Preparing for the big one

Letter sent to Mentor Listserve for help:

Calling all Peer / Grad Mentors!

Many of you may know that Senior Inquiry is our Freshman Inquiry course offered at local area High schools. Melissa and I ( Safa ) make up what is a very small SRINQ team.  This Friday, October 29th, PSU and UNST will be hosting Westview – our biggest high school group  from the Beaverton School District.  They will be bringing around 115 SRINQ  students.

Between 10am and noon we will be meeting in Smith with  these students in two breakout groups (with around 60 in each) and we would love a few helping hands. On the agenda for the first hour is a brief (15 -20 min) but very informative presentation by Melissa and I about what SRINQ is and its unique attributes. We will then run a series of icebreaker activities ( we will have these ready) for the remaining forty minutes in rotations while 20 students at a time visit OIT and activate their OAM logins. We will then repeat the whole activity again with the second group of 60 from 11am to Noon. We are asking for volunteer mentors to lead small groups with us.

If you have expressed interest in the past around SRINQ , this is a perfect time for you to gain knowledge about how this program works, and interact with our fabulous SRINQ students. You will receive MDT hours for the time you spend (we will see to it!), a high five,  and even a warm beverage of your choice. Ideally we would want to know by Wednesday if you will be joining us , so we can talk with you in advance of Friday.

Please email unst.srinq@gmail.com if you can do us this huge favor, we will love you forever.

Thanks!

The SRINQ team

---

List of helpers:
2. Alison
1. Denae
2. Courtney
1. Martha
2. Tori
1. Dana
2. Jessica
2. Mohammad
1. Erol

FIRST email to volunteers:

Dear Mentors,

You have recieved this email because you have displayed an interest in helping us (the Senior Inq team) out this Friday with Westview High School’s visit. If this is in error please let me know.

We are still working out the details of our agenda (a rough copy below), but I will send you the final, insanely detailed version on Wednesday night. So you know what is happening and can mentally prepare. With the huge group of 115, we are basically cutting it down as much as possible so we don’t have too many at once. Already they are split into 4 groups, A, B, C and D, so while A&B are in two rooms in the library, C&D are with us in one room in Smith for one hour and then they all switch. So think of it as having just 2 mentor sessions… but much larger.

The great thing is there are 8 of us, plus Melissa so it won’t feel out of control, and with my insanely detailed agenda that is soon to come, we will all know what is going on.

Let me know if you have any questions, and expect my email Wednesday.

Thank you thank you thank you!

Safa

PS there will be an optional reflection piece afterward which I will give you details about later, it will also count for MDT hours.

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FIRST DRAFT OF AGENDA: Westview HS 115 students, split them into two large groups.
When group 1 is with us, group 2 is in the library and vice versa
9 volunteers plus M and me

Group 1- 60 students- Mentors: Erol, Denae, Martha, Dana
10-10:05 introductions M and S explain roles, mentors introduce themselves, disciplines of study and theme they mentor for
10:05-10:20 ppt detailing Senior Inquiry, OAMing process
10:20-11:10 Activities/M takes groups of 20 to OIT to get OAMed

Group 2- 60 students- Mentors: Alison, Courtney, Tori, Jessica, Mohammad
11:10-11:15 introductions M and S explain roles, mentors introduce themselves, disciplines of study and theme they mentor for
11:15-11:30 ppt detailing Senior Inquiry, OAMing process
11:30-12:20 Activities/M takes groups of 20 to OIT to get OAMed

List of possible activities:
-stand over here/over there
-count to 20 game
-word association both fast and slow
-tall tales
-have you ever

Define first gen college?, add to ppt for discussion
Add to the slide for email us about anything
M gets one mentor to help her, all get option to reflect and get more mdt hours- I come up w 5 qs for them to answer, then I synthesize and write synthesis in blog
nametags for mentors w name, discipline and theme

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SECOND email to volunteers:

Dear Mentors,

First of all, did I mention that I love you? Thank you for volunteering to help me and Melissa this Friday with Senior Inquiry, please let me know if anything has come up and you are unable to help anymore. I was not lying about the hot beverage thing, I will buy you a tea or a coffee or whatever- just remind me and ask either on Friday or another day!

Okay so here is what’s up, since there are many of you helping out, and since a bunch of you must leave by 11:30/noon I have decided to split you into two groups. I ask for Erol, Denae, Martha and Dana to help with group one and I ask for Alison, Courtney, Tori, Jessica and Mohammad to help with group two. If anyone wants to help with both that would be awesome too, just let me know. And also notify me if I got your schedule wrong and you actually need to leave sooner.

So as promised, here is an insanely detailed agenda for your viewing pleasure. I will come equipped with several copies of this printed out on Friday to make your lives even easier. Group one and two are doing the same things, but I still put them up twice so you can see the time breakdown.

I will send out the option for an extra MDT hour tomorrow- the reflection piece which I shall structure for your ease and enjoyment.

Thanks again, Let me know if you have any questions/concerns

Safa

*****
AGENDA: Westview HS 115-ish students, split them into two large groups.
When group 1 is with us, group 2 is in the library and vice versa
9 volunteers plus M and me
Smith room 327

Group 1- 55 students- Mentors: Erol, Denae, Martha, Dana
9:30 Set up

Please arrive to help us set up (we will need to arrange chairs, and set up the projector and screen)
9:45 Arrival

M and S run to library to meet Westview and grab first group of students to walk back to room with, mentors stay in Smith 327 to make sure no one steals our stuff
10-10:05 Introductions

M and S explain roles, mentors introduce themselves, their disciplines of study and theme they mentor for
10:05-10:20 Presentation

Powerpoint presentation detailing Senior Inquiry and OAMing process for both students and mentors to hear and learn from
10:20-11:10 Rotation

-M takes a group of 20 to OIT to get OAMed for 15 minutes, comes back and exchanges her group for another group of 20, and so on.

-With the students left in the room we play in this order:

1. Stand in a large circle and hear everyones first and last names one time, real quick

2. 10-15 minutes, Mentors play along: Big group activity: A Game of Two Extremes: This is a simple ice breaker to get people up and moving and sharing their preferences or views on topics.

Create an imaginary line from one end of the room to the other.  Instruct people to move to a point on the line to indicate where they stand on a particular issue.

For example – move to the left hand side of the room if you like chocolate ice cream, the right hand side if you like strawberry. If people don’t have a strong opinion they stand in the middle.

• • • Morning person or a night owl?
    • Rather go to a Big party or stay in with a few good friends?
    • Prefer the Rhythm/Beat of a song or Lyrics of a song?
    • Would you rather go to a play or a concert?
    • Would you rather be completely bald or hairy all over?
    • Would you rather do homework or do the dishes?
    • Prefer communicating over email or over the phone?
    • Prefer Facebook or Twitter?
    • Are you an outdoorsy person or a homebody?
    • Prefer snow or sunshine?
    • Would you rather be good looking or smart?
    • When you are stressed out, does it help you to be by yourself or to be around people?
    • In the classroom do you prefer lectures or hands-on activities?
    • Do you prefer reading or watching movies?
    • Interested in arts/literature/humanities or math/science?
    • Ideally would you like to stay in-state or go out of state for college?
    • Do you prefer chocolate or fruity candy?

10:35

3. 10-15 minutes: Small group activity, Mentors in charge: Word Association Game, both fast and slow. Get everyone in a big circle and have them count off 1-4. Each mentor stands in corner of room and we designate who gets which group. I will go around keeping a close eye on the time and notifying you all when to move from the Fast Round to the Slow Round.

-Fast round: Going around in a circle, people state the first word that comes to mind based on the word that was just stated by the previous person. For example if I start with the word Red, the next person may think of Apple, and the person after them may think of Banana, so on. Go around the circle 3-4 times based on how excited people seem and how quickly they catch on.

-Slow round: Different from the fast round, this time people go around in a circle and DO NOT state the first word that comes to mind, they must stop and think of 2-3 words in their mind before stating the word they associate with the last one they heard. For example if I start with the word Red, the next person thinks and thinks and might say Love, then the next person thinks for a minute and says Computers or something like that. At any point feel free to remind them to slow down if they go too fast.

10:45/50

4. Merge into 2 larger circles and ask if anyone noticed anything about the different speeds of the Word Association games, Mentors add in any observations you made about what kinds of words were said/themes/if you felt pressured and couldn’t think or whatever.

Half group activity: Tall Tales. Mentors scattered throughout circles, if story seems too reasonable please throw it off with something crazy!

One person starts a story with a sentence that ends in WHEN SUDDENLY. The next person then has to add to the story with his own sentence that ends in WHEN SUDDENLY. Continue the story until everyone has contributed. The story becomes crazier as each young person adds their sentence.

For example; ‘Yesterday I went to the zoo and was passing the elephant enclosure WHEN SUDDENLY…..’

11:05/10-End.
Group 2- 65 students- Mentors: Alison, Courtney, Tori, Jessica

11:00 Mentors please arrive!!

11:10 Arrival

We will be finishing up with our first group so arriving at this time will allow you to project how the second group will go. Groups 1 and 2 are exchanged. Group 2 will arrive from the library.
11:10-11:15 Introductions

M and S explain roles, mentors introduce themselves, their disciplines of study and theme they mentor for
11:15-11:30 Presentation

Powerpoint presentation detailing Senior Inquiry and OAMing process for both students and mentors to hear and learn from
11:30-12:20 Rotation

-M takes a group of 20 to OIT to get OAMed for 15 minutes, comes back and exchanges her group for another group of 20, and so on.

-With the students left in the room we play in this order:

1. Stand in a large circle and hear everyones first and last names one time, real quick

2. 10-15 minutes, Mentors play along: Big group activity: A Game of Two Extremes: This is a simple ice breaker to get people up and moving and sharing their preferences or views on topics.

Create an imaginary line from one end of the room to the other.  Instruct people to move to a point on the line to indicate where they stand on a particular issue.

For example – move to the left hand side of the room if you like chocolate ice cream, the right hand side if you like strawberry. If people don’t have a strong opinion they stand in the middle.

• • • Morning person or a night owl?
    • Rather go to a Big party or stay in with a few good friends?
    • Prefer the Rhythm/Beat of a song or Lyrics of a song?
    • Would you rather go to a play or a concert?
    • Would you rather be completely bald or hairy all over?
    • Would you rather do homework or do the dishes?
    • Prefer communicating over email or over the phone?
    • Prefer Facebook or Twitter?
    • Are you an outdoorsy person or a homebody?
    • Prefer snow or sunshine?
    • Would you rather be good looking or smart?
    • When you are stressed out, does it help you to be by yourself or to be around people?
    • In the classroom do you prefer lectures or hands-on activities?
    • Do you prefer reading or watching movies?
    • Interested in arts/literature/humanities or math/science?
    • Ideally would you like to stay in-state or go out of state for college?
    • Do you prefer chocolate or fruity candy?

11:45

3. 10-15 minutes: Small group activity, Mentors in charge: Word Association Game, both fast and slow. Get everyone in a big circle and have them count off 1-4. Each mentor stands in corner of room and we designate who gets which group. I will go around keeping a close eye on the time and notifying you all when to move from the Fast Round to the Slow Round.

-Fast round: Going around in a circle, people state the first word that comes to mind based on the word that was just stated by the previous person. For example if I start with the word Red, the next person may think of Apple, and the person after them may think of Banana, so on. Go around the circle 3-4 times based on how excited people seem and how quickly they catch on.

-Slow round: Different from the fast round, this time people go around in a circle and DO NOT state the first word that comes to mind, they must stop and think of 2-3 words in their mind before stating the word they associate with the last one they heard. For example if I start with the word Red, the next person thinks and thinks and might say Love, then the next person thinks for a minute and says Computers or something like that. At any point feel free to remind them to slow down if they go too fast.

noon/12:05

4. Merge into 2 larger circles and ask if anyone noticed anything about the different speeds of the Word Association games, Mentors add in any observations you made about what kinds of words were said/themes/if you felt pressured and couldn’t think or whatever.

Half group activity: Tall Tales. Mentors scattered throughout circles, if story seems too reasonable please throw it off with something crazy!

One person starts a story with a sentence that ends in WHEN SUDDENLY. The next person then has to add to the story with his own sentence that ends in WHEN SUDDENLY. Continue the story until everyone has contributed. The story becomes crazier as each young person adds their sentence.

For example; ‘Yesterday I went to the zoo and was passing the elephant enclosure WHEN SUDDENLY…..’

12:20-End.

They visit us, we visit them: Jefferson, Marshall RA and Roosevelt

(insert reflection from last week here)

Tomorrow we are going to Roosevelt, there are about 44 students and we have 9-11:30 with them!

What to cover:
-Google sites (ask ML about laptops)
-Give them a couple of breaks
-A lot of activities- move around
-PSU’s relationship with OUS, how credits will tranfer (add to ppt)
-bring candy?
-a few large group activities and small groups activities
-OAM unless they don’t get registered after all… plan for both scenarios

Activity Ideas:

• Commonalities and Uniquities
  Form groups of five to eight people and give them two sheets of paper and a pencil or pen. The first part of the activity is Commonalities, where each subgroup compiles a list of the things they have in common. In order for it to make the list, it must apply to everyone in the subgroup.  You want to avoid writing things that people can see (e.g. “everyone has hair,” or “we are all wearing clothes”).  Try to get them to dig deeper. After about 5 minutes, have a spokesperson from each subgroup read their list.
  Then, depending on your goals for the session, you can have half of each subgroup rotate to another group for Uniquities or you can leave everyone in the same group. On the second sheet of paper have them record uniquities, meaning that each item applies to only one person in the group. The group tries to find at least 2 uniquities for each person. After 5-7 minutes, you can have each person say one of their uniquities or have a person read them one by one, having others try to guess who it was. (Again, you want to go beyond the superficial, avoiding those things that people can readily see). This is an excellent team-building activity because it promotes unity, gets people to realize that they have more in common than they first might realize. The awareness of their own unique characteristics is also beneficial in that people can feel empowered to offer the group something unique.
• For this game, you need packet(s) of marshmallows and packet(s) of spaghetti.
  Split the group into two or more teams.  Generally between 4-8 is the ideal team size.  The goal is to see which group builds the highest tower using only the items provided. The towers must be stable.
  It is fun but covers many competencies i.e. team work, communication, problem solving, leadership. It allows participants to use negotiating skills and improve their general communication…they also learn the benefit of planning.
• Get everyone to stand up, then read through the following list.  The last person standing is the winner!
  Sit down if you have eaten chocolate today
  Sit down if you are wearing purple
  Sit down if you were born in September
  Sit down if you have blue eyes
  Sit down if you are the youngest child
  you have broken a bone
  gone for two weeks without a shower
  can speak more than two languages
  etc.
• A game of two extremes!  This is a simple ice breaker to get people up and moving and sharing their preferences or views on topics.
  Create an imaginary line from one end of the room to the other.  Instruct people to move to a point on the line to indicate where they stand on a particular issue.
  For example – move to the left hand side of the room if you like chocolate, the right hand side if you like strawberry.
  If people don’t have a strong opinion they stand in the middle.
  Continue with other examples / extremes:
  Morning person or a night owl?
  Rather go to a Big party or stay in with a few good friends?
  Prefer the Rhythm/Beat of a song or Lyrics of a song?
  Would you rather go to a play or a concert?
  Do you prefer Sweet or Savory?
  Would you rather do homework or do the dishes?
  Prefer communicating in person or over the phone?
  Prefer Facebook or Twitter?
  Are you an outdoorsy person or a homebody?
  Prefer snow or sunshine?
  Would you rather be good looking or smart?
  Would you rather be taller or shorter?
  When you are stressed out, does it help you to be by yourself or to be around people?
  In the classroom do you prefer lectures or hands-on activities?
  Do you prefer reading or watching movies?
  Interested in arts/literature/humanities or math/science?
  Ideally would you like to stay in-state or go out of state for college? 

  When everyone chooses a position, read out the next one and everyone moves again.  Kids love to express themselves so this is a good game to get them to explore and express their opinions on some things.

• name association game (it will be easier for them than for us!) First person says: “Hi my name is Safa and I know three languages”, next person “This is Safa and she knows three languages, and I am Melissa and I lived in Australia a few years ago”, next person “Safa knows three languages, Melissa lived in Australia, and my name is Michael and I know how to surf”, and so on. we go all the way around in the circle.(This would get SO OLD with 44 people)
• I’d like to give the students some time to write on a piece of paper that we put in a fishbowl what they are nervous about in college, and college level courses, college life, etc. This is the time some people might be applying to schools and SAT’s so let’s plan a short Q&A period. We give students scrap papers and they write something they are nervous about or something they don’t know the answer for, we collect the anonymously, they go on a ten minute break, then when they return we answer their questions.

9-10:15, 10:25-11:30 Body, Mind, Soul model

OAM Affirmative Schedule:
9-9:05 M and I introduce ourselves
9:05-9:10 get in a big circle and have everyone go around and say their names just so we can at least hear them!!
9:10 to 9:25 -play A game of two extremes
9:25-9:55 Our PPT presentation
9:55-10 in partners or by yourselves take 5 minutes to write down questions or concerns you have with college, college life, college level coursework, etc and we will answer them after the break.

10-10:10 BREAK, walk to computer lab

10:10-10:25 Answer questions/discussion
10:25-10:45 OAM Process in lab
10:45-11:30 Google Sites Presentation (have example sites ready to share, discuss importance of these portfolios, help them set up and invite Roosevelt’s gmail as an owner)

**The other option, if they are not registered and we cannot OAM them is to have the same schedule, except after we answer questions, we do google sites and in the last 20 minutes we have another activity, such as Commonalities and Uniquities.

And today we met Liberty

This morning we met Liberty. There were about 60 students, which I find just insane (such a large class size). I didn’t get to speak with the students much except for helping them with the OAMing process. It was interesting, maybe I felt distant from the students because we didn’t visit them at school before they came. I not only recommend but REQUIRE for next year that the mentor visit each of the schools very early on- maybe even in the weeks before the PSU term begins- so that when the students visit PSU there will be more of a connection, and more of a feeling of investment (for lack of better words).

It seems like whatever work we do this year will help to make next year much easier… but that really does mean that this year in its entirety will be a process. I miss FRINQ and I say this for two reasons:

1. The relationship with students: the fact that in FRINQ, I walk into the classroom on day one and there is a manageable sized group of students who I can really get to know- their names, interests, quirks, strengths and weaknesses. For a mentor, it feels like a personal failure when I do not know the names of my mentees… because then it is not really a mentor-mentee relationship. It is more like I am the adult/authority looking over them. I know I am over reacting now, but as of now all of these 300 students are really just numbers to me. I don’t want that to remain and I really want to learn names at the least. A basic human connection is what I aim for as of now.

2. The relationship with faculty. I come from a sheltered mentoring environment. I had worked with three faculty previously, two who I only worked with for a summer, and the one who I was partnered with for two years. Now I guess you could say that I have like 18 faculty partners (6 schools, about 3 in each school), but I only know the names of a few of them. I know I have a cheat sheet (their faculty photos online) but it seems like part of the success of the mentor is the relationship they have with their faculty partner. I really need to learn names. Marshall Pauling and Jefferson (again) come tomorrow, so I need to go on the faculty site and memorize their names!

The thing is that I do not intend to complain, my intention is to identify my feelings and reactions to all of the interactions I have with the programs, verbalize what I am thinking and then either I (or you) can think of ways to fix it later this year and next year.

Do you know what I want to do? Ideally what I really want to do? I want to play icebreaker games with students, get to know their names and have them ask me questions about college. I need to organize for this to happen… but not in crowds of 60… groups of up to 30 are feasible, but not more. People don’t open up in larger groups at all.

Okay, rant=over for now.

(today, 9-10:30)

Jeff students come to PSU

Today the Jeff students took a field trip to PSU. We met them outside of the library and headed into one of those cool laptop labs on the first floor to get them set up with their professional sounding Gmail account (which took a really long time to get everyone on the same page) and we got them registered. After we left, one of the librarians came to lead a scavenger hunt activity but I left shortly after the librarian arrived.

Idea: lead an activity about body language

Overall it went really well. Even the students who were a bit stubborn listened to reason eventually so that made our jobs a lot easier. It seemed like whenever the students didn’t want to do something it was because they didn’t understand why we were asking them to do it, not because they just wanted to be contrary.

Idea: invite guest speakers whose focuses are on diversity. I think that some of these students might have a hard time relating to me and M because on the outside we look like 2 white chicks, so we were thinking of inviting some successful Black academics. My friend Joe, another student M knows through McNair, and a prof M also knows. It might help the students visualize themselves as serious college students if they find someone they can relate to.

Next week we have visits from Liberty and Marshall, and we already know that Jeff returns on Oct. 20th.

(today, 9-11:30)

Getting back in touch

I apologize for my long absence, but I’ve been away working with my past mentoring life. What I’ve learned is that I need to learn how to say “no” because nobody else is going to say it for me. Nobody should say it for me but me actually. I guess that was the last time during the length of my contract as GTA that I would have to face that conflict of interest, and it was purely because I was in charge of planning. Note for when you hire next year: don’t let that person be in charge of fall training, it makes it very difficult to be spread across so many mentor lives.

To do list for today/this week:

• put together another few templates for SRINQ Google sites so students have more choices (use the FRINQ templates and edit them to be more relevant)
• Put my availability on our google calendar so I can email it out to all of the school teams (when I email school teams with my availability I also need to ask if I need to get a clearance or some kind of pass to be allowed into the schools, also I need to ask how much time I will allowed to lead the students in an activity)

*I copied and pasted the newsletter onto the page because there was trouble accessing it as an embedded document.

Wednesday: talk about importance of OAMing themselves, concept of being a college student vs hs (no one will ever ask the grades you got in WR121 class, but do understand that this transcript never goes away- hs people want to know the summary, college people want to know details), demographics (300 PSU students at the HS in the greater Portland area- one of a very small elite class-tiny program- their actions impact their futures and the future of our program), understanding identity as college student- responsibilities- create, understand and navigate online college identity,

look at newsletter (representing themselves as an academic person), bring copies of newsletter, break up into groups to discuss- worst emails- come up with 3 options for Gmail accounts-

50 minutes- engage bodies, mind then spirit.
5 minute introductions
10 minute active game- words and letters
15 minutes reading newsletter, then coming up with- give them three questions- top 3 worst emails they have seen/can imagine, three good serious options for their emails, how important is your online identity right now as a HS senior (print out one for each group)
15-20 minutes- Serious talk at the end with ppt- how you can get the most benefit of being a college student in HS- consciously acknowledge that they are PSU students and they belong there and all the resources are at their fingertips

Meet Melissa at 8:30 between Smith and Cramer

(today 9-1:30pm)