Project Overview

0 - Improved math comprehension and ability
11 - Improved science comprehension and ability
17 - Improved written communication skills
18 - Improved basic research skills
13 - Improved project management skills
14 - Improved collaboration skills

13 - Better understanding of a professional work environment
18 - Improved awareness of post-secondary educational opportunities
16 - Increased desire to research and plan for post-secondary education
13 - Improved awareness of the value of a professional support network

3.56

0 - N/A
4 - Yes
14 - No

3.61

3.72

Clearer guidance on deadlines throughout the project

Communication from the teacher is extremely helpful. It was clear what the students were doing along the way so I could ask questions to help. The teacher also provided suggestions from time to time which was helpful as well.

I think in this case, the teacher was new to Mentored Pathways. The project had fallen behind a few times and this could be due to the additional responsibilities from the Human Body Systems Project. I think there could have been better organization within the project.

Two observations: 1. There seemed to be two projects combined into one. I expected the career development one. I didn't expect to get student and teacher mailings on some of the academic projects the class was doing, and wasn't told what the expectations were. I was happy to provide feedback on lab reports, but was disappointed that things I pointed out (including spelling errors) were rarely fixed. 2. The teacher's messages were very generic, unless I emailed her personally to express concern about my student. I didn't get the impression that the teacher was monitoring the student's communications. This was really apparent when the student wrote an apallingly casual email to a professional whose advice she wanted, without giving me the chance to review it, when she didn't send the suggested thank-you letter to the resource for the reply, and when I very directly told the student she was not communicating enough. Teachers cannot let the mentoring program run by itself!

The Mentored Pathways emails with suggestions on ways to engage the student and provide help were useful.

It would be wonderful if there was a better way to communicate the instructions (different format). It would be nice if each step had a "Student Section" and a "Mentor Section" and not have them combined together.

I felt that Veronica Randall and the Mentored pathways staff were excellent and very communicative.

The teacher reminded the student of the requirement to communicate with the mentor. It is the student's choice whether to use the mentorship in a positive way.

I was disappointed that I was unable to log into Google scholar to view my student's poster. I e-mailed the teacher and never got a response back from her concerning this matter.

This teacher did a great job of communicating with the mentors and keeping her students on track.

Everything went smoothly on this project and the teacher was very helpful and sent information that really facilitated working with the students and helping them to stay on track.

See comments on student Alyssiana on this same project. It was a pleasure to work with this teacher.

a time line would be helpful.

More consistency through out the week. It would be nice to know that I would receive messages on consistent days, instead of at random.

NA

The student's project included all the key elements. The one area where I don't think they found time to address as deeply as they could was related to external contacts.

I was happy that Angelina advised that the project on post secondary education helped her to understand what she must do to be ready after high school to pursue her career.

The quality of the student's final project was excellent! Much thought and work went into planning an outline and timeline for pre-secondary education, required experience for secondary education and veterinary school.

Consistent with her previous work, although a bit better written. It appeared to have been proofread.

I thought the final project was good. Getting more consistant updates and communication from the student would be helpful.

Kalli did such an amazing job and I am so excited for her future. Her final paper was well written and thoughtful, and my only suggestion was to conduct a last minute check for punctuation and grammar.

I felt that Morgin was honest about were she is in her process for future planning. I thought that the grammar and paragraph structuring could use another review. I felt that she had put thought into considering her options.

Student did not share the final project. Student did not communicate with mentor much over the course of the project.

I feel that she finally understood her educational pathway for radiation technologist. She had some pre-conceived notions that were difficult to correct.

This student was fairly easy to work with in terms of her response to feedback and willingness to edit some of her work but her messages were fairly short and she often didn't communicate about all of the parts of the project. I know this because I had another student in the same class who provided me with much more information and submitted work. She sometimes seemed a bit unenthused about the work but was cheerful to communicate with - I'm just not sure how much I really helped!

This student's work was well above average quality and she always strove to make improvements and seek additional feedback on her work. She submitted work far enough in advance for me to work on it thoroughly and when she needed to turn something around very quickly she always gave me a heads up to ask if I could help in that timeframe.

additional thought process behind the experiment verses just answering questions

I don't think I saw a final project. I could be wrong.

4.28

1 - No
17 - Yes

I feel that some of the issues I experienced were due to my own newness with the program

I feel like each time I work with a student the project or focus is different so it makes me think about ways that I can improve my own interactions

There's a bell curve of mentoring experience joy. The ones on the low end (25%) are discouraging; and the ones in the middle provide satisfaction because I do make at least a slight lasting impression. The ones in the high end provide genuine joy; I still remember the ones that happened 17 years ago!

The student seemed to genuinely appreciate my suggestions and help.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with my mentee and felt like my advice was well received.

I enjoy being able to use and share my experiences to help a student in planning for his or her future. This also helps me understand what life is like and the requirements for continuing education for a younger generation.

I would mentor a student again. There will always be some students who are not interested in completing the assignments.

I will be transitioning to new duties in my job so I will be unavailable for some time to mentor students.

Always interesting to do, even with the students who are not as engaged - although it is much more rewarding when students feel committed to their work and ask questions and share work frequently.

It's always a pleasure and a challenge to work with gifted students. They require more time to be put into the program but that extra time is rewarded fivefold by the effort they show and the final work they submit once they've made revisions. I think there is a place for mentoring the less able students but that it is much harder to do that remotely when they struggle with messages or with getting work to a mentor on time for us to give meaningful help. I think the Mentored Pathways program really comes into its own in supporting talented students who seek feedback outside of their families and teachers to get a new perspective on the professional world and who often have questions about general educational success/challenges outside of the project. There is not often a place for these students to ask those kinds of questions and I think having a third party with whom to discuss that can be very helpful/reassuring to them.

I would. I felt like it was too much when I took on two students. Also, it seems like this second semester, I didn't hear from my students as much and it was really time consuming to keep checking my emails to see if I had any messages. Also, they didn't give me much time to help when they had research questions. They usually needed it within a couple days, which was short notice for me. This could have been the student.

Seeing the students' growth throughout the project

This student was very willing to share what they were doing and asked questions of me. This enabled me to focus my answers more.

The ability to influence a student's future and career path is the most rewarding. In addition, the positive experience gained from participating in the project and the student's appreciation for having a mentor.

Planting seeds. My student will recall our work together sometime in the future, and it will make a difference to her then.

I felt that the student learned some life skills that will be beneficial far beyond the scope of the project.

It was so rewarding to see Kalli's excitement and energy for learning more about college and planning for her future.

Being able to assist a student in her journey,

In the beginning when the student was communicating, I was able to point her to different websites to aid in her research.

To see that she finally understood some concepts that I had been showing her about educational pathway.

It was very rewarding to know that I help the student develop critical life skill of researching. Even if she decides to pursue a different career, now she has the tools to help her research it and pursue it with success.

It was interesting to help with a different kind of career area than that on which I usually focus with students.

This student really challenged me to go above and beyond in my research and feedback because she could already do all the basics herself. I didn't need to help much with general college research but instead found that I could help with issues and questions surrounding confidence about post-secondary education and how to select a career when the number of options seems overwhelming.

Meeting motivated high school students

Getting to know the student and helping them plan their future.

Understanding what was needed for input on their projects

Realizing how busy the students are and that they might not be able to engage as frequently.

Feeling the student was much less invested than I was. That makes it hard to write frequent messages and stay invested myself.

Not having a science background.

The most difficult aspect was keeping to the project schedule. There were some setbacks with the dates of each step and my student suffered an injury as well that pushed her work back, but it was overall a very rewarding experience.

Keeping track of where we were in the project with changing deadlines and understanding the expectation of communication from the student.

Getting the student to respond to my emails. I wasn't able to help with much of her project as she didn't share any deliverables with me after the first couple of assignments.

Some days are so busy at work that I do not have time to check my e-mail for student content. I also have many other commitments.

Student communications are a bit haphazard, irregular, and brief. This particular student was a bit better than average.

See comments above about the student. Hard to motivate her to do her best work.

Finding the time to make adequate responses and do enough research that would really help my student excel.

time constraints, As I appreciate all of the teacher communication, I would prefer to have less discussion of how busy she is. The attitude that I feel came across was one of "I have too many things on my plate" for this to be a priority.

Not much consistency. Random emails through out the week and their questions were sometimes very different than what the teacher would write in her emails. To try to message twice a week when I wasn't getting replies from the students.

11 - No
7 - Yes