardcore Islam at first. He then told how he deals with having to pray five times a day on campus and explain that just because your Muslim doesn't mean your a terrorist.
I think the board did a really good job for the time that was allowed of them to explain things. While I think that one of its faults was that if someone had come there for real questions, they probably were not answered because of the lack of experience. Yet if you wanted to know just a little bit about it then it proved well worth it. Overall it was a good opportunity to broaden my outlook.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Goals
Hey everybody! Hope everyone got out and enjoyed the GORGEOUS weather we had this weekend! I know I did, went fishing, riding 4-wheelers, and golfing! Enough about that though, on Tuesday Karen and Zach talked about chapter ten: Planing and Problem solving. For most of the class period we spent our time talking about goals and how they effect us as students and mentors. Goals as a student and as an overall person are very important because I personally believe that if you go through life without ever setting goals, yes you may never be a failure, but at the same time you wont ever be a winner either. How would you ever know if you ever got anything accomplished that you wanted to, or made sure you did certain things that were important to you? While I feel goals are very important at the same time they can be very restricting. They can make you have tunnel vision by only focusing on that goal or making it something that you can never reach. That's why when making your goals its important to have a system that helps you set them.
To help with this system we talked about how there are also different types of goals as well. The two types of goals we talked about were the four M's and SMART goals. We were then asked to make goals for different situations and use one of the system. Doing this we really familiarized ourselves with these two systems. The four M's system is in my eyes more of a broader system that you can use for setting goals that are in the future. The steps to the four M's is Motivation, Make commitments, Modify environment, and Monitor actions. With these step's you can help develop a long term plan. With the SMART goals it is more detailed oriented and used for short term goals. For students I think that SMART goals are the right choice because you can easily tell if your on track with the goal and is something that is actually reachable. Just while in college you need to make smart goals so you don't let yourself down.
To help with this system we talked about how there are also different types of goals as well. The two types of goals we talked about were the four M's and SMART goals. We were then asked to make goals for different situations and use one of the system. Doing this we really familiarized ourselves with these two systems. The four M's system is in my eyes more of a broader system that you can use for setting goals that are in the future. The steps to the four M's is Motivation, Make commitments, Modify environment, and Monitor actions. With these step's you can help develop a long term plan. With the SMART goals it is more detailed oriented and used for short term goals. For students I think that SMART goals are the right choice because you can easily tell if your on track with the goal and is something that is actually reachable. Just while in college you need to make smart goals so you don't let yourself down.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
For this blog it really took me a long time to write it. For one I can't hardly remember what we did in class and two it was a pretty short one so please bear with me.
On Tuesday it was pretty nasty out and we had a lot of perilous weather going on so hopefully everyone made it home alright. In class Silas and Allie lead the way with the discussion about facilitation. We talked about a lot of good points including different types of intelligence, learning styles, and teaching methods. All of these are very important when it comes to being a facilitator. During class we talked about how intelligence is related to learning. There are different types of intelligence and although it does have to do with how smart you are, it also has to do with your capacity to acquire and apply knowledge. There are eight different types of intelligence which are Bodily/kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Logical/mathematical, Musical/rhythmic, Naturalist/adventurer, Verbal/linguistic, and Visual/spatial. All of these make for different types of people and different types of learning.
Intelligence is the link to learning styles. During class we briefly talked about the different learning style that people have. Some people learning more visually than verbally. Others may be more hands on type of people. No matter the intelligence or the learning style, it is our job as facilitators to incorporate a lesson plan or in our teaching style to be able to connect to our students in the correct way so that they learn the material and know what it is that is expected and wanted out of them.
A good example of how the Hixson program is helping us with our facilitating skill is these blogs. While they may seem dumb and time consuming if you get right down to it these blogs not only make us step back and look at the material we learned for the week and what it means to us as future mentors, but it also is helping us at the same time with our communication skills in writing. This is a HUGE thing because not only will we most likely be in contact with our mentees by email, but you use writing skills in so many other places that it is a good tool to have in your arsenal. So I hope everyone does the best they can on these things because it will only help you in the long run. See everyone on Tuesday! Out
On Tuesday it was pretty nasty out and we had a lot of perilous weather going on so hopefully everyone made it home alright. In class Silas and Allie lead the way with the discussion about facilitation. We talked about a lot of good points including different types of intelligence, learning styles, and teaching methods. All of these are very important when it comes to being a facilitator. During class we talked about how intelligence is related to learning. There are different types of intelligence and although it does have to do with how smart you are, it also has to do with your capacity to acquire and apply knowledge. There are eight different types of intelligence which are Bodily/kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Logical/mathematical, Musical/rhythmic, Naturalist/adventurer, Verbal/linguistic, and Visual/spatial. All of these make for different types of people and different types of learning.
Intelligence is the link to learning styles. During class we briefly talked about the different learning style that people have. Some people learning more visually than verbally. Others may be more hands on type of people. No matter the intelligence or the learning style, it is our job as facilitators to incorporate a lesson plan or in our teaching style to be able to connect to our students in the correct way so that they learn the material and know what it is that is expected and wanted out of them.
A good example of how the Hixson program is helping us with our facilitating skill is these blogs. While they may seem dumb and time consuming if you get right down to it these blogs not only make us step back and look at the material we learned for the week and what it means to us as future mentors, but it also is helping us at the same time with our communication skills in writing. This is a HUGE thing because not only will we most likely be in contact with our mentees by email, but you use writing skills in so many other places that it is a good tool to have in your arsenal. So I hope everyone does the best they can on these things because it will only help you in the long run. See everyone on Tuesday! Out
Sunday, March 13, 2011
χρησιμοποιώντας αποτελεσματικούς ανακοίνωση.
Hey everybody! Hope the last week of school went well for everyone and is now enjoying your Spring Break! If your like me I didn't go anywhere cool or fun except back home :( Anyways, last week Chelsee and Brandon lead us in class about communication. It think they did a super job! I really liked the activity they did because not only was it fun, but it was also a good representation of how little things can get distorted a little bit from one person to the next, but by the the time it reaches someone else 20 people later the message can be COMPLETELY different. They also talked about how to use the communications skills we have now with our mentees and how to improve our weaker skills.
I personally am a people person so I like to meet with a person face to face because when your face to face things don't get lost in translation as easy. If they do get lost you can ask right then and there for clarification and I think it benefits all. You can also use many different communication methods while meeting face to face like pictures or hand motions. I also use my phone a lot of times to communicate on a daily basis with friends or family, but I think as a mentor you need to look at two things when deciding your communication method. I use a little trick that helps me to decided the proper method for the situation. One is who are you going to be telling this to. If it is a friends then your options maybe larger than if it is a possible employment opportunity. Second is decided how important the message is, is it something really important or just a reminder. With these two little trick and practice I believe as a mentor you can improve your communication skills.
In the book it had a lot of helpful hints as well. In one section it described the difference between communication as a mentor and other communication. I think this is important as well and can be evaulated in my little trick I described earlier. It also talked about ineffective methods of communication and how to over come a lot these like lazyness, burned-out, and being destracted. I think the last two I put are some of the most important to hit on because I know after mid-terms or when a break is approaching that even I feel a lot of these feelings. Yet you need to tell your mentees how it's important to finish strong and not just glide through.
I know that everyone will learn their strong points and weak points and do their best to improve both. Hope everyone as a great break! Out.
P.S. If you were wondering what my title says, it is Greek for "Using effecitive communication." It thought it was kind of cool to show different communication :)
I personally am a people person so I like to meet with a person face to face because when your face to face things don't get lost in translation as easy. If they do get lost you can ask right then and there for clarification and I think it benefits all. You can also use many different communication methods while meeting face to face like pictures or hand motions. I also use my phone a lot of times to communicate on a daily basis with friends or family, but I think as a mentor you need to look at two things when deciding your communication method. I use a little trick that helps me to decided the proper method for the situation. One is who are you going to be telling this to. If it is a friends then your options maybe larger than if it is a possible employment opportunity. Second is decided how important the message is, is it something really important or just a reminder. With these two little trick and practice I believe as a mentor you can improve your communication skills.
In the book it had a lot of helpful hints as well. In one section it described the difference between communication as a mentor and other communication. I think this is important as well and can be evaulated in my little trick I described earlier. It also talked about ineffective methods of communication and how to over come a lot these like lazyness, burned-out, and being destracted. I think the last two I put are some of the most important to hit on because I know after mid-terms or when a break is approaching that even I feel a lot of these feelings. Yet you need to tell your mentees how it's important to finish strong and not just glide through.
I know that everyone will learn their strong points and weak points and do their best to improve both. Hope everyone as a great break! Out.
P.S. If you were wondering what my title says, it is Greek for "Using effecitive communication." It thought it was kind of cool to show different communication :)
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Diversity
Hey everyone, I have a lot to talk about and just want to thank everyone for listening and joining in. First off, let me just apologize for the activity because after we were done it seemed we got a lot of negative feed back and if it offended anyone at all I am TRULY TRULY TRULY sorry. We took the activity from a professional speaker who used it so what Jenna and I thought would help everyone see that no matter what you do in life there will always be stereotypes about yourself and others and as a mentor you should try to minimize those by not taking part in and or showing that those stereotypes can be hurtful to others and really get drilled into people over the course of the day. We didn't pick the things on the card out of spit or to try and be mean and mock them nor did we purposely put the cards on people. About 98% of what we wrote on the cards was what was actually used by David Colemen himself so if you took the activity the wrong way I'm sorry that you either
A) Didn't understand its purpose of it or
B) Was hurt by something that was wrote on a card so automatically thought it was meant in a negative way.
Either way I'm still sorry for the confusion. It was meant to be educational and yet fun for all which is how it was used by David Colemen. I will be honest, when people started saying a lot of negatives things about us and our activity it really upset me and I'm all for constructive criticism, I just felt as if Jenna and I were being personally attacked so it upset me greatly which is why I chose to leave. I'm not upset about it now so it's all fine, no hard feelings anyone.
For those of you who enjoyed the activity, I'm really glad you did and I hope that you really learned something about diversity and how it isn't just race or sex. It is an overall being of a person and can be used positively or negatively. Some people may chose to be identified with somethings, while others aspects they don't have a choice. No matter the cause you need to be courteous, respectful, and be accepting. Diversity is just a topic that a lot of people don't really wanna talk about and is one that is really difficult to try and teach someone with out coming off in a bad way. I'm sure everyone will do great when teaching their mentees about it themselves. Hopefully everyone has a good week before spring break has a good spring break. Be safe and see you all next week.
A) Didn't understand its purpose of it or
B) Was hurt by something that was wrote on a card so automatically thought it was meant in a negative way.
Either way I'm still sorry for the confusion. It was meant to be educational and yet fun for all which is how it was used by David Colemen. I will be honest, when people started saying a lot of negatives things about us and our activity it really upset me and I'm all for constructive criticism, I just felt as if Jenna and I were being personally attacked so it upset me greatly which is why I chose to leave. I'm not upset about it now so it's all fine, no hard feelings anyone.
For those of you who enjoyed the activity, I'm really glad you did and I hope that you really learned something about diversity and how it isn't just race or sex. It is an overall being of a person and can be used positively or negatively. Some people may chose to be identified with somethings, while others aspects they don't have a choice. No matter the cause you need to be courteous, respectful, and be accepting. Diversity is just a topic that a lot of people don't really wanna talk about and is one that is really difficult to try and teach someone with out coming off in a bad way. I'm sure everyone will do great when teaching their mentees about it themselves. Hopefully everyone has a good week before spring break has a good spring break. Be safe and see you all next week.
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