Back after a short hiatus, thanks to the switch to our new forums and the holidays, this week’s question stems from some of the recent discussion happening about FIRST’s Youth Protection policy.
Question of the Week 12-14-03: What characteristics make a person a good mentor and teacher?
This is a personal issue, obviously, but I think that we can learn a lot about how to be better mentors and team members by discussion what the most effective things in inspiring and challenging us have been.
leaders that turn you into a leader yourself
I think a good mentor is a person who’ll stick with a team despite its obvious short comings…
With my old team I have seen mentors sleep in our school, work through mini blizards until 5 am, and put college classes on hold just to help us produce a working robot in 6 weeks. (note: that at no point was it easy for our mentors because of the lack of support from our school and the lack of supplies needed to build the bot)
A good mentor / teacher is someone that kids can relate too, look up to, confide in, and just genuniely trust as a person. They won’t always be your friends at all times, but you have to trust them enough to know that what they are doing is right for you and will benefit you in the long run. You may question them and/or their actions, but most of the time they are looking out for you and know that they need to give you a hard time to get you to see it the correct way.
Good mentors / teachers won’t just explain something once and assume that you get it, they make you ask questions, make you explain it back to them, make you demonstrate it, to ensure that you grasp what they are handing you. They will take their own precious time away from their jobs or families to teach a bunch of crazy high schoolers about engineering and about life (for free too!).
Good mentors and teachers are a special group of people that shouldn’t be taken for granted, this is a once in a lifetime experience. Take advantage of their presence and learn as much as possible.
C’mon Brandon. We need the spotlight back. There’s good stuff being said on the new board.
I think a good mentor is someone you can relate to. Someone that you can sit and talk with even about non-robotics. They may come down hard on you, but sometimes you need that. They are willing to help and show you the proper way with how to deal.
Someone who will let you screw up at accomplishing a task he/she could have done right his/her self. Only then will he/she help you accomplish the task properly. That is a good mentor.
A good mentor…
treads a thin line between “good friend” and “parent”.
says things to a persons face instead of behind their back.
tries to treat every person equally, from the LD student to the AP student.
shows respect and attention to the kid that everyone else picks on.
challenges top-performing students to do better.
gives credit to people when they deserve it.
gives credit to people, sometimes, even when they don’t deserve it.
says “I’m sorry, it was my fault” when they screw up.
will do any job, no matter how menial.
listens.
People talk about respect. You don’t just “get respect” by “giving respect”. Try, every day, to do these things above and you will get respect. You don’t need to be cool to get respect, just work hard and be honest with your teammates and yourself. From that, things will fall in to place.
I always try to be a good mentor. Sometimes it is tough. Sometimes my patience is tried and I get frustrated and I get really “short” with people.
I do find that I am a better parent since I have good experience as a FIRST mentor. I see mistakes I make while on the team and as a parent, and the more experience I get with both, the better mentor and parent I become. I value this experience as mentor greatly.
Good luck.
Andy B.
I think there are really a lot of aspects that make an individual a really good leader, mentor, and teacher. This is definitely taken from first hand experiences and interactions that I have had with other mentors, students, and FIRSTers. By the way, I am a second year College Mentor on Team 461.
Like Andy said above, treading a thin line between friend and parent. You really have to care for the people that you are working with. And, it can’t be “care” you have to really sincerily mean it because that is what counts, and that caringness is what really impacts the students and others that you work with. Being upfront with people is also a huge key. You may have something to tell someone that they may not want to hear, but if it needs to be said it needs to be said and however much they may not like to hear it at the point, they will come around in the end and realize what you were saying. Recognition is also key. If someone has done a good job at something, don’t feel afraid to point it out to them either on an individual basis or in front of the team. If anything, it will motivate, “fire up” other people to do well as well. You have to be fair and impartial. As a mentor you MUST realize that everything we do is on a fair playing field. No one person is better or worse than the other.
Another key that is somewhat harder to pickup on at first is to see how each individual student picks up, understands, and in general just works. You may have one student who understands everything on the first try and is able to go off and do their thing whereas another student may need something explained numerous times and will need you to check up on them while they are working on something. This is really important to understand because then you can offer yourself for support when it is best needed.
Another aspect is respect. Just because you are in a leadership position, you can’t expect respect, you MUST EARN IT. “Respect is vital to a leader.Without it, no one follows. Title or position will not help it. With it, everyone follows, and title or position are not needed.” You have to show them why they should look up to you, why they should respect you. The only way this can be achieved is to lead by example and to show respect to others as well, in every case and regard.
Also, I think that if you are always challenging students that you are doing a good job as a mentor. That is what keeps them coming back for more, keeps them inspired, motivated, interested, and keen on learning something new and after all, that is what this program is for.
Not to make this any longer, but really to be a good mentor you have to be un-selfish and willing to give. GIVING is the single word that can be used to summarize a good mentor. You have to be willing to give your time, advice, compassion, expertise and pretty much everything you have in order to be a good mentor. You can’t expect to be recognized for every little or big thing that you do, but if you have that giving attitude it will not matter. When a student nails something not only are they proud of themselves, but you are proud of them too. If you can sit around in a room with the students you mentor as well as others on the team and can talk about anything from robotics and its various aspects, to school, to life, and everything in between, I think you are on the right track. I don’t see the students on the team as just students or people that I am in charge of, I see them as my friends. There is something that I can always teach and show them, and there is always something I can learn from them. Sorry this is sooo long, but it is something that I really feel passionate about. I love this program and all the students I get to work with on a daily basis. They are really, truly the reason I show up everday.
being a mentor to not just students alone but to any who whats to learn has been the best expereiences for me …Passing on what i’ve learn gives me great pride in knowing that there is hope in all of us the better each other…( Past it one with passion and respect to the one another) …knowledge gained is better then knowledge not recieved…
What everyone else has said so far I also find to be very true.
Another I’ll add is that a good mentor or teacher calmly and gracefully handles those who challenge them by says things like “this is boring” “what’s the point?” “I don’t care about this” You get the idea. I’m talking about those who look at this program and get a sense that it’s supremely boring and/or a waste of time. A good mentor can battle it out with that person and win.
I think a major thing a mentor/teacher needs was put into words by Redeadjokes. I don’t remember the exact quote, but it was something a long the line of “A good teacher always needs to be a good student,”
A mentor that is able form a bond is the best. I think it is important for the mentors and teachers to not only help with the robot, fundraising, website, or whatever. But also to maybe be a life coach. Six weeks with people, they will look up to you. The team is likely to become a second family.
One that doesn’t expect everything from everyone. They should realize that not everyone has the same abilities and they should be able to bring out each students attributes that would contribute best to the team.
They should love what they do, love the kids, and love the program. I dont know of anyone who doesn’t love FIRST, but that is a big part.
Now I know there are a lot of debates over every team member having to know about the robot. But personnally, I dont agree with that. FIRST is for inspiration, if they dont get the robot, let them paint, fiundraise, cheer. As long as they get exposed to the PROCESS and maybe in the end get interested in engineering. They should be able to realize that it isn’t about winning the comp, or building the best robot, it is about the experience and the process, gettin exposed to everything that has to deal with being a part of a FIRST team. Whether it be building a robot, fundraising, public relations, spirit, leadership, team work, people skills, negotiating skills…We can go on and on about the stuff a robotics team contains.
They also need to learn how to speak teen. Not all of us speak engineer. I am not a programmer, nor do i know anything about calculus or trig. LOL, pleeeeeez break it down for me. Lay out this bag of snakes.
The most important thing of a mentor is to understand the goal of FIRST. For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.
I think that the number 1 most important thing that makes a person a good mentor is that they care. Whether they have any knowledge whatsoever about robotics, if a mentor doesn’t care, they won’t make a difference. On our team, passion about the team is basically a mentor requirement. Though we love all of our mentors, I’ll talk about some of our most popular mentors.
One of everyone’s favorite mentors is Ken Velzy. Though I’m not sure how active he is in FIRST as a whole, he is a big influence on our team. Whenever a wrongdoing is committed he assigns push-ups. Now in all reality, no one actually has to do push-ups, though it is funny watching the freshman look at him trying to decide if he’s serious. Things such as tardiness, sassing back (even jokingly), and overall annoyences to Ken result in pushups. Ken is an active mentor who truly shows that he gives a care about us.
Another of our favorite mentors is Tom Nader. Also known on this site as a UFH, Tom is loved because of his involvement with our team as well. He’s always there, whether for a HOT Team event, graduation parties, senior pictures, or anything else you could possibly imagine (and trust me, on our team the unimagineable comes true).
I could seriously go on and on typing about each of our mentors and what a difference they make on our team, but I’m sure that you’ve all stopped reading by now, so I’ll wrap it up with this thought.
The entire team depends on the mentors. Mentors shape how successful a team is. A mentor who cares is the key to a good team.