Carpentries Mentoring Groups Information Session

Carpentries Mentoring Groups

Mentoring Groups are small groups (4-5 ppl). Guided mentoring around teaching, workshop logistics, lesson maintenance and community building.

Goal: Develop and maintain mentoring groups to support instructors as they progress through training, teaching, curriculum development, and other community-related activities.

Dates and Deadlines

Round 2

Round 1

Carpentries Mentoring Groups

• Lesson Maintenance
• Contributing to current lesson development
• Contributing to lesson maintenance
• Teaching Workshops
• Developing confidence and skill in teaching
• Preparing to teach a specific lesson (i.e. Python)
• Organizing Workshops
• Logistics of organizing a workshop (e.g. marketing, registration)
• Logistics of running a workshop (e.g. recruiting instructors, distributing tasks)
• Community Building
• Strategies to build local communities
• Tried-and-true events that help foster local communities

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Pros of Mentoring Groups

Access to experienced instructors

Meeting others at a similar stage, community engagement

Timely response to questions

Clarifying why we teach what we teach

Contribute to the community

Confidence boost

Learning challenges new instructors face

Sharing teaching/research experiences in small groups

Mentoring Program Outline: Lesson Maintenance

• Introductions, review the Carpentries community culture, and communication channels.
• Review and discussion lesson objectives.
• Meeting with Lesson Maintainers to discuss challenges and opportunities.
• Review, discuss, and comment on lesson issues. Identify a representative to attend the mid-program touch base.
• Review, discuss, and comment on lesson pull requests.
• Discuss current challenge questions. Write new challenge questions to be added to the pool of challenge questions.
• Submit new challenge questions as pull requests. Draft one slide for the mentoring program showcase.
• Finish slide for mentoring program showcase. Attend mentoring program showcase.

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Mentoring Program Outline: Teaching Workshops

• Introductions, review the Carpentries community culture, and communication channels.
• Review and discuss instructor notes.
• “Tag-team” teaching each module of the lesson. Provide feedback to group members.
• First practice quarter/half day workshop with group members. Identify a representative to attend the mid-program touch base.
• Second practice quarter/half day workshop with group members. Draft one slide for the mentoring program showcase.
• Finish slide for mentoring program showcase. Attend mentoring program showcase.

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Mentoring Program Outline: Organizing Workshops

• Introductions, review the Carpentries community culture, and communication channels.
• Introduce existing workshop resources. Identify challenges for organizers.
• Walkthrough of workshop set up using checklists. Discuss workshop planning tools, e.g. Eventbrite, spreadsheets.
• Identify potential issues and how to resolve them, e.g. ‘no shows’, CoC violations, refunds. Identify sources of help.
• Draft one slide for the mentoring program showcase. Identify a representative to attend the mid-program touch base.
• Identify resource gaps, e.g. issues that are not covered by existing checklists and procedures.
• Finish slide for mentoring program showcase. Attend mentoring program showcase.

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Mentoring Program Outline: Community Building

• Introductions, review the Carpentries community culture, and communication channels.
• Discuss desired local outcome. Discuss existing community, if any. Identify stakeholders and potential supporters.
• Discuss community building methods used elsewhere (e.g. ResBaz, Hacky Hours, MeetUps, communities of practice).
• Discuss the use of communication tools such as Slack and Gitter channels.
• Identify a representative to attend the mid-program touch base.
• Draft one slide for the mentoring program showcase. Identify a representative to attend the mid-program touch base.
• Draft a plan for a local community building event that includes a marketing strategy.
• Review plans collectively. Identify gaps or further resources needed.
• Finish slide for mentoring program showcase. Attend mentoring program showcase.

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Information

Mentoring Section of Carpentries Handbook:

https://docs.carpentries.org/topic_folders/instructor_development/mentoring_groups.html

Questions