Please indicate the student skill areas that you feel you influenced through this project.
1 - Improved math comprehension and ability
11 - Improved science comprehension and ability
29 - Improved written communication skills
29 - Improved basic research skills
24 - Improved project management skills
24 - Improved collaboration skills
Please indicate if your mentoring support aided your student in the following areas.
15 - Better understanding of a professional work environment
10 - Improved awareness of post-secondary educational opportunities
14 - Increased desire to research and plan for post-secondary education
23 - Improved awareness of the value of a professional support network
The average quality of the messages received from students throughout the project.
3.79
Did your student share a final product (presentation, research report, plan, etc) with you for this project?
0 - N/A
8 - Yes
21 - No
Average level and quality of assistance received from the teacher throughout the project.
4.24
Average level and quality of assistance you received from Mentored Pathways staff throughout the project.
4.21
Things either the teacher or the Mentored Pathways Staff do to make a similar project more successful.
I would still like to see the final presentation Savanna did. Part of it was the project ended right as everyone was breaking for the holidays, so it felt like it just stopped rather than ended.
Urge student to post more often.
N/A
n/a - the support I received was great!
Can't think of a single thing!
When I solicited responses from people outside the program, they weren't allowed to be viewed by the student. This was frustrating as professionals have little time and I would like their input to be read.
The professional surveys were a tough aspect of the project. It was realized that the response rate was low and the project was altered to accommodate. Unfortunately, I know students were frustrated by this result.
ITP Staff as always not sure what else you could do - you are so on top of everything! Mr. Shinn was obviously very excited about this project and it showed. He communicated frequently, and was also very on top of everything.
Having the capability to save unsent messages would be nice. I sometimes start a long message and I am afraid to lose it by closing my browser or navigating away (it has happened). Can mentors have access to the survey results? That would simplify the sharing of replies received.
make presentations available. Not being able to see the final submission is a real flaw in the project process.
More frequent interaction with the teacher early in the project would be helpful. The messages the teacher sent were very helpful for keeping the student on track, but these were relatively few and far between for the first weeks of the project.
From the teacher, I would appreciate more detailed descriptions of what the students are doing week-to-week, and (more importantly) what the teacher is asking the students to communicate to their mentors during pivotal points in the research project. It's sometimes difficult to tell from what the student communicates, if I am giving the kind of support the teacher would like during these points in the project.
I cannot think of something to add here - I thought things went pretty well.
We stumbled a bit on finding leaders in the subject; I also suspect that a great many experts, when solicited through e-mail, either don't have time to respond to a survey or they are skeptical that it's phishing. If other mentors have been successful getting experts to respond I'd love to hear how.
No suggestions, just keep up the great work.
Teacher or ITP Staff can probably look into situations where some students are struggling to make contacts with 'experts' in their area of presentation and maybe provide some pointers to the student and the mentor.I would have liked some help in this area.
As with every project I have worked on with ITP over the past 13 years or so, it is difficult to stick to the original schedule. So, weekly emails about where on the schedule we are would help so we know what to expect from our students.
Mr. Shinn is fantastic - one of the best teachers in the telementoring program by far. He sends timely communications that are both on point and motivational. He keeps us fully informed about each stage of the project and also about particular struggles with the group that he would like us to address with our students. I love signing up for his projects because I know it will be a successful and rewarding experience.
The only thing that I would suggest is having the students graded on their correspondence ... grading the quality of the correspondence may be laborious, but the volume should be relatively easy. As mentors, we are obligated to post two solid messages a week and the students should be held accountable for the same.
One suggestion is to stress to the students the importance of steady class attendance and participation. They need to know that frequent absences are frowned upon in the workplace.
Stress the importance of regular attendance and participation to students
Feedback regarding the quality of the student's final project as well as suggestions for improvement.
I'd love to see the final presentation.
Nia was such a pleasure to work with! She is adorable!!! Also, I like how she was pursuing her passion and picked a topic entirely of her own. Go Nia Go!
Only thing is unfortunately I never received Noah's final product.. he was going to make a short movie/video.. he said he will share the link with me but I never got it.
Keenan created a web page that was viewable and he was quite excited about his content. I believe he could continue to add content to his web pages as he progresses towards his career. The more he learns and researches can all be contained here.
I did not get to see the final project. It would have been nice to see what the end result was. That would give me a better idea of what I can put more focus and emphasis on in the future.
Astonishing!
I thought she was able to get the work done much to my surprise.
She did a good job, although additional effort would have significantly improved the outcome. I know I may have provided too much information in the beginning (complex project selection couple with low student background). The student did grasp the general concepts of the problem and assemble a reasonable project presentation.
My student's final project showed a true effort and the end result was one of the higher quality projects I have seen. The prezi technology is so cool. One of the biggest things I have to remind myself when working with a student in the middle-school age, is that they are just learning to juggle multiple classes and they have many priorities in and out of school. This is not so much a suggestion for the student but more of an observation about working with this age group.
Student's final project was great. She listened to my feedback and did a great job at following my recommendations. By listening to other's presentation, you realize what works or not (too verbose, not enough visuals,...).
I thought Zoe made real and significant progress throughout this project, but the final project presentation was unavailable.
I thought given the student's abilities and experience, the quality of the project was excellent. The student stretched his comfort zone when it came to both researching and presenting.
I was impressed by the quality of my student's final project (a PowerPoint presentation). However, the high quality involved what the student *said* to back up her slides, whereas it was difficult to glean from the slides themselves what she was trying to communicate. I was fortunate enough to be able to view the student's presentation in person, but as most mentors are not able to do that, the students need to be encouraged to communicate a LOT more to their mentors about the verbal component of their presentation.
I think Machaela did a good job on her project - I think it was pretty overwhelming for her at first, but with the help of her teacher and telementor she put it together :)
Ryan did a great job. It would be nice to have been able to
I felt the student was very engaged and the prezi showed this. Her passion for the topic was contagious. Job well done.
The final presentation was fantastic - all credit goes to the student Addy! However I was a little disappointed that she couldn't make any contact with any expert - which would have further enhanced her experience.
Josh's final project was excellent. He could have gleemed a bit more key information from the experts to add to his presentation, but it was concise and entertaining. I have never used Prezi before but now, I think I will explore it for some of my presentations at work. He taught me something!
As often seems to be the case - many of the students run out of time as the final deadlines approach and cut out the step of reviewing their final project with their mentor. I really do think that it should be part of the project schedule to deliver the final project to the mentor a week before the final deadline so that there is time for actual review and comment so we can help out with this last large part of the project - especially as I would love to see the final work that we've been building up to all term!
I was very disappointed as the months went by as my student's level of correspondence diminished with each passing week. He had started out so strong and I had such high hopes, but when he stopped sharing what he was working on, I knew that the die had been cast. Cam was great at addressing my concerns, but at some point, the student has to be responsible for his communications. Ben never shared his final project with me, or his draft for that matter, so I am in the dark as to whether I ultimately made a difference or not. This is not the first experience that I have had with this program where a student started out strong and then failed to share their work with me as time progressed.
Improved language skills: grammar and usage.
Kaylee showed improvement throughout the duration of the project and I was pleased to see her taking an active interest in her research.
I am very pleased with Landon's work and feel that the quality of his work improved throughout the course of the project. He was a little slow to start but really picked up momentum and made a solid effort.
Overall experience in the program.
4.41
Would you consider mentoring new students in the future?
1 - No
28 - Yes
Why or why not.
Whenever my schedule permits, I'm happy to do it. I'm going to be away from my computers for a few weeks, so I'll probably skip January projects, but be back on board after that.
N/A
It's a great experience and a really good way to give back to the community. I never thought or realized how much impact I could have on this kid's life.
I still feel it helps the students.
This is a very worthy endeavor. It is a great mechanism of reaching students and bridging professional/student gap.
I truly enjoy this program. Every project is so different from the last, and being able to complete several projects and work with a diverse group of students and teachers has helped me to be a better mentor. Everyone starts somewhere but I've found those who stick with it and come back project after project are increasingly satisfied with the result. While we the mentors do not intend to enrich their own lives, we can't help but learn from the students and their teachers.
I think of it as a good use of my time as it helps students develop some skills that will be useful in their studies and life.
Simply a matter of hours in the day, sadly. I hope to be able to help out in future quarters.
I was positively impacted by the teacher's praise of how this group of students improved over the course of the semester, due in large part to the mentoring they received. It's good to get confirmation that my time has been well spent!
It is a great program - one I would be interested in helping full time if there was a career opportunity.
Absolutely - even if it makes a small difference to someone, I think it is a wonderful opportunity to give back to the society.
I enjoy it and it keeps me sharp. I have young kids the same age so I can relate and it helps me to understand what they are going through as well.
I enjoy working in the program and get a lot out of guiding students, hearing about their passions and helping them convert ideas into concrete work/projects that have an impact on others.
Of course I will mentor again - I am hooked.
It was a good experience overall. I like the idea of helping/supporting a young person with strengthening their skill development.
I found it very rewarding watching the student learn and develop their skills throughout the project. I enjoyed helping the student learn and plan on participating in this program in the future.
I enjoy working with students and exchanging ideas
The most rewarding aspect of participating.
Positive feedback from the student and the teacher that I am making a difference
Getting to shape young minds
The fact tat I make soemone happy.. I know Noah felt important, like someone listened to him and shared information/points of view, etc
Helping the student: learn more about their topic, learn more about how to organize their approach and project. Seeing them get excited about different things over the course of the project.
Getting feedback from professionals willing to help students they don't know or benefit.
The most rewarding aspect is seeing the development of the student's skills troughout the project. This is usually culminated in a final project in which the student is normally very satisfied.
This time, the big aha moment reward was very different - I was, as always, touched to receive the farewell note from Christa, and I knew that we had a good semester and I had somehow made a small positive difference in her life. The AHA! reward was realizing that I had made learning fun for her. We threw a party, and learned something along the way.
Seeing the project take shape and learning along with the student. Also getting replies from people you don't know but reply to a survey you sent them.
the kids are great and it is wonderful to see them advance as they work on the project. Teaches me a lot too!
Seeing a students skills grow in so short a period of time.
When the student has an epiphany based on research and critical thinking! This happened a couple of times during this project and it was so gratifying - I felt happy on behalf of the student.
Seeing the student move forward positively.
seeing the student's interest grow
Always, working with the students and seeing their growth.
The student saying that she learnt a lot out of this experience and that she was really thankful on being mentored - this was the single most rewarding aspect for me that I could make a difference to someone.
Seeing the development of the student.
Working with Mr Shinn is always rewarding - he is a great guide for his students and they demonstrate that in their communications with us as mentors. I enjoyed learning about both Naples and Fort Collins.
While Ben was corresponding with me in the early stages, I felt that we had connected and it reminded me why I signed up for another tour of duty ;-D. I felt as if I was really making him think about his project in a different light, and he rekindled my love of math.
Seeing the project develop through completion; having a positive impact on the student.
Seeing the final project come together after the student had put in many hours of work.
Seeing the process in action and being able to coach students in a positive way to encourage them to do their best work.
It's always great to share ideas and experiences
As always getting to know the student and providing mentoring is quite fulfilling. I always come away with a sense of satisfaction from working with a student.
The most difficult aspect of participating.
Juggling customer-related travel
Balancing work schedule with timely emails!
Nothing really.... it was literally 10-15min per week.. that's NOTHING and totally doable... Even if it was more I would do it again...100% worth it!
I think sometimes students get stuck and it might be a case of they don't know what they don't know. They don't even know what questions to ask, so they don't ask any questions.
Getting professionals to respond. I had to solict about 30 people to get a meager 4-6 rsponses.
The most difficult aspect is occasionally motivating the student to take initiative to conduct independent research.
The part of the project where my mentee had to create a survey and depend on people that she did not know or have any prior connection with to acknowledge her project and take the survey. I felt bad that she did not receive answers, and there did not seem to be anything I could do to change the situation. Fortunately Mr. Shinn was able to pair her up with a student who did a similar project to use their survey answers. But I felt really bad that she did not receive any replies. I was tempted to find experts on my own and have them fill out the survey... but I also did not want to "cheat" the system. So difficult.
Finding the right people to contact.
time
Interestingly, the asynchronous nature of communication with the student. Would have been almost easier to set aside a block of time each week (though I realize I could have done this myself).
Not always knowing what kind of help the teacher would ideally like from the mentors.
Getting people to send in the surveys!
timing of messages
NA
Carving out time!
Finding the time to respond regularly.
As mentioned - not being able to see the final project was a bit of a disappointment. My student was not always very responsive to specific questions I asked - he kept me informed about the project status but it wasn't always easy to get him to think more deeply about particular aspects of the project.
The inability to have the student correspond with anything meaningful can be frustrating. As all correspondence is via email, the mentor does not have the ability to look the student in the eye and tell them "You matter to me. I want to help, but I need this to be a real partnership". As a Type A person, it is hard not to see a successful conclusion of every endeavor ;-)
Adequate time to devote to do a good job of mentoring the student.
Managing my time between work and keeping up with the student.
I would say that there are students who are frequently absent and this puts them behind on their project.
I didn't really encounter any difficulty while working with Landon. He communicated with me regularly, sometimes even writing from home.
First time you've been part of a formal mentoring program.
26 - No
3 - Yes
