Just wanted to put in a little update for myself. I've done two mentor interviews with my focal mentors. The interveiws def. solidified what I already thought. With Helen, the technology has really kept her from making a strong relationship with her student. If they can't hear each other, they can't talk. If they can't talk, they really can't informally connect. So there's a "basic" fix. Obviously, its not basic (it is our achiles heel), but with good sound, it'd be better.
Priya talked mostly about academics. Which, I think for me, reminded me about trying to do a better job screening mentors. She has a very traditional focus--she wants to help her kid succeed in math. She doesn't really have the objective being a mentor. She wants to be a good tutor. So, I think an action out of this, is to find questions to ask prospective mentors that will help get a sense of what their goals would be in the program.
I've got one more set up for next week and one more I need to set up.
Hi Dina,
ReplyDeleteYour findings about technology and about the mentor’s goals and attitudes point in two directions about what you are learning. One is in how to improve the process for your mentors and students – through technology, through educating the mentors, though providing more of a community for the students (the example of the students who come in together vs the ones who don’t is so interesting). And there is the further complexity of coaches for the mentors (this is of course a part of education for the mentors, but it definitely makes this a very complicated puzzle to organize and figure out!) The other is how to identify things that can't be changed.
I guess what I’m thinking about is the question of: what can one change, and what can one not change? The technology can, theoretically at least, be changed. But basic beliefs of the mentor cannot.
I’m wondering a couple of things. If you were to coach someone who is beginning to do what you are doing, what framework would you give them to orient them to the important features of the work? And also, have you found, in readings or other places, writings and ideas that have influenced how you are thinking about this work?
I think your work has implications not only for what you are doing, but for broader questions of how to help people teach better, and how to organize schools and other teaching organizations.
Claire