Thanks for such a great turnout to the first Academic Mentor meetings for the semester. We have compiled a list of common ideas that were brainstormed throughout the meetings, and have decided to share them here. If you have any other great ideas that you forgot to write down during the meetings, feel free to comment on this post!
Activities to Share
·
Venn diagrams with post its, K/W/L tables,
Around the world, 3-2-1 (Strategy cards)
·
Have a “warm-up” at the beginning with a quick
type of quiz going over some of the more basic topics
·
Quizzes/preliminary assessment/post-quiz
·
Create a flow chart/diagram of processes
·
Games
·
Surprise quizzes with old exam problems
·
Have students “master” a concept and teach it to
others
Useful Resources
·
Professor’s website
·
Office hours
·
Math Lab and University Tutoring
·
Learn@UW (make copies of syllabus too)
·
Math Library website for past exams
·
Short YouTube videos for visual ideas
·
Internet sites: Wolfram Alpha, CAE Blog, Khan
Academy
What NOT to do
·
Don’t rush to answer their question before
you’ve given them time to think about it and try it on their own
·
Don’t introduce fancy ways to solve problems in
upper-level coursework
·
Do not indulge in TA/professor/specific topic
bashing
·
Try not to give answers directly
·
Don’t help with graded HW
·
Make sure to be firm in enforcing
responsibilities early on – don’t get too flexible with time and topics
Best Advice
·
You are a mentor – so be a mentor! Don’t be
stuck on the course. Find ways to connect with students.
·
Really get to know your student(s) and
understand their goals/what motivates them
·
Make students comfortable
·
Emphasize that mistakes are okay
·
Come with a positive mindset and understand they
may be coming in confused
·
Be patient; it may take students longer to grasp
certain concepts
·
Always be encouraging and don’t make the course
feel intimidating
Have a great weekend! Make sure to check out the previous blog post about the leadership certificate!
Great job everyone! One additional advice I would give mentors who might be dealing with subjects that include abstract ideas and/or concepts would be to see if those ideas can be put into a context that your student can better understand. Often, relating those ideas to something practical or applying it to a real-world example might allow the student to better grasp that idea/concept.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to these activities, I've found that if you really need to get a student to participate, bring some candy or a snack as a reward for participation. If there's a motivational factor that helps them keep trying new ideas/ways to solve the problem, the student will often be more successful.
ReplyDeleteWow, a lot of great ideas! Another website/resource I have recently found to be helpful is a channel called CrashCourse on Youtube. From history to biology, it has several videos for students who either want to review a subject or just generally gain a better understanding of a topic. It can be especially helpful when you need a visible representation.
ReplyDelete