Information for Teachers & Mentors

About Electronic Mentoring

Electronic Mentoring uses e-mail and the Internet to link Native American adults with Native American students nationwide.

Electronic Mentoring aims to:

• broaden students' knowledge in a particular subject area
• introduce student to a professional in the field they are studying
• let mentors share their knowledge with interested students
• give students an opportunity to work with Native American adults
• allow Native American adults to meet Native American students.

How to Get Involved

Teachers identify a subject area in their curriculum that would be enhanced by the input of an expert. Teachers search the mentor database in order to find a prospective mentor in the appropriate subject area. Teachers contact the mentoring project coordinator, Heather Ball, who contacts the mentor/s and arranges communication. The development of the mentor-classroom relationship is up to the teacher, mentor and students.

Technical Requirements

Teachers and mentors must to have access to the Internet. First Class e-mail accounts will be provided to all participants.

Do students work as a group or individually?

This is up to the teacher, mentor and students. While group communication is well-suited to younger students, older students often benefit from the opportunity to express themselves individually.

Good Electronic Mentoring Projects

Good Electronic Mentoring Projects are ones that provide students with the opportunity to learn something they can't find in books. This often means adding a human element to a theoretical subject. The input of the mentor should add to, rather than duplicate, the information already available to the students.

What does an Electronic Mentoring Project look like?

1. Teacher and mentor communicate via e-mail and get to know one another.
2. Teacher and mentor develop a structured format for communication, including goals and evaluation standards.
3. Teacher provides background on students.
4. Teacher explains the Electronic Mentoring Project to students, and provides background on the mentor.
5. Teacher introduces mentor and students to one another.
6. Mentor and students get a chance to informally ask questions of each other, either individually or in groups.
7. Mentor and students interact in structured lessons geared towards explicit goals.
8. Students evaluate the content of their interaction with the mentor.
9. Students continue to interact with the mentor, defining their information needs and the role of the mentor.
10. Students synthesize classroom knowledge with mentor information for a final product.
11. Teacher and mentor discuss the results of the student-mentor interaction.
12. Teacher and mentor submit report about Electronic Mentoring Project for other prospective participants to use.

Electronic Mentoring works best when:

• teacher, mentor and students understand the way the project works
• goals of the mentor-student interaction are explicitly stated
• mentor-student interaction is structured
• students have a particular, interesting and important information need that can be filled by the mentor's expert knowledge
• teachers and students discuss and evaluate the mentor-student interaction.

Please direct questions and comments to Heather Ball.

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