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Megan McConnell, Supplemental Instruction Mentor

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Megan McConnell, Supplemental Instruction Mentor

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Hello everyone! My name is Megan and I am a fourth-year Biological Sciences major with minors in Chemistry and Political Science. I am graduating at the end of April and will be attending veterinary school at the University of Illinois in the fall. Outside of school and work, I enjoy going to concerts, playing video games, and spending time with my two cats, Yoshi and Waluigi.

I have been working for the Learning Commons as an SI Leader for five semesters and as an SI Mentor for two semesters. I have a passion for peer leadership and mentorship as well as the SI position, so I have thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to better support my mentees this semester by incorporating the Appreciate Education framework.

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What does appreciative mentorship mean to me?

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What does appreciative mentorship mean to me?

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Appreciative mentorship means building meaningful relationships with others to help them reach their full potential. This involves truly getting to know my mentees, individualizing my approaches to encouraging and uplifting each of them, and using my own knowledge and experience to support them through challenges - all while making sure that they know how important and valued they are.

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Disarming creates an environment where mentees feel comfortable opening themselves up to mentorship, learning, and growth. It helps builds the trust and rapport needed to effectively support them.

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1. How are you feeling today?
2. What is one good thing and one bad thing that happened to you this week?
3. What are you looking forward to today, this week, this month, or this year?

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At the very beginning of the semester, I sent out a welcome email to all of my mentees prior to our first meeting. In this email, I included some information about me, clear and concise information about our meeting time and place, expressions of excitement for the semester, and gratitude for my mentee's commitment to helping students.

My goal was to break the ice and make sure that my mentees knew who I was and that I was there to support them. I wanted to calm any nervousness associated with our first meeting, as it was new and different for some of my mentees. I also wanted to recognize them for their commitment to helping their students so they could start off their semester feeling inspired and valued.

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The discover phase allows for a better understanding of who mentees are, why they are working in their position, what they want to get out of it, and what obstacles they may face. This information can all be used to cater mentorship to each individual.

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1. Why were you initially interested in this position and what keeps you coming back?
2. What activities outside of school and work give you a sense of fulfillment?
3. Tell me about an impactful experience you've had. What made it impactful?

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The dream phase creates a space for mentees to uncover their skills, strengths, and talents and connect them to a world of possibilities. It helps them realize what they want to get out of their lives, related to their careers or not.

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The design phase helps mentees develop plans to reach their goals by helping them become effective decision-makers, encouraging them to keep going in the face of obstacles, instilling confidence, and ensuring they have a network of support.

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The deliver phase holds mentees accountable in achieving their goals by continuously motivating them, showing them how far they've already come, and helping them rearrange or refine their goals as they attempt to reach them.

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Don't Settle keeps mentees' expectations for themselves high. It ensures that they continue to set and meet goals, challenging themselves to go bigger and better every time. It's also about celebrating their hard work and dedication!

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1. Where do you see yourself, both personally and professionally, in ten years?
2. What impact do you want to leave on your students and the SI program?
3. How do you define success?

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1. What is one small thing you can do this week to reach your goal?
2. What skills or strengths do you have that you can directly utilize to reach your goal?
3. Who can you reach out to if you encounter a difficulty in reaching your goal?

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1. What is one small thing you have done in the past week to reach your goal?
2. What is one strategy you've used to keep yourself motivated to reach your goal?
3. Tell me about one thing that has gone well in your role.

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1. Has there ever been a time when you thought you couldn't accomplish something, but did?
2. If I challenged you to be the best SI leader you possibly could, what would you do differently?
3. What have you learned this semester that will help you grow even more next semester?

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Discover Artifact - Mentee Information Form

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Discover Artifact - Mentee Information Form

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At our first mentor meeting, I had my mentees fill out a Microsoft Form with information about themselves. This included questions about their academic and non-academic interests, experience level within the position, and experiences and commitments outside of the position. I also added a place for them to ask any questions or express any concerns about the position.

With this information, I could immediately begin individualizing my mentorship of each mentee. I was able to better understand when my mentees were feeling burnt out or facing certain challenges and cater my advice to the specific situation.

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Don't Settle Artifact - Critical Reflection

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Don't Settle Artifact - Critical Reflection

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The "What? So What? Now What?" method of reflection is encouraged by the University Honors Program to effectively understand how an experience has impacted you and explicitly focuses on how this impact can be carried throughout future experiences. At our final meeting of the semester, I asked my students to reflect on their semester as SI leaders using this framework because it would help them continue to grow as SI leaders and use their newly developed skills to improve as people, both personally and professionally.

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Deliver Artifact - "Grow" and "Glow" Observation Feedback

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Deliver Artifact - "Grow" and "Glow" Observation Feedback

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When providing SI leaders with feedback after they are observed, the program utilizes a "grow" and "glow" framework. Mentees are provided with one thing they did really well, and one thing they could improve on. This helps mentees celebrate their successes, while also holding them accountable to improve in a specific area.

In my mentor meeting after the conclusion of observations, I was sure to ask each of my mentees for one thing they have already done or can do to improve on the "grow" that they were given.

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Design Artifact - "S.M.A.R.T." Goal Setting

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Design Artifact - "S.M.A.R.T." Goal Setting

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During Week 6 of the semester, after mentees had time to adjust to their roles, I had them each create two goals that they wanted to achieve by the end of the semester: one within their role, and one related to professional development and their future careers. I had them use the S.M.A.R.T. goal template to ensure that these goals were specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time oriented. This way, they could have a more clear-cut vision of how the goal would be achieved and why they wanted to reach the goal in the first place.

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This article explains how to make an effective "vision board" - a visual representation of a person's dreams, used to better understand what they want to get out of life and encourage them to go after it. This was not an activity that I used with my mentees this semester, but I have used it personally and recommended that my mentees experiment with it. I plan to use this in my future mentorship endeavors.

I love that vision boards do not have to be extremely focused, and can include many different kinds of dreams. They can help mentees visualize their desires so that they can be narrowed down and refined into specific goals.

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Vision board ideas and examples are incredibly useful and inspirational when making your own. I've designed this post to show you how to make your own vision boards and how to use them to maximize your visualization practice!

Also known as dream boards, these simple devices are one of the most valuable visualization tools available to you. The inspirational collages serve as your image of the future - a tangible example, idea or representation of where you are going. They should represent your dreams, your goals, and your ideal life.

Your brain will work tirelessly to achieve the statements you give your subconscious mind. And when those statements are the affirmations and images of your goals, you are destined to achieve them! - Jack Canfield

By representing your goals with pictures and images you will actually strengthen and stimulate your emotions because your mind responds strongly to visual stimulation... and your emotions are the vibrational energy that activates the Law of Attraction. The saying "A picture is worth a thousand words," certainly holds true here.

If you have already defined your dreams, it's time to illustrate them visually.

What is a Vision Board?

A vision board is a visualization tool which refers to a board of any sort used to build a collage of words and pictures that represent your goals and dreams.

They can be bought from a professional supplier or made with cork or poster boards. By placing visual representations of your goals into one space, you can easily visualize them frequently. Remembering to look at them daily and imagine them as if they have already come true is one of the best ways to activate the Law of Attraction.

How Do You Use a Vision Board for Goal-Setting?

The best way to achieve your goals is to keep them top of mind, so you're always looking for ways to move yourself closer to them - and a vision board is the perfect tool to help you do that.

By putting a vision board somewhere you can see it every day, you will prompt yourself to visualize your ideal life on a regular basis. And that's important because visualization activates the creative powers of your subconscious mind and programs your brain to notice available resources that were always there but escaped your notice. Through the Law of Attraction, visualization also magnetizes and attracts to you the people, resources, and opportunities you need to achieve your goal.

By adding a visualization practice to your daily routine, you will naturally become more motivated to reach your goals. You'll start to notice you are unexpectedly doing things that move you closer to your ideal life. Suddenly, you find yourself volunteering to take on more responsibility at work, speaking out at staff meetings, asking more directly for what you want, and taking more risks in your personal and professional life - and experiencing bigger pay-offs.

It's pretty cool stuff!

How to Create a Vision Board that Depicts the Future You Wish to Create

Find pictures that represent or symbolize the experiences, feelings, and possessions you want to attract into your life, and place them in your board. Have fun with the process! Use photographs, magazine cutouts, pictures from the Internet-whatever inspires you. Be creative. Include not only pictures, but anything that speaks to you.

Consider including a picture of yourself on your board. If you do, choose one that was taken in a happy moment. You will also want to post your affirmations, inspirational words, quotations, and thoughts here. Choose words and images that inspire you and make you feel good.

You can use your vision board to depict goals and dreams in all areas of your life, or in just one specific area that you are focusing on. Keep it neat, and be selective about what you place in your vision board. It's a good idea to avoid creating a cluttered or chaotic board... you don't want to attract chaos into your life.

Use only the words and images that best represent your purpose, your ideal future, and words that inspire positive emotions in you. There is beauty in simplicity and clarity. Too many images and too much information will be distracting and harder to focus on.

If you are working on visualizing and creating changes in many areas of your life, then you may want to use more than one vision board. You might use one for your personal goals and another for career and financial goals. You might even want to keep your career vision board at the office or on your desk as a means of inspiration and affirmation. Whatever you decide to do, learning how to make a vision board - and using it regularly - is the best way to visualize your ideas and dreams to fruition.

Here's My Simple 6-Step Process for Making Empowering Vision Boards:

1) Create a list of goals you'd like to achieve in the next year

In order to visualize your goals, first you need to know what they are. Spend some time getting clear on exactly what you want your ideal life to look like, and what you need to accomplish in the next 12 months to launch you closer to your goals.

Chapter 2: "Be Clear Why You're Here," and Chapter 3: "Decide What You Want," in my best-selling book, The Success Principles, can help you with this process.

You can also use this simple 4-step meditation technique to meditate for clarity and intuition.

2) Collect a bundle of old magazines with beautiful pictures

If you're not a magazine reader or currently don't have any magazines at home, ask your friends to give you any they no longer want. You should also be able to pick some up for just a dollar or two per magazine at your local thrift store. Or you could check out your local recycling depot. Ours has a "free stuff" corner where you can pick up all the magazines you could ever want at zero cost. Maybe yours does, too?

3) Find pictures that represent your goals and inspire you

Schedule a couple hours one evening or weekend to go through the magazines and cut out pictures that represent your goals and speak to your heart in some meaningful way. Fun tip: The last time my staff and I made vision boards at my office, we turned up the radio and had a little musical party going on as we cut out our images, which made it a very vibrant, fun setting to visualize our goals!

When looking for images in the magazines, look for those that immediately make you say, "Yes! That is what I want in my life!" They don't have to be physical objects or literal interpretations of what you want in your life. Instead, focus on how the images make you FEEL.

For example, if you'd like to move to a home with waterfront property, don't worry if you can't find a picture of your perfect "dream home." Perhaps a picture of an idyllic ocean sunset will be enough to inspire you. Or if you'd like to attract a new romantic partner into your life, instead of hunting for a picture of a man or woman who meets your physical ideal, find a picture that represents love to you - an image of two people holding hands, or even a picture of a heart, for example.

4) Make a collage out of your photos

Once you have collected enough photos, it's time to make your vision board! Go to your local craft or dollar store and buy a large piece of construction or poster paper. A cork board or large piece of paper would work as well. Then glue, tack, or tape your pictures to the paper or cork board in an arrangement that is visually pleasing to you.

5) Add motivational "affirmation words" that represent how you want to FEEL

Your vision of your ideal life shouldn't be focused on "stuff" so much as on how you want to FEEL. For this reason, I like to add words to my vision board that describe how I want to feel on a daily basis - such as: "joyful," "abundant," "powerful," "fearless," "loved," "strong," "healthy," "loving," and "financially free."

Take some time to create a list of words that describe how YOU want to feel. You can either search for these words in your magazines or write them yourself. Then add them to your vision board in a visually attractive way.

6) Take a few moments to contemplate your vision board every day

To get the full benefit from your vision board, it's important for you to place it somewhere you can see it every day. I recommend you take a few minutes to look over your vision board at least once or twice a day. I like to review my vision board right before I do a guided visualization, so my goals are top of mind as I train my mind to attract what I truly want into my life. I also like to review it every night before I go to sleep, in order to prompt my sub-conscious mind to come up with new ideas while I'm sleeping on how to achieve my goals. That way, I wake up in the morning bursting with motivation to succeed - and am far more likely to notice and act on opportunities that will bring me closer to my goals.

How to Use Your Dream Board

Try keeping your vision board on the nightstand next to your bed. Leave it standing in an open position as often as you are comfortable with, and spend time each morning and evening visualizing, affirming, believing, and internalizing your goals.

The time you spend visualizing in the evening just before bed is especially powerful. The thoughts and images that are present in your mind during the last forty-five minutes before going to sleep are the ones that will replay themselves repeatedly in your subconscious mind through¬out the night, and the thoughts and images that you begin each day with will help you to create a vibrational match for the future you desire.

As some time goes by, and your dreams begin to manifest, look at those images that represent your achievements, and feel gratitude for how well the Law of Attraction is working in your life. Acknowledge that it is working. Don't remove the pictures or images that represent the goals you've already achieved. Achievement of the goals in your vision board are powerful visual reminders of what you have already consciously and deliberately attracted into your life.

I recommend you write down the date you created your dream board. The universe loves speed, and you will be amazed at just how quickly the Law of Attraction responds to your energy, commitment, and desires. Much like a time capsule, this board will document your personal journey, your dreams, and your achievements for that particular year. It will become a record of your growth, awareness, and expansion that you will want to keep and reflect back upon in years to come.

It's a good idea to create a new inspiration board each year. As you continue to grow, evolve and expand, your dreams will too. Your vision board is meant to be kept and cherished. They chronicle not only your dreams, but your growth and achievements.

Completed Vision Board Example:

Here is an example of what my personal vision board looks like in my office on the back of my door.

You can use this as a template to create your own inspiration board.
Final thoughts on using your completed vision board:

Look at your dream board often and feel the inspiration it provides.

Hold it in your hands and really internalize the future it represents.

Read your daily affirmations and inspirational words aloud.

See yourself living in that manner.

Feel yourself in the future you have designed.

Believe it is already yours.

Be grateful for the good that is already present in your life.

Acknowledge any goals you have already achieved.

Acknowledge the changes you have seen and felt.

Acknowledge the presence of God in your life.

Acknowledge the Law of Attraction at work in your life.

Look at it just before going to bed and first thing upon rising.

I hope I've inspired you to create your own vision board. Your ability to visualize your dreams will serve as a catalyst in their creation.

Where Can I Buy a Vision Board Online?

If you would like to use a high-quality vision board that can be folded, I have a really nice one available in my shop. It's part of my Law of Attraction System, which includes audio and video programs along with 2 of my favorite books to help you harness the power of visualization and stay focused on achieving your vision board goals.

We also have a great vision board for kids so your whole family can set goals together. You can check it out here.

I've also created a FREE checklist pdf to make your vision board more powerful. It contains a 21 point list of tips to create an actionable vision board that will help activate the Law of Attraction and multiply its empowering efforts. Remember, the best way to achieve your goals is to keep them top of mind, so you're always looking for ways to move yourself closer to them - and a vision board is the perfect tool to help you do that.

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How to Create an Empowering Vision Board | Jack Canfield

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Vision board ideas and examples are incredibly useful and inspirational when making your own. I've designed this post to show you how to make your own vision boards and how to use them to maximize your visualization practice! Also known as dream boards, these simple devices are one of the most valuable visualization tools available to you.