When we were asked in class to write down what we thought the word facilitation meant I wrote "to help stimulate learning and discussion in a group setting." Being able to facilitate is a skill we have to be good at as a peer mentor. It can be difficult to distinguish facilitating from teaching, but I find that if one thinks about letting the group find its own answers rather than giving them the answers and expecting them to retain that information.
Learning is an experience that takes not only the presenting of information, but the developing and learned skill of critical thinking. When our students get here in the fall they are going to need to adjust to the new way their classes are going to be presented. They may be a hands on learner, but in a class of 300 there is not likely to be many hands on activities. It is our job to help students through new situations like this.
I plan on doing an activity with my recitation very much like the one in class where we discover our learning style and discuss which one everyone is and what problems arise from said style. If we discuss about in in a group not only will we as facilitators be able to help the student using our own expertise, but communicating with other students that may have the same problem. The problem of adjusting to a teaching style different from what you are used to is a common one in college and can be extremely difficult to get over. With the extra help we as peer mentors give them it can be a much smoother less painful road they have to travel and can make their transition to ISU as easy and pain-free as possible.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Communicating Effectively
Hey guys,
First I would like to thank you all for being such good participants during Chels's and my presentation. I wanted to read over several of your guy's blogs before I posted my own to see how you all took the lesson and what you learned from it.
We really wanted to see how you all dealt with the activity of not knowing exactly what the person before you was trying to say. I believe that many of you did learn a lot from this activity about how one message can get misshapen and changed from one person to another. Cory pointed out that this is one thing he learned from the activity so I will mark it as a success!!!
We also learned as facilitators that there is always more information you want to cover than the time provided. Chels and I had another activity we wanted to do, but realized that we were going to run out of time. I think it is good to realize this now rather than plan a jam packed session and not get all our points across next year as a mentor.
Each of us communicates in a different way and it is our job as a facilitator to ensure that each of our students are able to express themselves and learn with the rest of the class. It was a good point that was brought up in class that we should use multiple forms of media to ensure we meet the needs of an ever growing diversity of learners we will have in our classes.
I learned a lot from this teaching experience and cant wait for the next one!
First I would like to thank you all for being such good participants during Chels's and my presentation. I wanted to read over several of your guy's blogs before I posted my own to see how you all took the lesson and what you learned from it.
We really wanted to see how you all dealt with the activity of not knowing exactly what the person before you was trying to say. I believe that many of you did learn a lot from this activity about how one message can get misshapen and changed from one person to another. Cory pointed out that this is one thing he learned from the activity so I will mark it as a success!!!
We also learned as facilitators that there is always more information you want to cover than the time provided. Chels and I had another activity we wanted to do, but realized that we were going to run out of time. I think it is good to realize this now rather than plan a jam packed session and not get all our points across next year as a mentor.
Each of us communicates in a different way and it is our job as a facilitator to ensure that each of our students are able to express themselves and learn with the rest of the class. It was a good point that was brought up in class that we should use multiple forms of media to ensure we meet the needs of an ever growing diversity of learners we will have in our classes.
I learned a lot from this teaching experience and cant wait for the next one!
Monday, March 7, 2011
Diversity and ISCORE
Hello World,
It is very fitting this weeks topic was diversity and that ISCORE was this week as well. I spend a lot of time thinking about diversity in my education classes and in one of my jobs as a community advisor and sometimes the conversation can get overwhelming and downright tiring. Neither of my experiences this week were that way though.
First I want to talk about ISCORE. I was disappointed that I was only able to go to one session, but I learned a lot during that session. I had the pleasure of going to Allie's session over Muslim women. It was extremely interesting to learn about her finding so far from her studies and the experience's she has had on her journey so far. Many of us find it hard to get out of our comfort and knowledge zone and learn about a topic that we have been uncomfortable with. This to me is why there is a problem with racism and stereotyping at all, because there are people that will not let themselves be exposed to new information and new experiences that would at the very least give them new experiences they could pass judgement on rather than just speculation. I am happy that there are people like Allie that are willing to put time and effort into such areas of study.
I really enjoyed hearing everyones description of themselves during class on Tuesday. It was interesting that a good percentage of the class had similar criterion to describe themselves, as Silas pointed out. Every time I am asked to define myself and the criterion I associate myself with I always feel bad somewhat because the criteria I identify with are those very criteria that other groups dislike or attack sometimes. I stated that I always feel like the bad guy because of my privilege, which is the truth in most of these talks.
There is a video that I saw on youtube the other day that had Morgan Freeman in it that I think has a good message. If we stop identifying ourself with these drastic differences and see each other as who we are individuals, individuals with differences yes, but individuals none-the-less we can end stereo-typing and move closer to a society without race or gender issues.
Here is the video-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeixtYS-P3s
This is my opinion and I believe that everyone has a different opinions on ways that we can resolve the problem. It has taken centuries to create the problem and I believe it will take quite a long time to fix it. We have came a long way in the last thirty years and I believe we will continue to press forward.
It is very fitting this weeks topic was diversity and that ISCORE was this week as well. I spend a lot of time thinking about diversity in my education classes and in one of my jobs as a community advisor and sometimes the conversation can get overwhelming and downright tiring. Neither of my experiences this week were that way though.
First I want to talk about ISCORE. I was disappointed that I was only able to go to one session, but I learned a lot during that session. I had the pleasure of going to Allie's session over Muslim women. It was extremely interesting to learn about her finding so far from her studies and the experience's she has had on her journey so far. Many of us find it hard to get out of our comfort and knowledge zone and learn about a topic that we have been uncomfortable with. This to me is why there is a problem with racism and stereotyping at all, because there are people that will not let themselves be exposed to new information and new experiences that would at the very least give them new experiences they could pass judgement on rather than just speculation. I am happy that there are people like Allie that are willing to put time and effort into such areas of study.
I really enjoyed hearing everyones description of themselves during class on Tuesday. It was interesting that a good percentage of the class had similar criterion to describe themselves, as Silas pointed out. Every time I am asked to define myself and the criterion I associate myself with I always feel bad somewhat because the criteria I identify with are those very criteria that other groups dislike or attack sometimes. I stated that I always feel like the bad guy because of my privilege, which is the truth in most of these talks.
There is a video that I saw on youtube the other day that had Morgan Freeman in it that I think has a good message. If we stop identifying ourself with these drastic differences and see each other as who we are individuals, individuals with differences yes, but individuals none-the-less we can end stereo-typing and move closer to a society without race or gender issues.
Here is the video-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeixtYS-P3s
This is my opinion and I believe that everyone has a different opinions on ways that we can resolve the problem. It has taken centuries to create the problem and I believe it will take quite a long time to fix it. We have came a long way in the last thirty years and I believe we will continue to press forward.
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