Please indicate the student skill areas that you feel you influenced through this project.
10 - Improved math comprehension and ability
31 - Improved science comprehension and ability
28 - Improved written communication skills
31 - Improved basic research skills
21 - Improved project management skills
26 - Improved collaboration skills
Please indicate if your mentoring support aided your student in the following areas.
18 - Better understanding of a professional work environment
9 - Improved awareness of post-secondary educational opportunities
13 - Increased desire to research and plan for post-secondary education
25 - Improved awareness of the value of a professional support network
The average quality of the messages received from students throughout the project.
3.69
Did your student share a final product (presentation, research report, plan, etc) with you for this project?
1 - N/A
6 - Yes
25 - No
Average level and quality of assistance received from the teacher throughout the project.
4.22
Average level and quality of assistance you received from Mentored Pathways staff throughout the project.
3.59
Things either the teacher or the Mentored Pathways Staff do to make a similar project more successful.
Create more "checkpoint" projects (i.e. a few slides or something written) that is concrete for the mentor to help out with. For example, ask students to make a few slides on project ideation, research, etc.
Create more formal graded checkpoint projects (i.e. summaries or powerpoint of various stages of project)
I think the level of support was more than adequate
All was great. Marnie could not possibly do any more.
nothing additional. Marnie's updates were perfect.
During the year I never got to see any of the work my student presented. He did not use the file sharing area on the telementor web site. I was reluctant to contact the teacher as I honestly did not have background info. on the student and did not want to make the experience a painfull obligation for him.
I know in the early staged of the project there was an issue of sharing/ accessing files between the students and mentors. Later the teacher and ITP staff were able to coordinate the use of Google Docs and ITP website "file sharing area" to accomplish the above.
Parts of the science project schedule did not seem clear to me (but perhaps they were to the student) - I did not know how long the experiments were going to run, and given the time frame may have pushed my student to choose something that would have been a better fit within that schedule.
The teacher and ITP did an excellent job communicating throughout the program...
Loved the weekly messages from the teacher! Those are most helpful. I loved getting a reminder email Tuesday to write if I had not already.
More guidance eariler in the project would have been helpful.
Essentially, I found the teacher reminders to keep in contact with the mentees to be insulting and annoying.
I thought the teacher on this project was much more engaged than other projects I have been on and I think that really made a difference.
Tips from the teacher on what students were working on and what specific areas of feedback from the mentors would be most helpful was good guidance for me. I think additional tips from ITP staff would be helpful for keeping motivated and working through kinks with students, e.g. "what to do if your student ..." I could have requested specific guidance on my student (rarely addressed any questions or prompts for things to think about) but am guessing many mentors encountered what are probably routine bumps in the road. If the ITP staff has seen these, it would be nice to hear some tips for working through these at intervals during the year. Also now seeing the questions regarding impact on math learning and post-secondary education, occasional reminders to encourage the students on these topics would be helpful too. We ended up almost completely focused on the project.
I realize the importance of messaging the students regularly. However at times I felt like I was being reprimanded when I didn't have time to message. A short note from ITP would have been sufficient. Instead I received a long dissertation. I also received a message about you not wanting to use back up mentors, right after I got back from vacation, which I had already notified ITP. You must realize that there are times we wont be available.
This was the first year for this teacher I think. I would suggest that the teacher follow the student/mentor messages more closely and be quick to reinforce what them mentor is requesting of a student. It was difficult at the beginning of this project to get the student to be more responsive - eventually we got there, but it was frustrating for a period of time.
So there were times I received notices that I needed to send my mentee a note because I had gone over the number of days allotted. I would like this counter to not include weekends for us and holidays.
Feedback regarding the quality of the student's final project as well as suggestions for improvement.
She was good at responding to my questions and incorporating my comments. She sent me several drafts, but I had to ask about the final outcome.
Really great work! More emphasis needed on professional writing (i.e. not using words like, kind of, really, etc)
Really awesome final project. More time in the class should have been focused on how to display data (i.e. making graphs in excel) and how to gain meaning from data.
I was able to provide recommendations for change to his final presentation which he accepted and made.
Maybe I'm daft. I assume you can use the upload area to share any kind of file ppt,doc,xls etc.. I did not get to see my students final project and again maybe I don't know what I'm doing. I assume we are not to have contact with the students outside of the telementor website.
The student has always been very enthusiastic in the project. A better road map for them with designing the experiment and sharing this with the mentors would have helped. It seemed they really only handed off information when they had finished the experimental part and not at the design phase. The presentation would have been more professional and meaningful if early components were worked out with more detail/ design.
The final project was great. It had lots of detail in it and the student and their group ended up with more than I thought was possible and surprised me.
I didn't see the final, final project but I did see an earlier version which I provided detailed feedback on.
I was very impressed with the students work - especially when it was "group time"!
Ricky is awesome. Very smart and has a bright future ahead of him. No matter what he does he will succeed.
Brady and his team had a great presentation. I think the pictures, along with the graphs showed a lot, but also know that it didn't show exactly what they were hoping for. I think that if they had a better place to have done the experiment, the outcome would of even been better.
It was good to see revisions as the student prepared for the final presentation. It would be nice to have started this eariler, for example before the experiments, so that the student had an idea of how they wanted to present their results (and herefore what they wanted to get out of the experiment).
I think the student did a nice job and showed a high level of commitment. I was impressed with his report and the results.
I think Ally did a great job.
I thought their final project was good. Although the results the group obtained were not what they were hoping for it was a good learning experience for the kids. They were able to see they could learn something from an experiment even if it did not give you the expected results.
It was great having access to the final project through google documents and being able to provide very specific feedback. I saw great improvements over the weeks they worked on it, including some directly related to mentor feedback. Overall I was very impressed with what they put together.
I think the project could have used a larger sample size. Otherwise it was good.
It went well. I think the experiment in this case was not set up as well as it could have been. The original timelines for experiments wasn't clear in terms of when the class schedule was during the day, how the students would conduct their experiment - how much time they had to conduct their experiment or gather data each day would have been helpful. In this case, if I had access to that information early on I would have directed the student to simplify their experiment even more. Changes were driven by the teacher that impacted the ability to do this because changes were made late and not communicated clearly. Overall, this was probably too big a project for a first time, still a good learning experience all around.
good project.
I had high hopes at the beginning of the project but communication regarding progress in their research, research design and simply trying to figure out what they wanted to accomplish was difficult at best. From communication from Marnie I know they had received great instructions and direction. My student was very personable but had trouble figuring out what his group was doing.
Overall experience in the program.
4.31
Would you consider mentoring new students in the future?
1 - No
31 - Yes
Why or why not.
It's nice to see the progression of the students' work.
I've been a part of the telementor program for 2-3 years now and have loved it!
I really enjoyed this mentoring project!
I enjoy hearing about the student's successes, as well as seeing them grow throughout the project.
I love the program. I'd like to stay involved.
I enjoyed sharing with my student. His group was doing a colorometric assay to find pesticides in supermarket produce. I probably should have contacted his teacher to get them a real positive control. I like hands on better than remote with kids especially in 8th grade. I think the more I do this perhaps the better I'll get at it. I have had mixed results. This time was better than the past couple of times.
4 out of the 5 times, I have found the students to be very engaged in the work and value from the interactions with the mentor. This student was very enthusiastic and there was never a need to motivate. My job was easier and required only focusing that momentum.
It gives a very real dimension to screen time. Students could be sitting in front of a computer doing so many things, but I think this program bridges the screen to real life. The students talk about their lives, not just the subject. They might talk about their mentors at the dinner table... it makes education real for them, no matter what the topic is.
To make a difference
I enjoy the program and ability to serve very much.
This program I truly believe helps the students learn from someone other than just their teacher and parents. It is also a 'safe' environment for them to practice written communication, that may be becoming a lost art with this age group.
I like helping
It is always rewarding helping the students out. It was pretty hard this time, with the length of the program. So I think I would pick a program that is shorter next time.
Very rewarding for a small investment of time.
I like providing role modeling and I also learn a lot from the students.
It's a great way to share real life experience with a student to better prepare them for the future!
I did not care for the impersonal feeling of long-distance mentoring, I found the teacher reminders to be offensive and annoying, and I honestly don't think I helped much.
Because these students have been so much more engaged than some of my other projects.
It's nice to stay engaged in science and education when I would otherwise be so far removed, and seeing progress over the year is rewarding. The bright spots were more infrequent than I was expecting but the outcome was still worth the effort.
I enjoy interacting with the students.
yes
It is one of those...I will consider it at the time. Right now, probably not for awhile.
The most rewarding aspect of participating.
I liked connecting with the students on both a personal and professional (teacher/student) level. It's also nice to hear when they say they learned something from their interactions with me as a mentor.
Seeing the final presentation and receiving the thank you note. It would be neat in the future if the presentation night could be webcast so that mentors could watch as well.
The thank you note & seeing how the project evolved over time.
The student thanked me, and said I helped him with the project and he was glad I communicaed with him regularly.
My student sent me a message indicating how much he appreciated my support and how much my support had helped him. That's reward enough.
In 8th grade kids are just kind of starting to wake-up and form personalities. In some cases the naive enthusiasm of Andy(my student) was refreshing. For example: He was excited to find pesticides on produce till I pointed out to him that perhaps you don't want to find bad stuff on the food you or others are eating. He changed his tune but kept his curiousity and stayed enthused.
The student was working in a group of three and they postulated, designed and executed the experiment. The result was rather inconclusive, but they should not feel this was a failure in design since the time was too limited to execute a "trial" that could have taken months to run with potentially no better results. In other words, they aimed high and the results were not fine for such a tough question to answer.
When things click for the student, and they realize that they are capable of something new.
Being able to contribute to Ayden's understanding of science and data interpretation.
Seeing my student get excited about his research and presentation. Hearing that my feedback made a difference to his experience and the quality of his final project.
weekly growth and thoughts of the student
Relationship building
Knowing that I am helping in some way to get them through a project.
Seeing the changes in teh student's thinking over the course of the project
student's collaboration and notes
Seeing that my student was able to understand the process of conducting research, and to think through to link the scientific question with conducting a clearly designed experiment and then to consider reasons that results were somewhat unexpected.
Jessica's final message to me was heartwarming. I really feel like she benefited from having a mentor.
Knowing that my suggestions were taken seriously and much appreciated!
Moments of personal connection with the student and seeing my feedback have an impact on the student's thinking and project documents.
communicating with the student
knowing that I helped someone
Sawyer was the most verbal of the students I have mentored and the smartest.
The most difficult aspect of participating.
It was hard to keep up with the twice-weekly communications, especially when there was no feedback from the student.
Some weeks there didn't seem to be much for the mentor to help out with. It would be helpful to have more formal checkpoints that the mentor could help with.
Not being able to see the project as a working document the whole school year - we only got to see the project in the last few weeks.
keeping up with the weekly emails. I encountered wome issues with family being sick, and this took my focus away for 2 or 3 weeks.
Nothing, really.
Not being able to see the maze that the girls built.
I could not file share. I sentWeb sites and letters but never got to see a file or report from my student.
Addressing some of the technical aspects the student had regarding sharing of files/data in the early stages of the project. The student was clearly frustrated that they could not see my information that I had prepared and vice versa.
Being patient with the student as they learn, and waiting, anticipating that moment when it all comes together. It almost always does, and it is a sign of success.
messages do not always respond to previous message
My student didn't always know how to ask for help. Several updates consisted of "I'm working on it, I'll let you know." This is more common in working with male students. I have found that they sometimes need more help in responding and engaging.
forgetting to post, or not being able to post immediately so she could get the message right away. It might be nice to know the exact time they are posting in the classroom, so I could schedule meetings around it.
Seemed impersonal
The length of the project and me being so busy with work, not being able to keep up with contacting Brady on a regular basis.
Lack of guidance early in the semester on what was expected
just keeping up with the time and responding quickly. Apologies for delays at times
My own logistics in changing jobs and having an unanticipated level of travel.
Ensuring that I was getting my point accross through messaging. Always more challenging when interactions can't be face to face!
Add skype or some other additional way of interacting. And get the teacher off the mentors' backs!
I volunteered for two different projects and keeping up with both was difficult at times.
Encouraging the student to think about other aspects or details of the project with rare acknowledgement or response. The student would frequently respond to chit-chat personal questions but almost never addressed project- related questions or suggestions.
sometimes it is difficult to message 2 or 3 times per week, especially when I have a busy schedule and when I have not heard from my student I don't have anything to comment on.
Feedback from mentee was limited. Mentee was not comfortable to drive the relationship, tell me what she wanted, etc. What kind of communication is given to these students to let them know how to handle the mentor/mentee relationship? Having multiple students from the same project made me want to avoid duplication of messages. In the future, i would be interested in mentoring a group as opposed to a single person, if that is possible, but one email address to the group would be better than individual emails.
Getting straight answers and gaps in Sawyer answering questions.
First time you've been part of a formal mentoring program.
29 - No
3 - Yes
