A Little Bit of Everything

            Last Thursday, Matt and I led the discussion on Leading Groups Effectively, which I thought was a very informative chapter. Of all five practices of successful leaders, I think that modeling effective behavior is the most important. Your group members aren’t going to be excited and actively participate if you aren’t displaying that type of emotion. Additionally, they won’t respect you as much as a peer mentor if they know that you tell them how to deal with a problem, but won’t use that advice yourself. I would say that this practice is the one that I would be strongest at because I’m a firm believer in actions speak louder than words. The practice that I think will be the toughest for me is focusing goal direction. I truly want to help everyone in my group grow each class period, but it’s important to remember that each student will have different goals for the class and will be at different levels of understanding for different topics. Lastly, one of the main points that I got out of the lesson is the importance of evolving as a peer mentor as your group evolves. During the first few weeks of classes, we may have to be more in charge and leading discussions while towards the end of the semester, we should have less of the control and let discussions flow between the students.         
           Yesterday, Brooke and Sam did an excellent job at leading the problem solving and goals discussion despite having to be pushed back a couple of weeks. I really enjoyed flipping the negative statements into positive and SMART goals and hearing the ideas of others. I know that there are many times in my life where I’ve said things like, “I’m going to fail this test,” when instead I should be focusing on how I will positively approach the difficult situation and specifically state how I will approach and conquer it. This ability to flip situations into a positive light will be a great skill to have when dealing with students in the future so that they too can develop this skill and see that everything isn’t so bad after all!
           Finally, I once again really enjoyed the retreat. I think they are a great time to get to know each other better and have fun with all of the ice breakers. It’s always fun to see what each pair comes up with. A lot of people have already mentioned that they enjoyed Kayla’s ice breaker and I have to agree. I remember one of the qualifications to be a Hixson Scholar was to have had to  overcome extraordinary circumstances and it was interesting to see what some of those were. Typically, these things can be difficult and uncomfortable to talk about, but I feel as though the line activity makes it more quiet and comfortable, allowing people to share what they would like. I can definitely see myself using this in my section well into the semester after we all get to know each other so that we can continue to get to know each other at a deeper level.