How are you thinking?

            A stranger gets on the bus and we can immediately notice several things about them. Are they male/female, black/white/Asian/Latino, short/tall, skinny/fat, and the list goes on and on.  We soak in visual cues and without hesitation make reference to where we have seen that appearance or behavior before.  Then our mind is thinking about everything associated with that memory or idea that is in our head.  It’s been maybe three whole seconds and we have already created an image of this person in our head of what they may or may not be outside of what we can observe.

            While I was growing up I also considered myself to be tolerant and never liked to think of people as black or white, that was just the way there are and it made no difference to me.  I had been in racial diverse school up until 8^th grade.  I thought I had seen it all.  Then I moved to a small town with its population being predominately white.  I can remember thinking of the kids that drove big four wheel drive trucks to school as “hicks” or farmers that wore nothing but flannels and wranglers and listened to country music 24/7. Truth is, some did, but not all of them.

            After our diversity event last Wednesday I have been thinking about how I think.  As much as I might hate to admit it, I often assume things about people just by looking at them.  I love to over analyse what people are wearing, what kind of phone they have, if they say “please and thank you”, and I think about how that could contribute to their personality.

 One of the kids that lives next door to me go is 17 year old African American that goes to high school here in Ames.  The first time I saw him hanging around outside first thought was “what this strange person is doing outside my apartment.”  I’d be lying if I didn’t think about the stereotypes associated with black males. What was important was what I did with that thought, I put it to the back of my mind and made the conscious decision to assume the best.  As it turns out he’s a good kid that likes to play football and works at the McDonalds just down the block.

            I believe that as a human being it is critical that we constantly challenge our thoughts and impressions that we put onto others every single day.  But as a peer mentor it is absolutely essential that we have a clear understanding of diversity in our classroom and how we think.  We have the ability to peel back the layers of what we think we know about people and we can attempt to understand who they are.  We should challenge ourselves every day to get to know our mentees and co-mentors so that the only assumptions we can make are the ones we have experienced.

~Easten

Digital Story Telling

Lights, Camera, Action! We have the opportunity to create a story to send a message and practice some valuable skills.  We find creative ways to show experiences that first year students often experience while creating an environment for Hixson’s to build a sense of community and develop skills working in a group.  In this blog you will find advice and some secrets that you can use to add to your Digital Story Telling project.

Start early by getting organized.  Different personality types sometimes prefer to do things closer to a deadline but it is important as a group to establish a timeline for each part of the project.  Knowing that the script should be done by x number of weeks and then filming to follow that creates intermediate deadlines that can motivate those who prefer the pressure accompanied with procrastination.

A schedule is great and all but can often be useless without some accountability.  It can be difficult to find someone who is able and willing to take an authoritative leadership role.  If your group can appoint a “producer” to be in charge of making sure the group is on schedule and delegate task you can ensure a timely production.  This person can be in charge of setting up meeting times and creating the master schedule as well as assigning what part each person will play.

If you’re lucky at least one person in your group will have at least some experience with video editing.  If no one is capable, simply find someone willing. Then have them make their way to http://www.iastate.edu/lynda , login, and take advantage of some of their awesome tutorials on video editing software.

There are vast amounts of resources available out there to help you be a successful short filmmaker.  The communications building has cameras and tri-pods available to check out and best of all, it’s free for ISU students.

This project can seem tedious but it can all come together easily and timely if you can get everyone involved and make an effort to have fun with it.

~Easten