Please select those areas where you witnessed significant improvement for your participating students.
| Yes |
No |
Area of Potential Impact |
| 0 |
1 |
Improved math comprehension and ability |
| 0 |
1 |
Increased registration for advanced math courses |
| 1 |
0 |
Improved science comprehension and ability |
| 0 |
1 |
Increased registration for advanced science courses |
| 1 |
0 |
Improved Communication skills (Written or Oral) |
| 1 |
0 |
Improved subject grades |
| 0 |
1 |
Improved standardized test scores |
| 0 |
1 |
Improved critical thinking skills |
| 0 |
1 |
Improved teamwork |
| 0 |
1 |
Improved school attendence |
| 1 |
0 |
Increase in self-directed learning |
| 1 |
0 |
Increase integration of knowledge across subject areas and interest areas |
| 0 |
1 |
Increase in knowledge of the workplace |
| 1 |
0 |
Increased desire to become a proactive learner |
| 0 |
1 |
Increased desire to go to college |
| 0 |
1 |
Other areas |
Please describe additional areas that may have been impacted by this program.
I believe many of the students really benefitted from having an individual adult mentor in their lives. Parents, teachers, friends are all great, but having an adult that takes an individual difference and commitment to you makes a dramatic impact.
Please indicate the percentage of your students who are actively moving in the direction of becoming proactive learners.
75%
I have a better understanding of the importance of doing well in math.
Students kept running into new questions or difficulties with their project ideas. Instead of me as the teacher just spouting answers the students learned to tap into various other resources. They searched the internet, corresponded with their mentor, and sought advice and assistance from area professionals. Contacting area professionals became a sort of obsession for some students as they received such great information. Then they only wanted to find and contact experts with professional emails and letters as this was the most helpful information for them. They no longer just wanted to be given answers, but they wanted to dig in and really understand the problem and learn from experts addressing similar issues.
How many students would you prefer to directly supervise in the program next year?
25
Please provide some tips on how we can partner with you to expand the program in your area.
We have connected with other teachers in the building, and are working on planning out their ideas into a telementors course.
How would you rate the quality of the matches between your students and mentors overall on a scale of 1 - 5?
5
Please describe any changes you'd like to see that might further improve the quality of the matches.
Unsure.
Describe a few things you and your students and mentors were able to accomplish through this program that would have been difficult or impossible any other way.
All of the finding, connecting, proofreading, and editing with a one on one mentor is something I simply cannot do with a class of 20+. Students received specific, individualized feedback from their mentors, usually within 24 hours. Their writing improved so much with this individualized, timely feedback. We were also able to locate and contact area experts from several fields that would have taken me hours each week.
How would you rate the quality of the help you received from the International Telementor Center staff throughout this project on a scale of 1 - 5?
5
How often were you able to communicate with the mentor group as a whole?
Weekly
How often were your students able to communicate, on average, with the mentors?
Weekly
Describe significant changes that you would like to see in the program or school environment that would improve the effectiveness of the program for you and your students. Please note who would be responsible for making those changes.
I only have my wildcat class for 3 mornings a week. I will probably have to make at least a majority of the student/mentor contact something that happens outside of the school day. 3 days is simply not enough time to correspond twice and also make progress on the class projects.
How has this program assisted you to use technology more effectively?
I have learned how technology may be used to connect with many different experts and really grow the classroom to extend way beyond the walls of the building and hours in a school day.
Please note the impact this program has had on meeting state or national standards on a scale of 1 - 5. Where 1 is none and 5 is signifigant
4
Please describe this impact, if any, in your own words.
Real world problem solving is so much more impact for the students, the community, and myself as a teacher than a book and regurgitating information will ever be.
If "students at-risk" are defined as those who have low motivation to learn, what percentage of the students you supervised this year met this criterion.
50%
When you applied to be a teacher contact you were asked to meet the following requirements.
- All student/mentor commmunication is project based
- Participating students receive a subject grade and turn in work at least biweekly
- Teachers should communicate at least biweekly with the mentors
- Students should be self-selected for participation.
- Teachers should expect a high degree of accountability from their students.
- Teachers should respond to specific program problems within 48 hours
How many requirements you were able to meet this year.
4
Please describe which requirements, if any, helped you be successful in the program?
The consistent communication is the key to success in this program, between all of the parties involved. This became especially important for us as our project made some major shifts about half-way through the year.
Please describe which requirements, if any, were difficult to meet. Please note why these requirements were difficult to meet.
I need to work on the accountability from the students. I need to have some way to monitor student progress more frequently and consistently, and they need to have some accountability with this as well.
If you were helping a new teacher start in this program, what advice would you offer that would aid this new teacher and his or her students to be successful participants?
Communicate, communicate, communicate.
Do you plan to participate in the program next year?
Yes
Please estimate how many students in your school district or city could take advantage of this program next year?
80
What additional training would you recommend for teachers next year?
Seeing a "completed" example project would be great, but possibly overwhelming. Maybe a few snapshots of a project through time (correspondence, idea generation and student self-assessment of success, locating, contacting and corresponding area experts, student evaluations of project success, sharing information with stakeholders. Maybe something like a focus of the month?
