Embarking as a Peer Mentor

Over the next couple of months, the focus of my blog is going to shift. In my last post, I mentioned that I am going to be a peer mentor for new students starting their SLIS program this fall. I will be a resource, a coach, and a TA all wrapped up in one package. While a little nervous (it's been a long time since I was in charge of a class as a teacher or TA), I'm looking forward to the prospect of helping these students get a firm foot into the door of their program. Online classes are not easy, and any guidance I can give them to get them acclimated to the online learning environment translates to less stress about where to go and how to do things.

During the course of the class, I will be posting regularly on my blog (I seem to be getting a lot of use out of it for my classes this year), but these posts will be tailored more to the taste of new online students. My goal will be to address questions or concerns they may have, and my blog will be filled with my answers and advice for them. I will still sprinkle it with recipes (I can't wait to get cooking in my new kitchen!), and of course dear reader you are welcome to read all of the advice I give and the questions I address. But all in all, expect to see more activity here, at least until late September when this particular class ends.

I did want to also mention this fun list of websites provided by the ALA. It's called the Best Websites for Teaching and Learning. The ALA makes a new list every year. These sites are fun and creative and have the potential for so many uses outside the classroom. Tagxedo, the site I used to create the word cloud in my last post, was on the list in the past, as was Glogster and Prezi. I invite you to go through the list and check out some of the sites listed, even if you are far from a classroom (physical or virtual). I did some exploring and found a really fun presentation-type site called Smore. You can create flyers (for free!) that are much more than your run-of-the-mill, stapled-to-a-lamppost flyer. These flyers are interactive. In addition to text, you can add pictures with captions, embed videos and audio, and list links that visitors can click on. It's a creative way for businesses and non-profits to get their names out, to be sure. But students can use it for organizing report summaries and resources, instructors/teachers could use it for posting weekly assignments or resources relating to class, or (as in my case) TAs can use it to introduce themselves to the class they are working with. It's fun, try it!

I definitely want s'more Smore.