Please indicate the student skill areas that you feel you influenced through this project.
2 - Improved math comprehension and ability
2 - Improved science comprehension and ability
18 - Improved written communication skills
19 - Improved basic research skills
16 - Improved project management skills
13 - Improved collaboration skills
Please indicate if your mentoring support aided your student in the following areas.
14 - Better understanding of a professional work environment
19 - Improved awareness of post-secondary educational opportunities
20 - Increased desire to research and plan for post-secondary education
14 - Improved awareness of the value of a professional support network
The average quality of the messages received from students throughout the project.
3.24
Did your student share a final product (presentation, research report, plan, etc) with you for this project?
4 - N/A
7 - Yes
10 - No
Average level and quality of assistance received from the teacher throughout the project.
3.76
Average level and quality of assistance you received from Mentored Pathways staff throughout the project.
3.81
Things either the teacher or the Mentored Pathways Staff do to make a similar project more successful.
Often being a mentor feels like a one sided conversation. Either the mentee asks for something you provide information, and you get very little response. I put a lot of time and consideration into my messages and I often only got a response to about 20% of it. Maybe the 100% made a difference but I have no idea and that's discouraging for a mentor.
N/A Cameron Shinn is probably like the gold standard so that is what I compare him to now. He sends personalized messages. The messages that I got from some of the other teachers seemed like automated messages aka group emails only.
I think this was a unique situation in that Kepler could likely benefit more fully from a face to face relationship with a mentor, rather than electronic relationship.
Communicate on Monday mornings the students' goals for the week especially if the schedule changes.
I think the teacher did a good job of keeping us updated. There were a lot of times (testing, lack of computer access, etc.) in-between receiving info from my student, but the teacher usually had notified me of that ahead of time.
Was there enough steps outlined to get the project progress?
1) Ensure more class time for students to work on the project. We lost 2+ weeks to testing and then unfortunatley, the teacher had a family issue and an additional 1+ week was lost (substitute could not use the computer lab). When the students only have 2 class periods a week to communicate, losing that much time is significant. My student did not have a home computer, so she could only work on the project in class, both writing to me and performing research. 2) Continue to keep mentors informed throughout the project of what the students are working on. This was done periodically, but it would have been helpful to have more insights as we were approaching the final project. 3) An example of the final project would have been helpful. 4) It would be helpful to have students share drafts of their final project (presentations) to the mentors for feedback. (Perhaps some students did this, my student did not) 5) I would encourage adding a step or two in the project where students develop questions for professionals in their field of interest to answer and then have the mentors send the questions to professionals. This has been done in other ITP projects and has been very valuable for the students.
Maybe set clearer expectations with student.
Continue the great work of telementor.org ! :)
Unsure, I think providing the link to the career handbook was great. It gave me an avenue to research and help. I have been passing along this to students at Huntington Learning Center. I don't think Huntington is a remedial class but a supplemental class to what is taught.
Provide extra attention on or reinforce the soft skills set that will help fuel their energy, enthusiasm, drive, thirst for knowledge (that I am not effectively able to do due to the nature of limited online feedback).
Nothing all went well. Maybe move the dates when projects slip.
NA
The only thing that was lacking was getting updated project documents from my student (which I have found in other sessions as well).
Feedback regarding the quality of the student's final project as well as suggestions for improvement.
I never saw it so can't say
N/A
n/a
The student did a good job on her own. She asked for very little assistance from me and it was actually difficult to work with her (not that she was difficult -- I am just used to providing more attention and input). My student took initiative and did things on her own without checking in with me or asking for help.
I did not get to see the final presentation, but I did read my student's "reflection essay". I felt she learned a lot through the project, which was really good to see.
My student didn't use me as much as she could. I was surprised that she was able to finish the project. She was happy with the results and that is what counted the most. I also got her to believe she can go to college. Hope this stays with her!
I was highly impressed with the quality of work that I saw from Ethan's project.
Unfortunately, I have not seen my student's final project. The teacher indicated that all the presentations/videos would be posted together by 15May2014, however, I have not received anything as of 20May2014. It appears that there was an issue with uploading the presentations for each individual student. In the future, perhaps the students could use powerpoint (not sure if they used this or not) and share their presentations with the mentors. My student did share a scholarship essay and reflective essay with me. Her scholarship essay was very touching and written from the heart. I provided some edits to enhance the flow of essay.
Didn't get much interaction with him. Felt like there was little sense of urgency on the project.
Zac's work was above average quality - he will do well in school and in life!
There appeared to be a technical glitch in providing a final project. It would have been cool to have seen it. I am sure Henry did well.
Final project was well executed.
Just needed to be more open about what I could do but other than that was good.
NA
It looks like something was posted (McIntyre Block 4 final.m4v.webloc) but I get an error(404 - File or directory not found)when I try to download. I will try again later. Is there any technical solution I need to do to be able to download?
I have not seen the final project, as the teacher said they were not able to individually upload them. The information I did see was very good.
Overall experience in the program.
4.05
Would you consider mentoring new students in the future?
2 - No
19 - Yes
Why or why not.
I will because I'd like to help and make a difference. But I will probably just do 1 mentee at a time because it's a lot to invest when you have no idea if you're even making a difference.
The only reason I might not is due to time committment at work.
prefer face to face mentoring
I believe in the program's mission.
I really enjoy being here for young people, to encourage and support them as a caring adult.
I have done this for so long and I think it does really help the students think outside the box.
Felt this project made a positive contribution
I always enjoy mentoring the students and watching them grow.
I enjoy helping others learn via my life experiences.
This semester I received the best feedback ever as a mentor. I love this program, and wish I could do it full time.
Reading what Henry wrote about his experience with the program was awesome. It motivate me even further although our communication was not fluid. It appears the program helped him see things he did not know about. I am so very glad to help him.
I feel that I cannot connect or impact a student via email.
It is great to help a student be open to and see all the possibilities that are out there for them
The most rewarding aspect of participating.
seeing the student open up and invite me into their world
Helping little ones
sharing information with the student
Nothing for this specific project.
Getting to know my student and why she was choosing to pursue her particular career. As only an 8th grader, I thought she showed great insight how important it is to follow your passion when deciding on a career.
When my student was happy and had more confidence in herself at the end of her project.
The most rewarding aspect was knowing that I was able to help influence and give direction to help Ethan on his future career path.
Learning that my student felt that she learned a lot during our time together and that she appeared engaged in the research process to learn more about a career and developing goals.
The engagement, although limited, was good. I was able to help him connect some dots that he hadn't in the past.
Helping out a student.
Mentoring my student and reading the last letter from him...his reflection...very heart-moving.
Helping the student achieve their goal. Also learning about their interest. Just being available to help.
Helping the student decide his future and firm it up.
Seeing Fatima excited about exploring her career
I always get a huge amount of satisfaction from working one-on-one with a youth and knowing I have in some small way helped to shape his or her future. By far the best program I have been a part of in my adult life.
Helping students and them being exicted about the input I'm porviding.
This student was a challenge but in the end he recognized the value in planning for his future and in 8th grade he now has a plan resulting in adjustments to his high school course selections.
The most difficult aspect of participating.
not getting responses to messages or the content I shared. It was discouraging
Time committment
it was frustrating for me to keep Kepler focued, this is not his fault, but part of his autism - again, I think a mentor would be more effective with this, if the contact was face to face. Emails just aren't the most effect means to impact someone with Autism.
Not hearing from my student... being at a loss for how to help her.
At first we had a lot of good communication, but half-way through that cut way back and I did not hear as much, which made it difficult to engage and stay supportive.
I didn't have enough of a relationship to help her progress on her project.
The most difficult aspect of participating in this project was trying to put into words our own life experiences.
For me, it was my student not having enough class time to really work on this project. Since she only had class time to work on it, missing aobut 3 weeks made the project very challenging. It was also hard to be able to help her with (editing) her final project or seeing the final project.
Getting the interactions past the polite stage.
N/A
the messages
Limited effectiveness due to the nature of being an online only program.
Waiting for progress.
NA
Making time in my schedule.
The appearance of a lazy student, but not the case in the end.
First time you've been part of a formal mentoring program.
19 - No
2 - Yes
