As a psychology major, I completed my practicum in PSYC 1150. As a primary/junior Concurrent Education major, I had some confidence going into it because there are aspects in it that I have been used to during my student-teaching placements. One aspect that I was nervous about however was the fact that the students that I would be mentoring would be very close to my age which gave me feelings of imposter syndrome because I felt that there was not a lot that I could tell them by only being 2-3 years older. Within my first breakout, I could feel that my mentors very much cared about what I had to say and wanted to hear about my personal experiences. Through my breakouts, I had a lot of challenges with learning moments as well as successes, and I will expand on three of each.

 

Challenges and Learning Moments

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Group work vs. Individual Work

 

             One of the challenges I navigated was when to do group work and when to have individual work. I tried to have a mix of both for different reasons; for variety's sake, so the less talkative mentees in the group would have a chance away from group work, and for personal reflection. During my senior mentor breakouts, a few of my fellow mentors mentioned that they did a lot more individual work than group work because of their group dynamic. At the time, I felt that I had a good mix of people liking group work and people enjoying individual work, but that I focused too much on group work. In the next couple of breakouts, I tried to do more individual work with whole group sharing at the end.

                When I asked for feedback during midterm season, most of the feedback said that they enjoyed group work a lot more than when they had to do individual work and then share it with the class. Out of 10, only 1 person said they enjoyed individual work. I felt very confused because it did not seem like 90% of the group enjoyed group work that much, and because most of my peers’ groups liked individual work more. I learned that my mentees, although some were not so talkative, liked learning with their peers and were able to have more meaningful conversations about ten topics during small group work, compared to when they did individual work and shared it with the whole class. This made me stop and really look back and reflect on the small group breakouts; they were always talking and engaging with each other. When compared to when we would talk as a large group where only 2-3 would talk. I also learned that what other mentors do in the class does not have to be what I do. I felt like I was doing something wrong by not having enough individual work when that is not what my group needed to learn the best. I learned to focus on the needs of my mentees and to observe their needs more deeply as well.

 

Online Breakouts

 

            One of the most difficult challenges that I faced this semester was the online breakouts that were arranged last minute. Not only did I not consider this to be a possibility since the class I was mentoring for was 100% in person, but I had not considered creating backup plans for my breakout plans in case we went online. The first time it happened, I was completely thrown off guard, and the breakout experiment that I had planned did not go very well. My mentees were not fully engaged like they usually are during in-person breakouts, and I could tell they were not interested in what I was trying to do. I then switched gears to talk about course selection, which was coming up the next week. My mentees were a lot more responsive to this topic; they turned on their mics and wrote in the chat all their questions and thoughts and they shared helpful links for each other. It was difficult for me to let go of the breakout I had planned and embrace this important conversation that we were having together.

            After this breakout, I created a Kahoot in case we moved online again. The second time we went online, I tried my original activity, and again there was limited interaction and conversation happening, even during my introduction activity. I decided that we could play the Kahoot that I created weeks before. I was glad that I was prepared for this to happen, but I was upset with myself that I had not brainstormed in my breakout plan what to do if the breakout was online. A learning moment that I gained from this was to try to have a plan on what to do if the breakout was online.

 

Online Contact: Email vs. Facebook

 

            The last challenge and learning moment I had was figuring out how to best contact my mentees. When I was a mentee in PSYC 1150, my mentor created a Facebook page where she would post any important information that we needed for our breakout that week, along with pictures of anything that we did that week. I found it very helpful that I was able to connect with my mentor very easily, and I had new peers added so that I could contact them if I needed to. I created a Facebook page for my mentees after the first breakout, but only 3 of them joined the group. I sent them another email saying that I would be posting important information and updates on breakout groups to have them join. Still, I only had 5 people join the group. I then received an email from one mentee saying that she feels uncomfortable with social media, didn’t have a social media account, and was wondering if I would email information to her still. This email made me reflect on the importance of the Facebook group. Was it absolutely necessary for them to have it? Could I just continue emailing the group? I wanted to create relationships in my group and creating a Facebook group was one way that I thought I was going to be doing that.

            I decided that I would use the Facebook page, but also continue to email students as well. I thought it would give them two ways to receive the information and would be good practice for me to keep organized and on top of different communication channels. This was difficult to navigate in the first couple of weeks, but the system worked out very well. Students were using the Facebook group and also emailing me. If I could go back, I would create a Teams group. This way, I could still post important files and announcements, and it could be a way for mentees to contact me. Communication and contact were definitely a challenge at the beginning, but everything worked out, and I feel grateful that my mentees were engaging with me outside of class, regardless of the outlet they used

 

Successes

 

Future-Oriented Thinking

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            One success that I think is quite unique is that I was able to get my mentees thinking about their future. This includes the years to come but also thinking about the days, weeks, or months ahead. For example, when I first met with my mentees, we talked about the study strategies that they use. A lot of them said that they read the textbook only when they do not understand something, read it after class, or don’t read it at all. Although I understand that people learn in different ways, my mentees were all having a hard time grasping the first couple of chapters of content from the lecture. I explained to them that reading the material and making notes before going to the lecture gives you a great foundation to build your learning and makes reviewing after class a lot simpler. I related this to studying for midterms and completing assignments. In the next couple of weeks, my mentees told me that this strategy has made understanding the content a lot easier for them.

            In addition to this, I also gave them information on what the next couple of years would look like for them in the Psychology/ECE/Concurrent Education program would look like for them. I encouraged them to seek out information on our program's requirements and encouraged them to make appointments with academic advising to ensure they are on the right path to graduating with this difficult-to-navigate program. A lot of my mentees had very little understanding of the program or the specific requirements, and some of them even made changes to ensure they were on the same track. I feel that this future-oriented thinking was one big success that I had during my practicum.

 

Reflection

 

              Throughout the semester I tried to encourage self-reflection as much as I could. I did activities like highs and lows of the week, talking with a partner about their favourite and least favourite part of the semester, and reflecting on their own personal feelings of happiness and fulfillment. During the first could weeks of practicum, I could feel that most of them still held back a lot with sharing and even during their own personal reflection. I also noticed that some of them did not pay attention when another student was sharing their thoughts. My success in reflection is that by the last break-out, they all were fully participating in our reflection activities by either writing down their answers, sharing them with the group, and being actively engaged during a group conversation. I felt so proud during this breakout because of the growth they had all shown over the past 10 weeks, and I was so happy that they were able to reflect on their own feelings deeply and even share with the group! Personal reflection is so important regardless of your position in your life. As a first-year student you are going through so much change, and I believe that self-reflection is needed to start figuring out who you are. I feel honoured that I was able to see all the growth that they were all able to make in this aspect of their life.

 

Relationship Building

 

            The last success that I had during the practicum was relationship building. Going into mentorship and learning, this was the aspect of mentoring that I was most worried about. I was worried that the mentees would not like or relate to me at all and that I would not be able to foster relationships between me and them and each other. My reasoning behind a lot of my breakout plans that had small group work incorporated in them was to try my best to foster relationships between my mentees. At first, I let them stay in groups with the people they were sitting with. I could tell that some of the group members knew each other, so it was a simple and easy way to introduce group work. I then started mixing up the groups so they would work with people they have not worked with before, and incorporated partner activities. This strategy worked very well, and by the end of the semester, my mentees were able to get into groups and start discussions with whomever they were grouped with.

            To comment on the relationship between me and my mentees, I found that having real conversations about university life, failure, successes, struggles, etc., let them know me more deeply and they respected me for sharing my stories. I tried to never act like I was above them in any way, and acknowledged all their efforts to participate, share, and I always tried to ask follow-up questions to engage with them as much as I could. By sharing my personal experiences with university life and with PSYC 1150, I built a lot of trust and engagement with my mentees. They felt comfortable asking me questions about bad marks, missing deadlines, and dropping classes, but also about fun courses I have taken, how I feel about different professors and university life in general. With this being my greatest fear going into the semester, I believe that the relationship aspect of mentoring was fulfilled, and I feel very happy to say that I had positive relationships with all my mentees.