I had a guy come in once for them to talk with and just get familiar with what seniors are. They enjoyed him, he enjoyed them, everybody is happy. Now he is going on vacation, and we hope to share with him in mid November. I was a bit uncomfortable with the term mentor, too, but I don't think they can reasonably expect that every team is going to find someone who can devote a lot of time.  I think I would interpret that fairly loosely! 




Betsy Wilco
Gifted Resource Teacher
Prince William County Schools
703.754.9061
>>> Katherine Green <[log in to unmask]> 9/24/2012 10:29 AM >>>
Being a rookie myself I don't have a lot of advice.  However, I have had the kids interview grandparents even though they don't live nearby.  A couple of kids talked to my Dad via Skype and that went well.  We also interviewed an older teacher in the school who was more than happy to help out.  A couple of the kids are talking to grandparents this weekend over the phone.  We made a list of 9 questions as a team that all the kids are using to interview a few people.  I figure from this mix of folks we came circle in on an issue/solution.  Then depending on which issue it is we will present the solution to the senior that had that issue.

Our interviews did not take more than 1/2 hour and we were able to get a lot of good information and do some good brainstorming afterwards.  I don't think you have to have the person necessarily come to your meetings.  You could have one or two kids perform an interview and report to the group what they discovered.  I think it is intimidating to ask for too much time from people for this project.  I figure we present back the solution to the people we talked to and that shouldn't be too difficult either.

The rules do say that you can research a famous senior as well, if you are having too much trouble finding a real live person.

Just my thoughts from another rookie coach.

Katherine

---- Brandy bergenstock <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
> This has not been done before- in my 3 short year at FLL- so I can't answer that question from experience. Our senior mentor task is proving quite vexing for us.  We just got rejection number 8 last week!   So my kids made up a survey of 12 questions to send to seniors, hoping that would ease them into the conversation of one of them becoming a mentor.  Maybe they would like to talk more about their answers to the questions? :)  I told the possible mentors that it would two meetings- one to talk and discuss, and one to see the solution in the presentation. Then they could give further feedback.

  I really appreciate FLL's goal in helping make the solution personal to the kids.  It also gives the kids an opportunity to connect to a member of the community in a meaningful way.  I'm finding most of my kids don't live near their grandparents, and at least 1 had NO experience with seniors. It's like they didn't exist in her world.  So while this task of finding a mentor is proving way more difficult then I had first believed, I hope the kids get a lot out of it.

Brandy



________________________________
 From: Lori Hand <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2012 9:42 AM
Subject: [VADCFLL-L] THe Project Mentor ?
 
Hi Everyone

Forgive me for my newbie questions, I am a rookie coach with an all rookie
team.  our goal is to maybe be in the running for the rookie award as it
seems this FLL thing is pretty challenging indeed.  

Anyways -  We are still locating a Senior Mentor. I have read the info and
my question is - how much time should we prepare our Senior Mentor for?  I
would like to make sure we are up front with our mentor on how much time we
might need.  Any thoughts on how many times to meet with a mentor for the
project?  It seems like it could just be one meeting but I am wondering if
there is hidden needs to meet with the mentor for more time.


thanks
L

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