How do you see your role as a peer mentor? What do you feel are some of your strengths and what do you feel are some areas where you may need to improve in?
How I see myself as a peer mentor is to be someone who you are able to go to when you need someone to talk to. Someone that you can trust and also someone to give you the best advice to help you with the problem that you are struggling with. Some of my strengths are listening when others need me and not saying anything just letting them say what is on their mind. Another thing is when someone is having a bad day I like to give them encouraging words that they will make them feel better and that everything will be ok. Another one of my strengths is knowing that when I say I will be there for an event or something that is important, you can count on me that I will show up. Some areas where I may need to improve is how to process a question that comes at me that may be strong in a difficult situation and being able to have a response right away to that problem.
I agree that listening is a big importance of being a peer mentor because you need to be able to give good advice but also listen to problems at the same time. Sometimes, all you can do to help a student is listen to them and let them know you are there for them. Having trouble responding to a difficult question and answering right away is hard for me too because I can't answer right away not because I don't know answer but need time to process the question and think.
ReplyDeleteSimply listening completely to another person, is the only way to effectively listen. That's so important! Students need to feel that we are listening and not trying to fix everything for them. I think we are all worried about not having answers for our students, but I think there are great ways of going about it. We can always find that out.
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