MAYOWA AINA
As a First-Year Interest Group Leader...
I worked with the Office of First Year Programs staff to develop curriculum and activities for General Studies 199: The University Community(GEN ST 199), a class included in every FIG cluster class and stand-alone class. The GEN ST 199 course is facilitated entirely by our peer instructors. As FIG leader, I taught a section of GEN ST 199 for a first-year student or transfer student.
I designed and executed a quarter-long curriculum in accordance with University guidelines in order to support the transition of first-year students into the University of Washington. Every week I provided a lesson designed to supplement the students’ academic learning and establish a positive and welcoming group dynamic. It was incredibly interesting to have complete control over a classroom full of students and to be given a great deal of responsibility as a peer educator. I was definitely nervouse about potentially being these student's first impression of the university and felt like I had to know all of the answers but as the quarter progressed I realized that what I really wanted the FIG to be was a place for new students to relax, be real, and make connections and with those goals in mind I was able to foster a welcoming and fun environment that I hoped helped smooth out my student's transition to college.
Learn more about the FIG Leader program - Read the GENST 199 Syllabus - Read a sample lesson plan
Problem-solving...
Any teacher will tell you that problem solving, especially on-the-fly, is critical to the successful completion of a lesson plan that has the desired effect. Particularly in establishing a welcoming group dynamic, managing the variety of students who voiced vastly different opinions presented me with numerous moments in which I had to make sure that all students felt like they were valued in class. This was a value that was important to the FIG Leader program, but was particularly important to me and something that I really wanted to impress upon my students. Especially being at the University of Washington, it can be particularly difficult during the first year to locate yourself as a student and figure out what you bring to the university. It’s something that every student has to go through so providing a safe space to practice that was a priority for me as a peer instructor.
The biggest problem that my group had was being incredibly cliquey, quickly separating themselves into fraternity/sorority members and non-fraternity/sorority members which sometimes made the group dynamics a bit tense. In order to alleviate this I chose their partners and groups for all of the assignments and played games in the beginning of every class that forced them to move and around and discuss topics with students they normally would not. At first, it was hard for them. Many of them wanted to cling to people who were familiar or similar to them, as most people do, but I did not want to encourage that mindset. I believe that the resulting overall class dynamic was better for it because many ended up becoming good friends and it made the class atmosphere much more comfortable. When I was in a FIG class my freshman year, the greatest thing that came out of it was the group of friends that I made that I am still close with 3 years later. I wanted my students to have a similar experience because I think that introduction really colored the rest of my experience at the UW by showing me the sheer amount of variety just within my classroom.
Recieving Feedback...
One of my favorite parts of leading a First-Year Interest Group was setting up mid-quarter conferences In the middle of the quarter, I set up appointments with each of my students to meet outside of class and discuss their other classes, campus commitments, and ask if they had any feedback for the course material that I was teaching them and the manner in which I was teaching it. One student asked that I send out more frequent emails of when things were due and incorporate more material from their clustered classes. As a result I began sending out a weekly email with reminders and events and reserved a room to host two study sessions for their classes to show them study techniques. It was incredibly helpful to get feedback at a point during which I could change some of the content or try new strategies that would better help them and help me pick up their nonverbal or verbal cues in response to the material.
Additionally, as part of the program, at the end of the quarter all of the students filled out a course evaluation through which I was able to see how they felt about the course overall. It was good for me to heart that they liked and more importantly what they did not like about my teaching style so that I am more aware when as I move into similar and different situations.
Decision-making...
As a peer-educator, one of the biggest difficulties that I had in decision-making were issues regarding changing my lesson plans to meet the needs of the class and grades. Because I created my lesson plan a quarter in advance, I had no idea how it would play out with my class in particular and once we got going in the quarter many parts of my lesson plan had to be changed, omitted, or added if I wanted to have the desired effect for this group of students. Secondly, deciding grades at the end of the quarter was particularly difficult in the cases in which students might not have been able to receive credit. Having to decide whether or not a student would pass was a huge responsibility