Teamwork, Trust, Communication

Teamwork, trust and communication were three key elements that were necessary for success in last week's class. Starting with the blindfolded team member we had to navigate through an obstacle course. This was a great way to demonstrate how important it was to have another person there to help. It was critical to trust your partner. I was blindfolded first and had no idea what kind of obstacles we would have to get through. I had no choice but to literally blindly trust Carly to keep me safe. We were able to establish a very clear way to communicate back and forth (one step forward, turn ninety degrees to your left etc.) Overall the task went very well and when incorporating all three elements, we were able to complete the course without any problems!

In application with being a peer mentor next year, we will always have the support of every peer mentor for guidance and suggestion when we hit an obstacle, but the best resource for help, support, and question answering will be our partner. Being able to trust and rely on the other peer mentor will be very important. A point that was mentioned during the lesson was that together there are two heads and two people able to complete the work. Life becomes much harder when you aren't able to rely on all the resources that surround. Communication will become the center of all peer mentor relationships. Being in touch with the other person to ensure all parts of the lesson are covered and for those times when class load gets tougher for one, communicating the stresses to the other will diminish everyone's frustrations so that the class goes as successfully as possible.

Collaboration

Collaboration. This is a really good description of how last Wednesday's class went. Starting with the teamwork activity, Christina and I had the good luck to be able to play Nintendo for our activity! This was a version of Nintendo that neither of us had ever played before and it was definitely a different experience from the video games we were used to. In addition, playing one part of the game while relying on the other to play their part was difficult. It was very important to be able to work together and communicate so that each other knew exactly what the other was going to do. We were most successful when we knew when to jump, when to go, when to stay, and of course, which buttons to push to get Mario onto Yoshi! This was a great activity not only because it was fun but it forced cooperation and collaboration to complete a task and I think Christina and I did very well! :)

During the lesson we were able to take a survey about what type of problem solving we favored. As mentioned in my title, I ended up in the collaboration group. This was a good fit for myself because I feel I am able to lead when it's time to make a decision, but I'm not the type of person who will step on anyone else's opinion or views in the process of completion. Being a collaborator, I like to take a lot of other people's feelings into account and find the best solution for the whole group, even if it's not the 100% use of my idea or 100% benefit for myself. I'm very team oriented and think this group was a reflection on that fact. Team first, self second.

Problem Solving

First thing I'd like to say is way to go Dylan and Lauren for an incredible presentation. You two seemed very confident and prepared for the class, were able to engage us as a class very well and I believe we were all able to come out of it with a greater knowledge and understanding on how to better help our coming students with their problems with either advice or interpersonal communication. I only hope that my presentation in about two weeks can be as successful as yours!

In chapter 5, I feel the four steps for interviewing will be the most applicable feature from this chapter that we will be able to apply to our students problems. 

The four steps include:

1. Asking open ended questions- leads to a greater depth of the problem and situation as a whole. Many times people will answer "yes" or "no" if ever given the chance. Any time you can get a few extra sentences allow the chance for better understanding.

2. Ask for clarification or expansion of specific points- not only do you need to ask open ended questions, but through listening, you need to come up with questions that will allow further insight. This not only gives you more information to help solve the problem, it also might help the student in self enlightenment by seeing the problem in a way they may not have seen it before. Plus, asking these questions also shows the student that you are listening, that you care, and that you truly want to help them find a solution. 

3. Using Paraphrasing and Summarizing-This forces you as the listener to listen even more intently, pick out the main pieces and relay them back to the student to ensure you understand the point correctly. Within this step anything that wasn't clear can become clear and anything that you understood incorrectly can be corrected and further remembered. 

4. Make a hypothesis about the problem- This allows the culmination of all facts of the problem so that the best possible solution, or next step, can be successfully assessed and sought. 

I think this needs to be the backbone of any interaction with our students in hopes of better identifying their needs, problems and goals so that we can guide them towards the most effective solution. 

Cultural Diversity

Cultural diversity is all around us. That is one of the great benefits of going to a public high school in a large town and coming to a public university. There are people from all walks of life who have encountered many different life experiences. Even more, this coming class of freshman that we will be interacting with will most likely come from lots of different places, we as peer mentors have to be ready for what ever comes our way.

From our class discussion, the thing I need to work on most would be being more aware of where others come from and understanding and being open to their perspective. Just like no one truly knows me or my life, I can't expect to know theirs.

Things I might need to overcome is the mindset of the "one" right way to live. I feel I've very open to new things, opinions, ideas, situations etc. But many times, being a traditional personality type, I like the tried and true method. If I've found something that works, a successful path, than it's hard to deviate from that path, even if the person I'm working with feels that path is the right one for them. It's knowing when to provide assistance and suggestion vs when to allow them to make their own decisions for their life.