Second Mentoring Workshop

Judith Masthoff

What to do if the fire alarm goes

• Make sure you know the way out of the building where you are mentoring

• Each building tests its alarm every week• If alarm persists for more than a minute, tell

students that you have to leave the building• Orderly evacuate, and keep together as a group

[make sure all have left the room]• If session almost finished, let them go• Otherwise, return to your session once the alarm

has stopped

How did it go?

• Three mentoring sessions already happened

• What happened?

• How do you feel about it?

• Remember to keep a diary

Exercise

• Need two volunteers to tell us a five minute story about a teaching or learning-related anecdote

Discussion

• Story-teller: how did you feel telling the story and how easy was it to engage the interests of your listeners

• Story-teller: Give feedback to each of the listeners in turn, on what you noticed, and how it affected you

• Listeners: in turn, reveal the content of your cards to the speaker, and talk about how it felt to try to listen according to those instructions

• Discuss the implications for mentoring work

Support Available to Students

Advisor of Studies

Student Advice & Support Unit Counselling• Mental health issues• Homesickness• Personal problems (e.g. illness of family member, relationship

problems)

Student Learning Servicehttp://www.abdn.ac.uk/sls/• Academic support (e.g. critical thinking, writing skills, preparing for

exams, time management)

Support Available to Disabled Students

Student Advice and Support Officehttp://www.abdn.ac.uk/disability/students/applicants.shtml

• Arrange note takers, extra time in exams, assistive technology, etc

• Can arrange screening for dyslexia• ‘Disabilities’ include sensory impairments,

asperger’s, dyslexia, mobility impairments, attention deficit disorder, long term illness

Student Learning Service• Academic support for students with dyslexia

Support Available to International Students

International Student Advisors

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/central/international/• Events for international students• Advise on visa and immigration matters

Language Centerhttp://www.abdn.ac.uk/languagecentre/index.php?id=3

Offer courses in English as a second language

ReminderManaging the process of coaching

TGROW model provides a structure

• Topic

• Goal What do you want to happen?

• Reality What is happening now?

• Options What could you do?

• Will What will you do?

Exercise: Coaching

Split into trios (coach, mentee, observer)• Mentee – discuss a problem you are

having, can be anything…• Coach – coach using the skills discussed• Observer – observe the application of the

skills and take notes• Discuss how it wentDo this three times, so that everybody has

had a chance to practice coaching

Mentoring a group

• How does mentoring a group differ from mentoring an individual?

Likely differences in people

• Gender• Age• Ethnicity• Country of origin• Educational background• Special needs• Personality• Goals

What impact may these have on learning and on mentoring?

Strategies for dealing with quiet/wordy students

• For students who seem quieter or less active, don’t write them off as incapable– Use paired discussion activities to give those students

opportunities to engage with the others in the group– Give students the opportunity to share insights from their own

experience– Increase the amount of time you allow for students to formulate

an answer to a question. Count silently to 10 before you restate the question or call on volunteers.

• Monitor classroom dynamics to ensure that discussion does not become dominated by more aggressive students– ”Thank you, John, but let us give others here the chance to give

us their opinions/thoughts. Mary . . . ?”

Adapted from Teaching a Diverse Student Body, N. Loevinger, 1994, University of Virginia.

Dealing with multiple goals

• Option 1: Ask each person in turn what problem they are experiencing/goal they have, and spend some minutes on each

• Option 2:Ask each person to write problems/goals on post-it notes, one per note, and then try to group them. Spend some minutes on each category.

Exercise: Mentoring groups

• Divide into two groups• In each group, select a mentor• Group members: Pretend to be students

on the CS1014 course (get inspired by the card given you)

• Mentor: Get the group to discuss what they think about the CS1014 course, what problems they face, and try to agree on steps forwards

What to do if…..

• Only two students turn up for the session

• A student lacks motivation

• A student is sad

• A student is angry

What other problems do you envisage?

Mentoring Session 2:Acquiring Relevant Information

• IntroductionCheck if anybody in the group has missed last week's session.If so, do a quick round of introductions, and remind people of the goal of the mentoring sessions.

Mentoring Session 2:Acquiring Relevant Information

Activity 1: Information Needs

Aim: To identify information that the students want

about the CS1014 course.

Procedure1. Ask the students to spend a few minutes

individually writing down four or five brief responses to the question: "What are the most important things that you want to know about the Foundations of Computing Science course?“

Mentoring Session 2:Acquiring Relevant Information

2. Get the group to form a single composite list of the items while they are recorded on the blackboard. To do this, go repeatedly around the group and get each person to tell you one item that has not been mentioned yet, till all are recorded.

(Discourage criticism of the comments of others, but encourage clarification in response to questions).

Mentoring Session 2:Acquiring Relevant Information

3. Get each person to individually evaluate the items on the group list and 'vote' for them (giving 5 marks for the most important item, 4 for the next most important, etc).

4. Collect the 'votes' for each item, and put the overall scores for each item for the group on the blackboard.

5. Have a group discussion on how to find out this information.

Mentoring Session 2:Acquiring Relevant Information

Activity 2: Programming books and other resources

• Discuss whether they have bought the recommended text book

• Discuss what other resources a programmer can use (like Java API, google, etc)

Mentoring Session 2:Acquiring Relevant Information

Activity 3 (If time permits):• Ask whether they have been to any

practicals/tutorials yet (They should have been to a practical if mentoring Wednesday onwards)

• If so, ask what they thought about it• Ask what they thought about the lecture(s)

(If mentoring on Monday, this is only one lecture)