How should we mentor new instructors?

[gvwilson]

During a recent (June 2014) discussion on the mailing list, @abostroem suggested a mentoring program for new instructors. Several other people liked the idea, so let's use this issue to discuss the mechanics - in particular, what would mentoring actually entail, and do we pair newcomers with experienced instructors at the start of training, part-way through, or...?

[gdevenyi]

I envision a mentoring program as trying our best to pair a new instructor with a experienced and active one for their first bootcamp, and the "lead instructor" actually going through all of the behind the scenes steps (via email etc). This will be a lot easier when we have checklists for bootcamps.

I guess pairing could happen earlier on in the instructor's training, perhaps there's somewhere the mentors could be fit in earlier.

[BernhardKonrad]

I like the idea that the mentor comes in at some point during the training. This would also connect current instructors more to what is happening at the training.

[karinlag]

I think the most useful and long lasting would be that the mentor came in during the prep for the first bootcamp that new instructor would be teaching. It is only when you sit down and are going to do things for your self for the first time that all of those niggly questions show up - what is really the answer to exercise 2, I fouled up my commit to the bootcamp repo, how do I pace the first lesson etc. It would be useful if that person was also involved in the bootcamp in question, but I don't think that would be a necessity. It should however be somebody who had taught the sessions that the new instructor will be teaching.

[naupaka]

+1 to somehow making an explicit effort to pair people with a mentor for the first bootcamp in particular. Maybe having people note down if it is their first bootcamp when they sign up on the instructor etherpad and have the other, presumably more experienced, instructor take on the mentoring role.

[PBarmby]

I think ideally new instructors would be bootcamp helpers first, then paired with a more-experienced instructor, but that may not always be possible. I liked the idea which came up on last week's call of having new instructors be "virtual instructors" (active on the Etherpad, or some other method) before being put in front of a room full of people. This could help with issues of time and geographical constraints as well. Having a "how do I do this?" mentoring session (via Hangout/Skype/whatever) shortly before a bootcamp starts also sounds like a good plan.

[rgaiacs]

Don't know why @PBarmby close this one. I'm reopen it.

[PBarmby]

Accidental, sorry.

[timClicks]

I may be an outlier - but I would be okay with recording myself and uploading it somewhere for review and feedback. But would anyone take the time to review those lessons? That seems like a big thing to ask of volunteer mentors.

[chendaniely]

From an e-mail conversation with @gvwilson

they should have to teach several times, and most of those should be existing material, not changes or additions.

I'm :+1: for this because there is a lot of material in the repo and this will at least force them to get to know a small part of it instead of creating something new. During teaching round 8, we were asked to do a webcast of a PR, I would suggest instead of a PR, teach something straight out of the existing material.