The first chapter in the book, Becoming a Peer Mentor, created a background as towards the definition and types of roles of what a mentor is and does. I like the start of the chapter where they give a real situation with a real person and it made me think how I would deal with the situation if it was me or someone that needed help that I knew. It also gives synonyms for mentor which can include guide, advisor, counselor, and teacher. Any of these words are what I would be able to use to describe what I thought of my peer mentors when I was a freshman last year.
The chapter also challenges you to quiz yourself on how confident you are with mentoring knowledge and skills. This made me think about how capable I will be of becoming a mentor and the knowledge that I will yet need to gain in order to become an effective teacher and listener. This made me realize the different number of roles that that I will have to fulfill in order to become a good mentor in this program.
Towards the end of the chapter it talks about motivation; whether you are self-focused, other-focused, or both. After reading thet rest of the paragraph I began to think about my motivation and where it came from. Being too much self-focused will cause you to ignore your students, but being to much other-focused will cause you to devote to much time for others and not for yourself. Both of these circumstances will cause a problem in your quest to becoming a good peer mentor. I found that you must create a balance between both to be more successful in the long run.
I'm trying to remember what we did in class, but the one thing that stuck in my head was going over the syllabus which clarified a lot for me and helped me create an idea for myself how much time Iwill need to devote for this program. Learning everyone's else's names will probably be the most time consuming, but I think I can handle it.
I know that in the past with classes and other college activities I will need to manage my time appropriately for school as well as taking care of my responsiblities as a mentor in the fall. I believe I will have to manage time better so I will be able to balance school and being a mentor at the same time.
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Josh- Great post! Remembering names won't be that bad, especially since you'll be hearing them repeatedly in ice breakers and on their name tents. I know you'll do well managing your time, and your practice at doing that will be something good to share with your students!
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