Tips for Tests

Happy Spring Break! We have a quick post about test anxiety that we thought we would share in preparation for the last round of midterm exams and finals when you return from break.

Many students suffer from test anxiety. Rob Sepich, Student Relations Manager and Stress Management Specialist at UHS, compiled a list of tips for tests. These tips can be used before, during, and after exams. Think about using them yourselves, or sharing them in sessions with your students.

Let us know what you think, and hope you have a great break!

What I have learned...that I wish I had known before!

Happy Friday, Academic Mentors! 

We had the Lead Academic Mentors, who facilitate Peer Learning groups, brainstorm answers to the following question:

"What have you learned as lead AM that you wish you would have known as academic mentor?"
 
Below are four great responses. Let us know what you think in the comment section of this post! Stay tuned next week, where we will share three more of their answers.

1) As a lead academic mentor, I've learned how to be better at making my students more accountable for their work. As an academic mentor, I think I was a little scared to encourage my students to spend a lot of time preparing for our one-on-one sessions. As a lead AM, however, I have learned that students are usually thankful in the end when you give them "assignments" or encourage them to use study strategies that we talk about in our sessions. Being able to delegate tasks to students outside of the session makes our time in the session even more productive! -Anna, Chemistry

2) One thing I wish I had known as an academic mentor is that I was in a position to help students with more than just the class for which I was tutoring them. I tend to have at least a couple prospective psychology majors in peer learning each semester, and I usually set apart some time to give them advice on picking classes, things they might want to do for extracurriculars, etc. Even in related majors, as an upperclassman I've been able to help students out a lot with that type of thing, as well as time management, studying locations, where to look for internships, etc. Unfortunately it's not something I did as much as an academic mentor, even though I worked with a couple students who were prospective psychology or neurobiology majors. -Ryan, Psychology

3) One thing I've learned as a lead is that everyone learns differently and trying to cater to those differences takes a lot of work. As an academic mentor I only ever dealt with students one at a time, so differences in learning styles were not as easily distinguished as in the group setting. Learning this has helped me to be more flexible and make my plans adaptable. It also definitely helped me to see how hard teachers and professors have to work and I give them so much more credit now that I've sort of stepped in their shoes. -Kelsey, Math

4) As a lead academic mentor, I've learned how to better prepare for my sessions with activities for my students to do during the sessions. I think it was easy with one-on-one mentoring to get carried away and act more like a tutor by going through and teaching the material to the students and giving advice. As a lead, I have found it more effective and fun for the students if they participate in an activity that engages them and forces them to think and apply the material themselves. Although I have found this method extremely beneficial for group settings since it adds an element of competition and overall more engagement and enthusiasm, I think coming up with simple quizzes, flashcards, and/or a game with matching for basic terms can benefit in one-on-one settings as well. -Alex, Biology

Have a great weekend!
~CAE Academic Mentoring

Implementing Grit in Sessions

Hey, Academic Mentors!

We thought we’d post some of the great brainstorming ideas you had about implementing grit in sessions, and some challenges as well. If you feel like sharing the video with your students, here is the link: 

http://www.ted.com/talk/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit?language=en

How to implement grit in sessions:

·         Show the TED talk to start the discussion

·         Take a grit test – reflect on it in the future

·         Show role models of gritty people, and escaping the stereotype threat

·         Discuss guidelines for overcoming challenges

·         Talk about mistakes and missed problems

·         Analyze studying and preparation

·         Have a discussion with them about grit

·         Have students try to recognize other individuals who are gritty and successful

·         Ask students about their experience with the video and how they can apply the skill

·         Talk about study habits – when studying for exams, checking in with them on how they are studying. Are they studying to memorize or studying to learn?

·         Apply grit beyond the sessions! It’s essentially a way of life

·         Introduce them to the concept (showing them the video) and checking it with them about it over time

·         Use other classes to identify important skills

·         Have student identify goals

·         Answer questions with a question

·         Don’t use the words “wrong” and “right” – use encouragement throughout sessions

·         Remind them of midterms as a “checkpoint” not an “endpoint”

Challenges with grit:

·         Hard to stay focused in high-pressure situations

·         How do we instill grit? May be difficult

·         Hard to reinforce grit if it slips for a short period of time

·         It’s hard to teach a lifestyle

·         Sometimes students don’t have patience to do more than academics

·         It’s hard to be consistent and incorporate this concept in the long term

·         Hard to not only focus on GPA

·         Personal/internal motivation

·         Easy way out/easily discouraged

·         College grades are not designed with the growth mindset in mind

·         Grades DO affect their future to an extent (scholarships, business school, medical school)

Please comment here if you have any additional ideas!

Thanks for all you do,

~CAE Academic Mentoring

Flip Chart Results!

Thanks for such a great turnout to the first Academic Mentor meetings for the semester. We have compiled a list of common ideas that were brainstormed throughout the meetings, and have decided to share them here. If you have any other great ideas that you forgot to write down during the meetings, feel free to comment on this post!

Activities to Share

·         Venn diagrams with post its, K/W/L tables, Around the world, 3-2-1 (Strategy cards)

·         Have a “warm-up” at the beginning with a quick type of quiz going over some of the more basic topics

·         Quizzes/preliminary assessment/post-quiz

·         Create a flow chart/diagram of processes

·         Games

·         Surprise quizzes with old exam problems

·         Have students “master” a concept and teach it to others

Useful Resources

·         Professor’s website

·         Office hours

·         Math Lab and University Tutoring

·         Learn@UW (make copies of syllabus too)

·         Math Library website for past exams

·         Short YouTube videos for visual ideas

·         Internet sites: Wolfram Alpha, CAE Blog, Khan Academy

What NOT to do

·         Don’t rush to answer their question before you’ve given them time to think about it and try it on their own

·         Don’t introduce fancy ways to solve problems in upper-level coursework

·         Do not indulge in TA/professor/specific topic bashing

·         Try not to give answers directly

·         Don’t help with graded HW

·         Make sure to be firm in enforcing responsibilities early on – don’t get too flexible with time and topics

Best Advice

·         You are a mentor – so be a mentor! Don’t be stuck on the course. Find ways to connect with students.

·         Really get to know your student(s) and understand their goals/what motivates them

·         Make students comfortable

·         Emphasize that mistakes are okay

·         Come with a positive mindset and understand they may be coming in confused

·         Be patient; it may take students longer to grasp certain concepts

·         Always be encouraging and don’t make the course feel intimidating

    Have a great weekend! Make sure to check out the previous blog post about the leadership certificate!

Leadership Certificate

Did you know that your work as a CAE academic mentor or lead academic mentor counts for the Leadership certificate?

The new requirements (effective summer of 2015) for the Leadership certificate require 50 hours of organizational/group leadership activities. Here is the description of the area:
"You should actively participate on a team, within an organization, or as a member of a work unit in a manner that demonstrates integrity; inclusive engagement; and connection and community. Submissions must demonstrate leadership as an action-oriented endeavor that facilitates the accomplishment of goals, empowers others to act, and fosters positive social change in group members, the organization, the campus and the community".

In addition, all the trainings (staff meetings/orientations, etc.) I require you to attend could count towards the 30 hours of training and workshops activity area.

More information can be found here:
https://cfli.wisc.edu/leadership_certificate.htm

If you are interested to learn more about the certificate, check-out the workshop next week:
Tuesday March 10, 5:30-6:30pm Tong Auditorium, Engineering Centers Building.