Over the course of the semester, EDTC 400 students provided a mentorship role to EDTC 300 students. The expectations of the mentors were to provide support, guidance and navigation tips while going through the EDTC300 class. One of the major projects EDTC300 students were required to partake in was a learning project. I was blessed with four mentees that demonstrated passion and hard work all throughout the semester. I wish I could provide photos of my mentees, but I am cheap and only have the free version of Weebly which limits my storage space. Because of this I have linked all of my mentees blogs below, and I highly recommend checking out their progress! You can find my mentoring log here!
Mackenzie Lautamus: https://mackenzielautamus98.wordpress.com Mackenzie’s learning project was focused on learning and practicing yoga. Over the course she found the importance of practicing yoga, and expressed the benefits it has had on her life. Mackenzie was even able to get her fiancé involved and help him relieve some of his stress that he experiences. Mackenzie mentions in her “Ditching Old Habits and Creating Healthy Habits” blog post that she ditches her pack of smokes for lemon water. I think it is so inspiring to see how small changes in Mackenzie’s life has lead to her feeling healthier and happier! If you want some good resources for learning yoga, Mackenzie’s blog is definitely a website you should check out! Brooklyn Mantai: https://brooklynmantai.wordpress.com/category/edtc-300/ Brooklyn’s learning project was all about learning sign language. Over the course of the semester, Brooklyn has progressed in her ability to sign, and challenges herself to learn something new each week! In one of Brooklyn’s blog posts she announces she is an early childhood educator. Currently she has been working with her non verbal students to sign their wants and needs. HOW COOL IS THAT! Go check out Brooklyn’s blog and see how she is changing the lives of others. Hanna-Marie Wosminity: https://hannawosminity.wordpress.com Hanna-Marie has done a fabulous job on her blog! She has included all of her blog posts in one place throughout the semester which makes reading about her experience in EDTC300 easy and approachable. Hanna-Marie focused on learning knitting for her learning project. The photos and resources she has provided are really unique and show the passion she has had with learning this new hobby! Go check out Hanna-Marie’s blog to find out all about her experience in EDTC300. Miss. Brinkworth: https://becomingmissbrinkworth.wordpress.com/ Miss. Brinkworth has come along way with her learning project. She decided to learn how to sing and play the ukulele. I follow Miss. Brinkworth on other social media platforms and I always got so excited to see and hear the progress she was making. I even requested a song and she learned how to play it, HOW COOL. Miss. Brinkworth explained in her last blog post that this semester has been challenging but one of the highlights was learning a new skill. She mentioned that she is so excited to bring her new found skill into the classroom. Teaching through music is so powerful! Go check out Miss. Brinkworth’s blog if you want to learn more about her journey, or better yet learn how to play! As your final blog post for the semester, please reflect on the process of mentoring this semester. Were there elements that you found particularly challenging and/or rewarding? What did this process teach you about what it might be like to teach an online class? What did you learn about teaching in general? One of the challenging parts I found about supporting four mentees was time. If I were to start over from the beginning I would definitely set more time aside in my week that was dedicated to mentoring. I found the mentor role to be unique, fun and kept me accountable throughout the semester. I loved going on to my mentees blogs and seeing all of their progress and experiences with their learning projects. I also enjoyed having Twitter conversations with them. Throughout this process, I have definitely gained a new perspective on what it would be like to teach an online course. You have to be connected all. of. the. time. Which can get exhausting. However, setting goals and strategies to help with accountability is beneficial and something I definitely could’ve done more of this semester. One of the major lessons I learned throughout this course was the importance of building relationships and staying connected. I love the learning project, passion project, or genius hour idea. These projects let students explore what they are capable of and come to love something that is important to them. I will 100% be incorporating an assignment like this in my future classroom. All in all, I enjoyed mentoring and getting to learn about other people in other classes. This was a unique experience and I look forward to continuing to collaborate, learn from and connect with my mentees from this past semester! ttyl, -Ms. S
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |