The following are some suggestions and tools to use to
maintain effective communication between coaches and mentors
throughout the SciFair program.
Phone
We highly recommend keeping in touch by phone. This is especially useful:
- Before starting a program (while filling out the Coach-Mentor Program
Agreement).
- For decision-making at major planning points. The SciFair process
forms are designed to give you some ideas of the things you might
need to discuss at these points.
- When something frustrating or unexpected happens.
- When problems prevent other forms of communication.
You should keep track of working phone numbers for each other.
Staff phone numbers are on the contacts page, and the lab phone number
(where mentors generally work) is 607-254-8765. Mentors can use
that phone to call sites individually, or use Margaret's or Cathy's office
for speakerphone access.
It is a good idea to have a list of what you need to discuss, tell,
or find out before starting conference calls, and to write
everything down.
Email
Email is a great way to pass information back and forth. Coaches and
mentors should check their email regularly and make sure you have the
right address for everyone. You can consider a system for marking
your message subjects so they are obvious. You should definitely
carbon-copy all of your program's mentors and coaches on each email so
that everybody is in the loop.
It is a good idea to come up with a regular way to share your
perspectives on the experiences of each session. One way to do this
is to email each other a summary of what you think happened from
your perspective after each session, and what you expect to see
accomplished (or more formal plans) a while before each session. The
mentors could email the contents of the Weekly
Session Plan and Log form each week, and the coaches to could give
feedback on it. Mentors might also consider regularly sending copies of
the session chat logs to the coaches each week.
CUni Chat
It can be very helpful to meet before or after the session each
day and use chat to discuss plans or experiences. Consider
setting up regular meetings to do this, or a way of communicating
when it is needed.
Regularly using whispers, telegrams, etc to discuss "behind the scenes" what is happening
can also help a lot. It is difficult for mentors to guess what
is happening in a classroom.
Instant Messaging
All coaches (if possible) and mentors should be logged into Windows Live Messenger
and on each others' contact lists during each session, and any other time
you are working on the program. You should also have the program staff
on your contact list (staff all use their primary email addresses as their
IM addresses). This can be an easier way to communicate than CUni chat
in many cases, such as when you are having technical problems with CUni,
are moving between worlds, or are outside of CUni for whatever reason.
It is also usually a faster way to contact staff than email in
cases where phone isn't necessary.
