You Can Make A Difference
Mentor #3
Mentor #3 with mentee MI
Date of meeting: 2/26/2018
The counselor briefly introduced me to MI. The class was working on a group project, so there was not much time to interact with MI. I mostly observed. Hopefully I can work more directly with my mentee next week.
Date of meeting: 3/5/2018
MI never arrived at class. I observed the class for the full period.
Date of meeting: 3/12/2018
MI arrived at about 9:45am, so there was less than a half hour to go in the class. I did not have any time to interact with MI as the class was doing a group activity.
Date of meeting: 3/19/2018
MI was absent. I spoke with the teacher before and after class. I will help other students as needed in the class when MI is absent. The teacher will tell me which students to help with during the class.
Date of meeting: 3/26/2018
MI came to class today. He showed up about 30 minutes late to class, but from then on we worked directly on all the assignments in the class. He had to complete a survey that took about 30 minutes total. Then they worked on several questions related to the Haitian Revolution. We were able to answer most of the questions. MI was responsive and worked diligently on the assignments. He seemed to understand the information and wrote the down the answers, etc. Easily our most successful class!
Date of meeting: 4/9/2018
MI was absent again today. I was able to help students with the assignment on hand, which involved going to different stations, reading a couple paragraphs about the Haitian Revolution and answering questions. I helped several different students understand the various passages and helped them answer the questions on that day’s assignment.
Date of meeting: 4/16/2018
We had a productive class today. MI was there for the full period and we completed all the assignments that were assigned in class today and completed some work that he had missed from earlier classes because of absences. We also started on an extra credit assignment before class time ran out. The teacher said that MI still has a lot of class work to make up. I am not sure if there is a time that we can meet up this week or next outside of class to try and get this work completed? MI is smart and capable and I think he could make up the assignments without much trouble, but I doubt he’d do so on his own. I am also not sure what assignments he is actually missing since I am not totally familiar with every assignment that has been given out for this class.
I’d be open to meeting with him for an extra session one morning this week or next if it would help him get caught up in this class.
Date of meeting: 4/23/2018
MI was about 30 minutes late to class today. However, we were able to get the assignment for that day completed. It involved catching up on an assignment that was started in the previous class that he had not completed. The 2nd half of the class was a class-wide assignment where two groups had a debate and a 3rd group asked questions to both groups. MI was able to participate in the debate because we were able to get caught up on the assignment which most of the rest of the class had two class periods to complete.
Date of meeting: 4/30/18
Three weeks in a row! MI came into class about 30 minutes late, but we were still able to get almost all of the day’s assignment completed. He is able to do most of the work himself. The assignment involved reading different passages related to the Haitian Revolution and then answering questions about each passage. He sometimes needs assistance finding the correct passage to answer each question, but in general he can figure it out. After answering the questions, there was a class review and he again was able to contribute answers on his own. Once the class was over, MI, the teacher, and I spoke briefly and asked MI if he can really try to come to class on time over the last 5 weeks of the semester. I told him I was confident we could get his grade up to a passing grade if he was on time for the rest of the classes. We both told him that he was a smart student and more than capable of doing this. He smiled briefly at the compliment, which is the first positive type of emotion I’ve seen from him. Overall, I think it was a very good class and am hopeful we can get him to a C or higher for this class.
Date of Meeting: 05/07/18
MI was more than an hour late for class today, arriving when there was maybe 20 minutes of class left. By the time he got to his seat and opened his Chrome book we had less than 15 minutes to go over the day’s assignment. We were able to get a few of the questions on the assignment answered. The class was mostly an introduction to the new subject they are studying over the last 4 weeks, so I don’t think he missed much. I reiterated to him how important these last few weeks were if he wants to pass this class. Hopefully he’ll be on time going forward.
Date of Meeting: 5/14/2018
MI again missed all but the last 20 minutes of class. There was a large group-based review of what they had gone over the previous week, which he missed all of. We were able to power through a portion of that days’ assignment, but it was rushed and probably not his best quality work. After the class the teacher and I reiterated that it was essential that he arrive on time for the rest of the semester. I do not know if he will take this to heart, but hopefully he can. I am still optimistic that he can pass this class if he shows up on time these last 3 weeks.
Email 5/21/2018
Mr. D is not here today and no one seems to be giving a straight answer as to why he's not here today or if he is coming back. They sent the students to another classroom, MI hasn't shown up yet, and I am waiting in the office to see if he shows. Can you find out what is happening and if the teacher will be back? Anything else I should do for now?
Date of meeting: 6/7/2018
I just wanted to update you about today. It started off poorly. MI had not shown up to class by 9:45. I was getting ready to leave as there was nothing else to do since the other students were finishing their finals. As I was leaving the parking lot, there was a moment of serendipity as MI was walking into the parking lot at the very same time! We worked in his classroom for English, where he had to speed through a final. I didn't help him with the final, but did help him keep his focus as that classroom was far more disruptive than anything I had seen in Mr. D’s class. From what I saw of his work on the final, it looked like he did quite well. We didn't have much time to finish any other work unfortunately, so I am not sure if he will pass his history class. He showed me his grades for his other classes and it looked like he was doing pretty well.
We had probably our only earnest conversation that was about non-school related stuff. MI told me he wants to go to UCLA, or anywhere away from the Bay Area. He also told me that if possible, he'd like to work with me next semester and said that I did help his grades in Mr. D's class. On my end, I am more than happy to do so. I did tell him that I would like to make that work, but he would need to be better at showing up to class every day.
Do you think this will be possible? I spoke with the counselor after the class to tell her this and tell her that I would be happy to do this. I don't know if MI will have any summer school or anything like that, but I would be open to that as well. Even though there were some struggles in getting MI on track, I ultimately thought it was a step in the right direction for him and I hope to be able to help see him through the next semester and maybe beyond that.
Date of Meeting: 10/26/18
There was some confusion as to where to report on the first day, but eventually found ME in Mr. D’s classroom. Met with ME and she seemed happy, if reluctant, to work together. We spent the class time working on the day’s assignments. The first part of the class was spent finishing an assignment from a previous day. She was behind on that assignment. We couldn’t get them finished in the time allotted. The next section was a reading assignment with questions to answer after certain paragraphs. We were able to finish this assignment before class ended. This was good because the assignment is homework if it was incomplete.
My first impression of ME is that she is smart and understands the assignments but is not confident in her answers. She also makes a lot of spelling and grammar errors in her writing. I think today was a very good first day and I am looking forward to working with her the rest of the year.
Date of Meeting: 11/2/18
ME was absent from class. I spent the period helping the other students with a group assignment. They had to read different passages or look at maps of Haiti and answer related questions.
Date of Meeting: 11/9/18
ME was about 30 minutes late for class. I spent the first 30 minutes helping another group of students answer questions related to a video that was on screen about the Haitian Revolution. When ME arrived, I helped her catch up on the questions that she missed. We got through all the questions on the video and got started on the next assignment, which will be a presentation about whether the Haitian revolutionaries should restart the plantation system or harvest the land for themselves.
We were able to get the first page of the assignment completed, which Mr. D said was their homework, so we made good progress. ME told me that she was going to miss Tuesday and Wednesday classes because of a dental procedure. It seems like a bad time to miss as this is a major assignment, but not sure what I can do about that.
Date of Meeting: 11/30/18
ME was absent today. I spent the class helping another group of students complete the tasks for the day. Mostly the reading of several passages about the Industrial Revolution and answering corresponding questions.\
Date of Meeting: 12/14/18
ME was absent today. I spent the class helping another group of students complete the tasks for the day. Their final project is a 5 paragraph essay where they have to argue if the gains of the industrial revolution were worth the pains inflicted on the workers. I help several students figure out which side they were on, find supporting evidence from the previous assignments, and put together their arguments.
Date of meeting: 1/11/19
ME was in class today, albeit late. The assignment today involved cutting out images of different countries and seeing how they fit into a map of Africa. Not much chance for interaction, but she completed the assignment. We were able to talk some. She assured me she would be in class next week and wanted to continue working together. I hope that is the case!
Email 1/18/2019
I went to McClymonds this morning. Almost all the teachers were out and many students as well. They called everyone into the auditorium and explained what would be happening today. They were 50-60 students in total in the auditorium. They were splitting the kids up various ways for different things. The first period the underclassmen were split up by gender to discuss "sensitive topics" I wasn't sure what that meant, but didn't feel it was something I could help with. I found Ms. Piper and asked if there was anything else I could help with, but she didn't think there was, so I left. Let me know if I should still fill out a report for today.
Email 1/25/2019
Just an update, I went to McClymonds today as I had not heard anything about a formal strike yet. The school was a ghost town. No one was in the office, no one was in any classroom that I saw, and no one (students, teachers, etc) were in the hallways. The school was open, but I only saw maybe one or two other people in the whole building. I left after a few minutes as I didn't see any point in sticking around. Let me know if you have any more information about the strike or anything else we should be aware of.
Kay’s reply 1/25/2019
I am sorry, Mentor #3, and see I must find a way to get a copy of the school calendar to you (passed out at orientation). Today is professional development day and school is closed.
Date of Meeting: 2/8/2019
ME was absent today. I spent the class helping other students with the day’s assignments.
Mentor #3 with mentee ME
We ask all our mentors to submit a weekly mentoring report to track the progress of their mentee(s). Here are excerpts from a few of those reports.
All names have been anonymized and assigned to a number (i.e. Mentor #1) or random two letter initials.