What is a Mentor Circle?
In Spring 2019, we introduced "Mentor Circles" for the first time. The Allen School has kindly
allowed us to hire 3-4 part time TAs, each whom will conduct one hour long mentor circles
each week where they will meet in small groups of about 5-6 students.
Students in these groups, with the assistance of their "Mentor TA," will work
to complete any of the section material that wasn't finished in class,
go over questions from previous sections or lectures, and perhaps help
brainstorm ideas for creative projects. The mentor circles will
NOT be a place to get help with homework assignments, however.
Ultimately the goal of the Mentor Circle is to build a place where
students can solidify knowledge and confidence in the course material so they will be
able to more easily complete the homework assignments on their own. Furthermore,
it is a place for students to form a small cohort and community with others in the
course.
Who is a Mentor Circle for?
Mentor Circles are open to all, but preference will be given to students who
have less prior programming experience and who are willing to commit to
at least 6 weeks of our meeting times.
What times are the circles and who are running them?
Mentorship assignments will be finalized at the end of the first week depending on survey responses.
How do I sign up?
Fill out this form
by *Insert Date*.
When will they start?
The goal is to start this as soon as possible so students can begin to form their
cohort that will last through the quarter. We also want to be able to support
students as we are ramping up on HTML/CSS and Git.
Our goal is to start the circles on Week 1, even though the window
to sign up will not yet be closed. We would like to make sure students have an opportunity
to do extra work on our Week 1 section material or their creative project before it
is due.
Where did this awesome idea come from?
Giving credit where credit is due: This idea was born out of a conversation
with Kevin Lin
from UC Berekely regarding his very successful work with mentoring groups there.