Being Mentored by Mentored Mentors

Sometimes a circle is the most perfect shape there is.

For the past year, Darren Kuropatwa has had several people mentoring his blogging highschool students. Leaving a constant string of in - depth comments on their blogs, these people push his students' thinking into new waters constantly. They are some of the best commenters I have ever seen. This year, Darren and I talked about his students giving back a bit of what they have received.

We have set up a system where several of his highschool students are now leaving comments for the students involved in the thinwalls project. These hugely mature and talented students are driving commenting to new heights in our blogosphere, leaving behind them a string of deep thoughts. Interestingly, these students are posting their comments on a blog here for all to see. As well, one of their math blog mentors, Lani Ritter Hall has picked up on this comment blog and is leaving advice for them about their comments. So lets get all of this straight: Darren's students were mentored on their blogs through comments. They stretch their wings and act as mentors themselves on other blogs. Their original mentors now are mentoring them to be good mentors for others.

Oh. Did I mention as well that Alec Couros had some of his digital interns working as mentors with Darren's kids as well? So university students mentoring highschool students who are mentoring middle school students. LAst year we worked as mentors to a group of grade five students in Georgia so the string was even further extended.

Its all about giving back.

Photo Credit: "Serene Circles" : http://www.kazuya-akimoto.com/2006/2006images/IMG_4777_serene_circles.jpg    

Tags: darrenkuropatwa, lani ritter hall, mentors, blog, alec couros

Comments

[Wesley Fryer]

Wow. Kudos to all involved. I think these dynamics would be a rich and worthwhile topic for a dissertation and other academic reasearch. Is there a wiki somewhere the mentors have put together which articulates best practices?