Students as Faculty Mentors: Reversing the Role of Teacher and Learner

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Students as Faculty Mentors Reversing the Role
of Teacher and Learner

• Sandra A. Lathem, Joyce L. Morris, Adam Deyo,
  Russell M. Agne
• College of Education and Social Services
• University of Vermont

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PT3 Faculty Student Mentors
Tapping the resources of pre-service teacher
expertise in technology To benefit the needs of
UVM faculty, K-12 teachers, and K-12 students
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Reversing the Roles

• Student becomes the teacher
• Teacher becomes the student

Mutual benefit New relationships
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Perspectives

• History -- Joyce
• Administration -- Sandy
• Student -- Adam
• Faculty -- Russ
• Project improvements
• Experiences of others
• Questions and comments

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History -- Early Beginnings

• Approached by Burlington School District
• Recruited 12-15 students from 1st year course
• Students earned 1-3 independent study credits
• Technology coordinator at school supervised
• Highly successful -- ran for three years
• Coordinator left district end of administration
• Students continued work with on-campus faculty
  through Technology For Teaching (TFT) lab

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PT3 Student Mentor Project

• PT3 grant renewed expanded project
• Students paid 10/hour or earned credits
• Students mentor professors or K-12 faculty
• Spring 2001
• 3 --UVM Faculty Mentors
• 1 -- K-12 faculty mentor

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Student Mentors - Spring 2002

• 13 -- University faculty mentors
• 11 -- K-12 faculty mentors (14 teachers)

• Program gaining recognition as
• Effective approach to improve technology skills
  and application for faculty on and off campus
• Engaging program for students to strengthen
  skills and build confidence
• Promising strategy to promote and strengthen
  colleagueship and professional rapport between
  faculty and student

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Program Administration

• Supervised by PT3 Grant Team
• Faculty supervisor - Holly Buckland Parker
• K-12 supervisor - Sandy Lathem
• Responsibilities
• Recruiting faculty members (on off campus)
• Recruiting students (pre-service teachers
  required to take an introductory technology
  course)
• Online applications available --
• http//www.uvm.edu/cess/pt3/mentors.html
• Matching faculty member with student mentor

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Support

• Organize initial meeting establish goals
• Project oversight (site visits or meetings)
• Communications -- faculty and student
• Support (technical and otherwise)
• Documentation
• Evaluation
• Celebration!

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WebCT Site for Mentors
http//webct.uvm.edu (Login in -- pt3guest1
password dewey) Click on PT3 Student Mentor
Project Central Resource for the project
Highlights Work of Faculty and Mentor
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Student Mentor Perspective

• Began as TFT staff member
• TA for technology course with Joyce Morris
• Worked with Campus Childrens Center
• Experiences as undergraduate -
• Co-learning
• Sharing of strategies for working with children
• Real collaboration

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Student Mentor (continued)

• Experiences as graduate student
• Work continues through PT3 grant
• Technology plans for faculty
• Just in time training for faculty
• Teachable moments

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K-12 Mentor Perspective

• Greta Geer --
• Mentor for Barb Sclafani - 2nd Grade
• Wheeler Elementary School

http//www.bsdvt.org/Schools/Wheeler/2ndgradeportf
olio.html
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Faculty Member Perspective

• Incentives -
• Needed help -- a chore needed to be done!
• Off campus methods course in WebCT
• Research - pilot project with activity-based
  science teaching
• Mentor helped to get projects underway
• http//www.uvm.edu/ragne/handsonscience.html
• http//www.uvm.edu/inquiryb/

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Mechanics

• Proposal for PT3 Team
• Goals, time line completion dates
• Communications - face to face or email
• Off campus class - mentor introduced WebCT
• PT3 support - mentor needed help with technical
  aspects -- especially iMovie
• Challenge - finding time to meet

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Faculty Member Perspective

• Professional goals attained
• Concrete examples of technology use
• Digital camera
• Digital movie production
• Test potential research/scholarship project
  (sabbatical proposal)
• Projects improve our programs

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Celebrating Mutual Effort

• Celebrate work of faculty-mentor teams
• Over 50 people attended -- many outside project
• Showcase of works in progress

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Celebration

• Pre-service teachers presented their work with
  faculty members
• Illustrated scope and variety of student mentor
  projects
• Recognized work of undergraduate student and the
  faculty member

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South Burlington School District
Orchard School http//www.sburl.k12.vt.us/orchard/
people/haggerty/index.htm http//www.sburl.k12.vt.
us/orchard/people/wright/curriculum/
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South Burlington School District
So. Burlington High School http//sbhs.sburl.k12.
vt.us/wlang/spanish/valencia/
Central School http//www.sburl.k12.vt.us/central/
carlson
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South Burlington School District
F.H. Tuttle Middle School http//www.uvm.edu/kbla
nd/frenchwebquest
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Burlington School District
Edmunds Middle School http//www.bsdvt.org/school
s/edmundsmid/personal/edunphy/website/default.htm
H.O. Wheeler Elementary School http//www.bsdvt.or
g/Schools/Wheeler/2ndgradeportfolio.html
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Burlington School District
Flynn Elementary School http//www.bsdvt.org/schoo
ls/flynn/Teams/Abbey
http//www.bsdvt.org/Schools/Flynn/Teams/Abbey/oly
mpics/olympics2.htm
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University of Vermont
Charlie Rathbones Site http//www.uvm.edu/crathb
on/
Jane Mekkelsen Betsy Knox Literacy
Block http//www.uvm.edu/litblock/
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University of Vermont
Declan Connollys Site http//www.uvm.edu/dconnol
l/
Professional PE Site http//www.uvm.edu/prope/
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University of Vermont
Susan Kassers Site http//www.uvm.edu/skasser/
Peg Boyle Singles Site http//www.uvm.edu/pbsing
le/
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University of Vermont
Agne, Abruscato, Baker - Inquiry
Block http//www.uvm.edu/inquiryb/
WebQuest Projects http//www.uvm.edu/inquiryb/we
bquest/wqsp02.html
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University of Vermont
Russ Agnes - Science Activities http//www.uvm.ed
u/ragne/handsonscience.html
Judith Murphy - EDEL 24 http//www.uvm.edu/edel24
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Feedback
Very positive feedback from both faculty and
pre-service teachers. Faculty This experience
made my goals of integrating technology and
developing a class web page more
achievable. Faculty Thank you for bringing
Ashley into our lives. She has been an incredibly
delightful gift! Pre-service teacher I am
extremely grateful to this program for allowing
me to enter into the schools so early on and
giving me the opportunity to work with children
it didnt even feel like a job!
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Outcomes

• Faculty skills and use of technology are
  improving
• Pre-service teachers gain confidence in
  technology and teaching
• College students feel respected for their
  knowledge and contribution
• College students become peer reviewers of
  courses. Provides useful insight and advice for
  faculty

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More Outcomes

• Visibility of courses online is building stronger
  connections between work of the faculty
• More student work online supports peer learning,
  sharing, and evaluation
• Demand for mentors outpacing the supply of
  students
• Model is expanding to a university-wide
  approach to engage more faculty to use and
  integrate technology in course work

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Project Improvements

• Transference of knowledge
• -- mentor to faculty
• -- faculty must take over
• Faculty must commit more time/mental energy
• Build a community of mentors
• Select group -- status/recognition
• Must sustain current mentors, while building new
  group
• Group orientations/training sessions
• Electronic discussions for support
• Promote/disseminate results

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Questions Comments

• Preparing Tomorrows Teachers (PT3)
• http//www.pt3.org/
• University of Vermont
• College of Education and Social Services
• Waterman Building
• Burlington, Vermont 05405
• 802-656-4140
• http//www.uvm.edu/cess/pt3
• For more information ..
• Sandy Lathem Sandra.Lathem_at_uvm.edu
• Joyce Morris Joyce.Morris_at_uvm.edu
• Adam Deyo Adam.Deyo_at_uvm.edu
• Russ Agne Russell.Agne_at_uvm.edu