Linda's+Reflections

==Linda's Final Reflection  ==    This quarter, I had the opportunity to mentor High Tech High students online through the Ning site. Although the mentoring was supposed to span across the entire 11 weeks of school this quarter, including finals week, contact with the students did not commence until almost four weeks into the school year. This was due to the fairly new inception of the course  EDS 137: Teaching and Learning Through Technology . The process required a connection to an online high school that was willing to collaborate on this level, which was, as mentioned, not finalized until around Week 4. However, during the first weeks of school, we were given assignments and resources that allowed us to take a dip into the concept of online mentoring and schooling.
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The assignment started off with researching various online schools such as:  Capistrano Connections Academy,  Kaplan Academy of San Diego  ,  University of CA College Prep  ,  iHigh Virtual Academy  , and  Online High School Directory  . I learned some really interesting things including that most of these schools were free. Another advantage of online schooling is that it creates a different type of student, someone who learns how to study independently and has the ability to manage time. After doing some more readings on the topic, I concluded that online schooling will become a popular form of education. To read my response to a blog regarding online school and its effect on the future of education, click  here . Afterward, we joined a group on the <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 99%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 132%;"> Ning site <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> and began our pre-mentoring by reviewing various online student portfolios, seen <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 132%; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"> here  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">. The portfolios were quite impressive and displayed a lot of skills and professionalism.

After some time, we established our mentoring groups with students from Chris Oliva's Science Class in the Sewers Science Project. My three groups were <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 132%; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Iron in Water (Robin) <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 132%; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Laura and Erica's Sewer Science Group- Arsenic  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> , and <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 132%; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Plastic Bottles  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 99%;">. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">I was definitely in my working gear, ready to jump on board with their project. I spent a lot of time looking up various resources regarding each group's topic, posting what I thought would be helpful on their Ning groups. However, weeks went by with very little comment or response as to whether or not the information I shared was helpful or being used at all. This trend continued for the majority of the weeks after. I made it a goal to think of different ways to get connected to the students. The list included individually messaging the students, establishing a VoiceThread project, and creating an Etherpad. However, no one responded. This problem became the wall in our online mentoring experience, thus resulting in a lack of awareness in my students' progress. I persisted, hoping for any sign of interaction. Out of my entire online mentoring experience this quarter, I got only two responses from the students, both of which I initiated a follow up, but ended there.

A lot of time when I work with students, I always question my purpose in our relationship as mentor-mentee. For instance, am I tutoring these students to gain a sense of self-accomplishment so that I can feel good about myself or am I genuinely committed to helping these students so that they can accomplish a specific goal? I think I was able to answer part of this during my online mentoring experiences this quarter and I believe the answer is a little bit of both. In a way to not sound selfish, I do this so that I can feel good about myself. That's not entirely true, however, because I truly enjoy helping others and I think I am entitled to “feeling good about myself” if it means being able to help someone overcome an obstacle, no matter how small. Therefore, no matter how little the interaction was, I am grateful to be a part of this opportunity and I truly hope that the little help that I did give them proved useful for this project. If not, that's okay, because I know that I at least made an effort and that they did accomplish their goal, regardless of how little interaction we made.

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