Week 2, "Paradigms"
"Like SLuckettG, I am mentoring in my own field. This position is exactly what I want to do one day albeit in a high school setting. Being a TA for ENGL101 allows me to get a bit of a 'teaser-trailer' into my future career (and I love it). I found that a majority of SLuckettG’s advice is truly overarching to all majors, fields, and careers. Being a peer-mentor is about helping people to blossom and mature while simultaneously growing yourself along the way, too. It's about recognizing your personal strengths and then sharing them.
Furthermore, I do believe that Barr, Tagg, and Davidson alike consider and implement the Seven Principles of Good Practice founded by Chickering and Gamson. Chickering & Gamson created a system of ideals that would, if applied, foster an engaging, approachable, diverse, and enjoyable learning experience. It would also produce a new breed of educator—one who values the abilities and growth of a student over apparent ‘intelligence’. Davidson, in her lecture, calls for the Learning Paradigm to be enhanced one more step; she claims that students must be taught to best utilize the technology of the world so that their ideas may be published, shared, and used by others. I do not think that Davidson is deviating from Chickering & Gamson, nor is she pulling away from Barr & Tagg. Many educators fail to connect with students and are still operating in the Instruction Paradigm. It is unfortunate. I believe that genuine "success" will only exist in an atmosphere that teaches students how to think, how to ask, how to interpret, and how to grow.
I hope that my ENGL101 class is geared towards the Learning Paradigm. I want to connect with my students and provide them with necessary resources and a helping hand. I do not want to be a walking encyclopedia void of emotion and progress. I would also like our seminar to operate in similar ways. I am excited to implement peer-mentorship strategies in our seminar (full circle!) and have mutual learning for all."
Furthermore, I do believe that Barr, Tagg, and Davidson alike consider and implement the Seven Principles of Good Practice founded by Chickering and Gamson. Chickering & Gamson created a system of ideals that would, if applied, foster an engaging, approachable, diverse, and enjoyable learning experience. It would also produce a new breed of educator—one who values the abilities and growth of a student over apparent ‘intelligence’. Davidson, in her lecture, calls for the Learning Paradigm to be enhanced one more step; she claims that students must be taught to best utilize the technology of the world so that their ideas may be published, shared, and used by others. I do not think that Davidson is deviating from Chickering & Gamson, nor is she pulling away from Barr & Tagg. Many educators fail to connect with students and are still operating in the Instruction Paradigm. It is unfortunate. I believe that genuine "success" will only exist in an atmosphere that teaches students how to think, how to ask, how to interpret, and how to grow.
I hope that my ENGL101 class is geared towards the Learning Paradigm. I want to connect with my students and provide them with necessary resources and a helping hand. I do not want to be a walking encyclopedia void of emotion and progress. I would also like our seminar to operate in similar ways. I am excited to implement peer-mentorship strategies in our seminar (full circle!) and have mutual learning for all."
Expansion: For my third post, I chose to go allllll the way back to our very first discussion post and re-read my thoughts from September. I predicted that my general opinions would have held true, and I was correct. I also shared some wishes and hopes for my impending semester in this post that, eventually, became a reality. I smiled to myself as I re-read my words and realized that my semester turned out exactly how I wanted it to. I developed a strong relationship with both my Professor and my class; so strong to the point that students emailed me often asking for advice and felt comfortable enough around me to confide in me about their personal lives and emotions. I wrote, "I want to connect with my students and provide them with necessary resources and a helping hand." I believe that I did just this. Throughout the entire semester, I read numerous essays, answered all kinds of questions, clarified concepts, and genuinely took an interest in the wellbeing of my students. In the beginning of the post, I mentioned self-growth. Frankly, I believe this semester was the biggest growth period I've had since puberty. Now, approaching 2017, I feel like I truly know myself. I know where I stand on issues. I have opinions -- strong ones. I believe in myself. I've accomplished so much. The world is my oyster. I am happy. I firmly believe that my current state of wellbeing is partially (maybe a little more than partially) attributed to my success in the ENGL101 classroom and the support of ENGL388V. On a final note, I found it humorous that I mentioned in Week 2 'apparent intelligence', hinting that I realized that many students are considered less intelligent because of outside factors (like language!). Guess I really am stubborn in my beliefs.