Our Experiences as Mentorship Students

Most of the people I’ve talked to about my mentorship class say my experiences are so much different than everyone else’s. I used to nod along, figuring that although there are some differences in being in achievement, there are probably a lot more similarities than they realize. In a way, we were both right. As I read through the blog posts of other students in other classes with a range of class subjects, grades, and the amount of students in the classes, I found that there were many similarities and differences in our experiences. During our walks to our fourth period class right after mentorship, David and I usually discuss how our two mentorship classes went. I hear most of what he experiences right out the gate, but I was curious to see what his fellow mentor, Keira, was experiencing in their classroom. So, I read through her blogs.

Keira’s blog, like mine, chronicled her experiences within her mentorship class. From reading her blog posts, her class seemed like a handful compared to my own. She had thirty kids in her class that she had to help, compared to my usual four or five kids. Keira isn’t afraid to be honest in her blog posts and adds direct and descriptive anecdotes that feel like you’re right there, experiencing everything with her. It was interesting to read about a mentorship class with two mentorship students helping. I liked how she and David had their own little routine to follow so that they could help the large class effectively. Not only that, I found that Keira had an interesting perspective on how they handled their mentorship teacher’s absence. She talked about this type of vacation mindset that I recognize with my own students whenever we have a supply teacher. Keira always had a positive outlook on her situation in blogs which I found really refreshing. There is only so much of her situation she can control, and she is making the most of it by doing the best she can to guide her students.

I can definitely pick apart the differences and similarities in our experiences. In her blogs, she talked about how students would often distract themselves with each other by talking or simply not having the motivation to listen to the lesson and learn. I can relate to that fact, although the distractions in achievement are different. Instead of talking to their peers, they are usually on their phones, listening to music, even taking selfies when I’m teaching or reviewing with them. I can understand her frustration in that sense. I work with students one-on-one everyday in a pace that is catered to their needs. They are not afraid of calling me for help or telling me they need assistance for anything. I was surprised to see the opposite develop for Keira during her time in mentorship, since her students were fine asking questions in the beginning yet aren’t as open to asking in more recent blogs. I’m glad she has a pretty good relationship with her students and her mentorship teacher and I can most definitely relate. I can go to Mrs. Fernando and Mr. Morris if I ever need help, and it seems that Keira is just as open as I am. One of the major differences between our two experiences is how the classrooms operate. I can bounce around between lessons since each student is learning a different level or is at a different place in their work. One minute, I would be helping one student with quadratics and factoring, the next I would be trying to explain how to find the sides of a triangle with SOH CAH TOA. They follow a routine of teaching a lesson, doing assignments, having tests on select days, which is all very different from achievement.

Keira’s blogs were well structured and the flow of the experiences made it easy to read through her blogs. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the improvements and the growth of her blog posts. If I were to really be nit-picky, I would suggest some more creative titles! Another note would be, even if our blog posts are being marked for school, to not be afraid to be informal. Like using conjunctions and such. Either way, it didn’t take away from my experience of reading her blogs. I still liked reading them all the same. I did note to myself that I should add more specific anecdotes like she did because it made her blogs have a very authentic feeling that I want to emulate in my own. One other way I could improve my blog is to form simpler spreads when it comes to my webpages on my site. Keira’s blog is very straight to the point and it is very effective. I love the light and cheeriness that the sunflowers bring to her front page.

All in all, I’ll probably read through all of my fellow mentorship students’ blogs because I really do love comparing and contrasting our experiences. It’s nice to know that someone really understands how frustrating it can be to get students motivated. I can only wish the best of luck to Keira and David in this last week of mentorship!

The meme and motivational quote of the week are down below, as always.