ISU Resources

Last week was a great reminder of all the resources we have on campus. I think it is very important that we keep up-to-date on the resources that we have. Especially next year when students are coming to us, we should have a good idea where things are located. I agree with what Randi was saying, that sometimes we know what it is or where it's at but we have a hard time telling someone else about it because we do not know how to explain it. This is something I need to brush up on before next fall. This past week I have been reflecting on everything this past semester and I am amazed at how much I have learned about myself and everyone else in the class. I am getting so excited for next fall and meeting all of our new students. I cannot believe I only have three weeks of school left. I think the next few weeks are just going to fly by because of all the things I need to get done between now and then. It is crazy how fast time flies by! Have a great week everyone!

Team Work

I really enjoyed last weeks class about team work. I thought Matt and Chelsea did a great job leading the class and the activity was a lot of fun. To follow up on the topic, we were supposed to talk about what we do best when working in teams. I am the person who is the peacemaker and the mediator. I do not like conflict so I would rather have everyone get along because then everything works out better anyways. I can be a leader at times but if there are more outgoing people in the group they usually become a leader over me because I am usually kinda passive. I like to do behind the scenes type stuff. In high school, I was the co-director of our high school plays/musicals for four years. I was the person who was incharge of changing all the props and making sure everything was going right backstage. That is just an example of the kind of role I usually play as a team member. Sometimes I do find myself being the leader especially when I am very interested or care alot about the situation, but I also like to have a co leader so they can be the dominate one and I can do the detailed work. Every week I just get to amazed at how much I have learned about myself in the class and it makes me excited to go to class again the next week! Have a great week everyone!

Hixson Retreat

I cannot believe how fast this year is going! I had a great time at the hixson retreat over the weekend! It was great to spend a little extra time and get to know everyone a little better! I thought that last weeks session on how to create a lesson plan was very helpful and will be a great tool when preparing for next year. I really feel like im getting to know myself better which is something I did not first expect to get out of this but I am so glad that I am. I am getting so excited for next year and getting the chance to work with new students!!!!!!!

ISCORE

I thought that ISCORE was an awesome experience. I attended the opening speaker session. The Dean of the College of Design spoke and talked about bridges. He talked about how we need to bridge things in our lives together and how everyone and every culture has something that bridges us to them. Reassuring the fact that we are all people and that we are all equals even though we live and act in different ways. He is orginally from Mexico and it gave a nice look into their culture and he shared some cool facts and pictures of Mexico. I also attended Hannah's session on Latinos in America. I thought this session was really relative to my life back home because we have so many Latinos. It is so important and we try and step back and look at things from their point of view. We must realize they look at things just like we do and they have viable opinions as well. I think all the culture's of Latinos are very interesting and I would like to do mroe research myself. ISCORE was very interesting and I will definitely attend again next year! I think it was really eye opening and really got me thinking about being more aware of other cultures.

Communication!

I had a lot of fun being the discussion and class starter this past week. I thought it was a great starting experience for the position I will be in next semester. Communication is one of the most important things when leading a class. Think, pair, share is a great way to get students to think deeply about a subject and I really like when we do such things in class. I think it is also a great tool to incourage students to get to know each other. Q space is also a very effective approach. It keeps the students in the conversation, instead of just lecturing them. Lecture is something that is always not the most interesting but at some points I feel that I will have to use it next year just to get some material covered and then allow the students to do some partner learning to class discuss. Communication is something that we always do not think about as being such an important part but it definately is. I think I personally need to make sure that when I communicate to a large group that I do not come off to timid and I can be understood and respected. These are often hard things to work on but I think I need to be more direct when talking in front of the class. Hope everyone had a great weekend and look forward to seeing you on Wednesday!

Cultural Diversity

I really enjoyed this weeks topic because it really got me thinking. Lisa and I discussed that we thought tthat race, language and ethnicity would be some of the biggest shocks with started college. I think this is what was so hard for me when it comes to diversity. There is so much diversity with in diversity. I mean being at Iowa State was the first time I actually met people who have just came straight from their country to college. They have not lived in America before so their culture shock it large too. Socioeconomic was another one we thought was big. It is crazy how differently we were all raised and how we were taught to spend and use money. What we think are needs and what other people think are needs that we would consider wants. Iowa State is a very culture place. There is a lot of differences for me from where I come from since my graduating class had the first black person to ever graduate from my high school. I enjoy being in the mix of a bunch of different diversities because it makes things more well rounded. You cannot live under a rock your whole life, you should see all the other kinds of people and cultures that are out there. I have traveled to Mexico before and I loved seeing how they lived and how things work down there. I find things like that very interesting. I lived with a host family for a week and at first it was hard to communicate cuz my spanish was not the best. Luckily my host sister spoke perfect English, but no one else in her family did. She encouraged me to speak spanish and try and learn while I was there and I ended up learning a lot more that I went there with. I think it is very important that you get and see what other cultures are like, it also helps you reflect on your own and see how your culture appears to other people. I think I need to work on being more open minded. I am a fairly open minded person but there is still much room for improvement. Sometimes I do not even realise that I am not being open minded and that I already have very strong beliefs about topics.

Valentine's Day!

I really enjoyed the topic this week about getting to know ourselves and awareness. I feel like this is one really important thing about being a good mentor. You really need to know what you stand and what you are all about to be a great leader. Lately I have been doing a lot of thinking about myself and I have learned so much already this semester through this class. I do not know about the rest of the world, but when all this snow is gone it will be a lot easier to have a more exciting look upon going outside. But I am trying to remember the FISH, and pick my attitude! Have a great week everyone!