Ava Finn

Grant, Fredj
HONORS 397A
8 June 2022
Spring Quarter Reflection 2022

Going into this quarter, I had experience teaching, speaking, and running
meetings, but I had never really been asked to put these skills together in quite the way
I did throughout the course. I have gained so much by the advice and examples of
Nadra, Claire, and all my peers in our cohort, and much of my initial nervousness
about being a Peer Educator is now excitement and confidence.
One skill I really felt I was able to hone over the course of the quarter was
intentional design and configuration of space. Up until now, I hadn’t really consciously
thought about community building as a part of my responsibility when teaching,
mostly because I generally wasn’t teaching the same group of people consistently over
a period of time. The thought of this was initially really challenging for me to wrap my
head around; I was really unsure how to approach icebreakers and activities in my first
lesson plans because I wanted to make sure they were well-designed to allow people to
relax and bond. As a pretty anxious person, icebreakers have never been my favorite,
and I kept feeling like everything I came up with would be stressful or something the
students want to “get over with” rather than a genuinely uniting experience. I learned
so much about strategies to strengthen community through my own experience with
our Retreat and how much I ended up chershing being there. When I thought back
about what worked in that scenario, as well as the many examples the LPEs provided, I
was much more successful in angling my lesson plans to have gradual, recurring, and
somewhat “natural” feeling community opportunities. I considered a lot of factors I
didn’t realize existed when running icebreakers in the past. In particular, I tried to
really demonstrate progression in my activities over the quarter, aiming to get to know
everyone more substantially as the weeks go on and students become more
comfortable in the space. I feel like my grasp on what it means to be in charge of a
space as well as the purpose an icebreaker serves has been really clarified, and I feel
much more confident knowing I’ve drawn on the example of so many of my peers and
crafted my activities with as much intentionality as I could have.
Another aspect of leadership I was really able to focus on in this environment
was finding balance in my relationship with students. A lot of my experience in
teaching has been with students younger than myself, and I also think personally I
have a tendency to jump into a “teacher mode” when I know I am going to be public
speaking or in charge of a group. I haven’t been pushed in many cases to walk the line
of peer and teacher, which is part of why I was excited to take on this opportunity. I
learned a lot from my interactions with the other Peer Educators themselves; the
initial friendship we built on the Retreat followed by the classroom dynamic of
teaching and learning from each other as we made lesson plans was something I drew
upon when I thought about what my language and approach should be with my
students. Claire and Nadra were also a great model for me because I personally feel
very supported by them in a professional/academic sense but also find them
approachable and friendly. When I looked back at my lesson plans, I noticed how much
those examples impacted me in comparison to my past teaching roles. I really like
guidelines/spreadsheets/etc so most of my past teaching materials are very methodical
and in-depth, but they’re kind of “sterile” in a way and lack mention of my personality
or my experience. I’m really happy with how I’ve learned to incorporate those things in
our lesson plans, and I feel like the value of that component in a classroom has become
really clear to me. I will certainly integrate more of that element into my other
teaching, even if less explicitly peer-based, going forward.
The other major thing I think I really improved on this quarter is a bit more
technical, but still really important. I feel like I found my stride in achieving depth in
preparation and minimalism in presentation. One of the offshoots of my typically
methodical attitude toward teaching is pretty detailed information that, thinking back,
could have been overwhelming to my audience. Utilizing lesson plans at all is
something I’ve never done before, and I think I’ve learned how to employ that tool
really effectively to combat information overload. Through talking with peers as well, I
realized the slideshows I was initially envisioning for my class would be extremely
text- and info- heavy by comparison. In response, I channeled my minor detail
thoughts into my lesson plan space, and tried to be as minimal as possible in what I
presented on the screen to keep the focus on myself. I think this is also important for
the “peer” aspect of the role, because talking as a “presenter” versus a peer are very
different tones and styles. Ultimately, I think I’ve become much more strategic and
intentional in how I conduct myself in a classroom space and how I present
information, which I’m really grateful for and plan to apply in schoolwork presentation
contexts as well.