Relating Everything to Spring Break

This past week I spent Spring Break on a Lakota Indian reservation in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. This explains why I am waiting until the last minute Sunday night to submit my blog post. While on the reservation, I had time to mull over what Shelby and Stephanie talked about in class as well as the Harlem Shake information that Allie talked about before the lesson. When it comes to the Harlem Shake, I learned that we have to consider the culture it came from before we use it for anything. I think that it would be okay for us to use it because if we are sort of mature about it, we aren’t insulting the Harlem culture where it originated. Furthermore, I think that we are making enough changes that it isn’t really the Harlem Shake but a variation of it. As long as we give credit to the original, there should be no problems with it. Finally, I think the Harlem Shake can be an ice breaker or a learning tool. While I was in Eagle Butte, the teenagers I interacted with were distant from us because they knew we were just here for a week. By Friday though, they were more accepting of us. On Friday, we ended our time with them by doing the Harlem Shake which they were strongly willing to do. I feel that if we had done the Harlem Shake earlier, we might have let them know that we weren't just here for a project; we were there to help them and have fun.

Shelby and Stephanie asked “How can you apply knowing your learning style and the strategies associated with it to improving your academic success?” The answer is that if you know how you like to learn as well as possible inhibitors to your learning, you can adjust your study habits to fit the style. For example, if you know that you like lecture style classes, you can adjust your class schedule to match those types of classes. I am happy to know my learning style and the strategies I use, so I am improving my academic success. I am still learning, however, so there will always be room for more improvement. I can also apply this knowledge to the Lakota reservation that I was at last week. A lot of the teenagers have trouble academically. This relates to the fact that educators on the reservation do not do a great job, and the fact that parents on the reservation do not motivate their children to do well. If the teens knew these possible inhibitors to their success, then possibly they could find ways around them to enable their success. Furthermore, some of the teens do not know of their learning style. I feel that education on this as well as education on possible academic success strategies could help the teenagers in the future. Relating this to diversity and culture, I know that life on the reservation is drastically different than college life or life where most of the peer mentors grew up, but I still feel that these strategies could help the teenagers there. After interacting with these teenagers over the past week, I have found that I really want to help them with the issues that surround them, and I feel that the skills I have as a peer mentor could help me with that.