Sanchez Elementary School Online Mentoring Program Tips for Online Mentors: During the Relationship

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• Make sure you let your protegé and the project advisor know when and if you are going on a vacation or business trip that will make you unaccessible for a significant period of time, so they worry why you haven't written.

• Share ideas with other mentors! Submit your suggestions and questions to the project's coordinators, and they will, as appropriate, share your information with the other mentors via the project's special e-mail list.

• Be proactive in sending out messages and quickly responding to e-mail from your protegé. Even if your protegé has not written you in a week, write anyway: refer back to your previous e-mail, or the most recent one your received from them, or write a "Heads up, how's it going, checking in" type message. This will show the protegé you are interested and committed to help and listen to him or her. (2)

• Remember that protegés are mostly 9 and 10 years old. You need to be familiar with this age group before you begin!

• Every online relationship is going to be different; some mentors and protegés will write each other long e-mails even more than once a week; others will have mentors writing protegés more frequently than the protegés respond; and so on. We are hoping that each mentor and protegé will write each other at least once a week, and that these exchanges will be substantive, and support the goals of this program.

• Pace Yourself! Don't try to ask every possible question at once! Just two short but interesting paragraphs of comments or questions are enough to maintain and grow an online mentoring relationship.

  We have provided dozens of suggestions on things you and your protegé can do together online, to keep the conversations flowing!

• PLEASE proofread all your messages before sending them to your protegé. Some people write their messages in a word-processing program first, spell check it, and then cut and paste it into a message for their protegé (1). There is no spell-check program on the Sanchez e-mail interface at this time, so composing on a different program is a good idea.

• A fun way to show emotion via written communication is with "smileys"
  :-)

  The Unofficial Smiley Dictionary has a listing of just about every "smiley" imaginable!

• A mentor says, in so many words, "I will help you be whomever you wish to be," not "be like me." Give your protegé lots of options, but don't make choices for them.

• Remember that your protegé, however young, has experienced many things you have not and has knowledge you don't have. Respect their experiences and knowledge, and let them teach you something whenever possible!

• Try to avoid questions that would have "yes" or "no" answers. Some examples:
  • What is that like?
  • Why do you enjoy that?
  • If you do that, what do you think will happen?
  • What do you dislike about that?
  • How could I find out more about this? How could you?
  • How do you think that could be improved?

• Be Patient. Building trust, let alone an online relationship, takes time. A young person may not show it at first, but your encouragement may be just what is needed.

• Praise Is Power! A word of praise in a critical world works miracles in the life of a child.

• A student may ask, "Why can't I meet you" or "Why can't you come here?" If you live outside of Austin, the answer should be easy -- you live too far away. You can even use this as an opportunity to tell your student how many hours it would take to drive from your city to Austin (fourth graders seem very interested in such things).

  When a student asks this question, you should also remind them that the focus of this program that you both are participating in is to build online (computer) relationships. And that it's to help improve writing skills too.

  If you are in Austin, you may arrange a face-to-face meeting with your student, through Ms. Gamboa and Mr. Wahrer. But please remember that the priority of this program is written communications.

• If you have gone for more than two weeks without hearing from your protegé, contact the appropriate teacher and let them know what's up (although, since they are reviewing exchanges, they may already know that there's a problem).

• Communicate with the appropriate teacher whenever you have a question or concern about a protegé. They will answer questions quickly, and help you in any way possible.

• Help us evaluate and improve the effectiveness of this program by completing the our surveys (they will be SHORT and INFREQUENT, we promise!).

• And, finally, this terrific advice from Sanchez Online Mentor Marsha Rogers:

  Last year I participated with groups of 5th grade students in Arizona and Nevada. Spelling was a "big" problem to some of the mentors at the beginning and along the way in that program, too. Until the year was over, I kept messages from the students whom I mentored. I found some very interesting things happening in their messages.

  At the beginning the sentences were short and choppy. Sentence fluency was missing. Organization was lacking and ideas were not developed. Word choices were consistent and predictable. These are 5 of the 6 traits on which students are most often graded in addition to mechanics (which includes spelling).

  As the year progressed the students began using longer and more complex sentences. Word choices expanded and the students were taking risks using new words. Students would make a statement and then give at least one or two more sentences explaining what they were saying. Ideas flowed from one to another.

  For most of the students the spelling did get better. So did the punctuation. But there were still some errors.  Heck, I still can't spell a few words to this day and have to look them up.

  These students are at a point where their creativity and willingness to explore need to be encouraged. And yes, attention to details is important. But I get too many middle school and high school students who are so concerned with "is it right?" that their reading is boring, lacking life, and just plain painful to read. But it is technically correct. Imagine reading 150 of these every other week?

  Have patience. Your students will improve.

(1) Adapted from PEPHE Telementoring Pilot Project
by the
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA)
Health Education Training Centers Alliance of Texas (HETCAT)

(2) Adapted from Handbook for HP Mentors
A resource for participants in the HP E-Mail Mentor program

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