Mentor’s Guide

Feeling good about thinking big!

Aspirations

Aspirations

Thank you for offering your invaluable help to the

students on today‟s programme.

The aspirations programme aims to help students

build their confidence in relation to their own

capabilities and future plans.

Often, particularly at a young age, it can be difficult to

think about making the most of future opportunities.

Planning the future is a challenge because the future

can seem a very long way away.

Today is an opportunity for the students to consider

four key elements that will help them in planning and

achieving their aspirational dreams:

Thinking big

Getting going …. and keeping going!

Planning

Self-belief

Every student will be introduced to each of these

areas, with your support, through interactive and

experiential learning zones.

Your support will help the students to plan

effectively for the challenges and choices ahead

of them.

Using this Mentor’s Guide

This guide is designed to support you in mentoring

the students through their day. During the day you will

be working with different groups, each made up of

approximately 10 students.

During this time we will help them to understand how

to create aspirational goals, how to get going and

keep going, how to plan for success and how to

maintain self belief.

Each group of students will have approximately 20

minutes in each area so, needless to say, it will be

fast and furious!

The four learning zones will each present the students

with a challenge. To introduce the challenge to the

students, simply read out the challenge description on

the left hand page under each zone.

The right hand page is there to help you with ideas

that will support the students through their challenges.

You will never be “on your own!” MoCo support staff

will be on hand at all times to help facilitate the

challenges and school staff will be on hand should

there be any behavioural issues.

Have a great day!

Learning Zone: Think Big!

Introduction:

“This zone is all about creating a BIG future. In order

to help you do this you will each be given:

A large green balloon

Marker pens

A bull dog clip

Access to an air pump

“Working in pairs you will be asked to create your BIG

futures on the BIG balloons. Once you get your

balloons, you will need to write the following words:

‘People’, ‘Education’, ‘Fun’ and ‘Experience’

“Pump up your balloons until they are the size of a

small melon and then seal them with the bulldog clip.

You then have five minutes to add more detail to each

of these areas, thinking about where you would like to

be in one year‟s time.

“Blow up the balloon again to the size of a basket ball.

Reseal the balloon and spend five minutes adding

more detail about where you would like to be in two

year‟s time.

“Finally, blow up the balloon until it is fully inflated and

repeat the exercise, thinking about five year‟s time”

Learning Zone: Think Big!

Supporting Information:

Aspirational thinking is often difficult because we can

feel overwhelmed by trying to „think big‟.

This exercise breaks the thought process down into

chunks in two ways. Firstly we give the students four

specific topics to think about, and then we gradually

increase the time span. By working in pairs (or threes

if you have an odd number) they can help each other

to come up with ideas.

As a mentor you can also support this thought

process by asking the students lots of open questions

if they get stuck. Open questions will tend to start

with:

Who, what, when, where, why, how or which?

Eg

Which subjects might you be studying?

What might you be doing for a hobby?

Who would you like to be with you?

When would you like to have done xxx by?

Where would you like to do that ideally?

How would you like to feel?

Why have you written xxx specifically?

Learning Zone: Get Going! …. and keep going

Introduction:

“This zone is all about motivation. Motivation is simply

movement – DOING SOMETHING! Often in life, if we

perceive something to be difficult we are put off

having a go.

“In this challenge you will be given one plate and one

stick. Your goal is to get the plate to spin on the stick

as fast as it can and then to keep the plate spinning,

no matter what other tasks you are asked to

complete.

“During this challenge it is very likely that you will drop

your plate. If so you simply need to pick it up and

start it spinning again.

“There are no limits as to how many times you are

allowed to restart. You may, if you wish, work

together, or you may work on your own. The only

stipulation is that you all have plates spinning.”

Learning Zone: Get Going! …. and keep going

Supporting Information:

This activity is all about rising to a challenge and doing something positive. The metaphor we are building here is that sometimes we will all “drop the plate” and having the ability to keep going is a positive life skill. Notice, and point out, that it is possible to laugh when we „drop our plates‟ and just carry on. Some people will get frustrated with the activity, but keeping trying in the face of frustration is another opportunity to praise. Once individuals begin to get the hang of it, increase the challenge by getting them to:

Spin the plate faster

Spin it in the other direction

Change hands

Give them a second plate

Swap with somebody else

Close their eyes

Hold the stick with both hands

Etc

Learning Zone: Plan!

Introduction: “You will be split into four groups. Each group will be provided with a Big Trak programmable vehicle and allocated a corner square on the foam mat. “Your challenge, as a team, is to programme the vehicle so that it will move completely across the mat without hitting the obstacles or any other Big Trak vehicles. “There will be three other Big Trak vehicles travelling across the mat at the same time. Your vehicle must not come into contact with any other vehicle. “You will be given ten minutes to plan your first journey, before being instructed to try your plan. “Once you have completed your first run you will be given a further five minutes to adjust your original plan, based upon your observations during the first run”.

Learning Zone: Plan!

Supporting Information:

This activity illustrates the importance of planning.

There are two key parts to this exercise:

Planning within the group

Planning between groups

The students will be put into a situation in which they

need to think ahead, communicate effectively, listen

to other people‟s ideas and finally reach an

agreement.

Once they have completed the first run they will have

the opportunity to review the activity objectively. As a

mentor your input may well focus around discussing:

“What went well?” rather than “who was right?”

and

“What could change?” rather than “who was wrong?”

Look out for opportunities to praise clear thought and

objective thinking.

Learning Zone: Believe!

Introduction:

“This challenge gives you the opportunity to achieve the seemingly impossible. “On each of these tables you will see various items: on one table you will see some eggs, on another you will see some dominoes, and on the third, you will see some loose nails and some nails partly hammered into pieces of wood “You must work out how to:

Balance 11 loose nails onto one upright nail

Balance 13 dominoes onto one domino that is standing on its end

Solve the conundrum of the MoCo Paper “You have approximately five minutes to solve as many of these puzzles as you can. When you have achieved it, get my attention so that I can witness it for you. “After five minutes or so, we will give you a hint or two, to see if it makes a difference.”

Learning Zone: Believe!

Supporting Information:

This zone is about building confidence. Each student

will finish the activity having completed at least one

challenge that seemed impossible to begin with.

After the initial five minutes of trying to achieve the

goals, we will show the students a short video that

gives them the solutions to each challenge. Once

they have seen the solutions they will be asked to try

again.

As soon as a student completes any of the seemingly

impossible challenges, you will issue them with a

certificate, upon which they will write their names and

you will sign it as a witness.

The object of the exercise is to form an „anchor‟; a

time to which the students can recall achieving the

impossible. This can be a powerful message to look

back on in times of future uncertainty.

Finally.

Thank you for your involvement and support during the day. Having a mentor with „life experience‟ is a great benefit to the students when putting this theory into practice. During the day you have encouraged the students to think positively about their future. You have helped them to consider the options available to them and to understand that it is their choices and their attitude that will play a large part in their future success. Without your time, today would not have been possible.

Thank you.

About MoCo Development

MoCo offers a wide range of „communication skills‟, „team building‟ and

„personal effectiveness‟ programs.

To find out more about MoCo Development Ltd visit:

www.go-moco.co.uk

© Copyright – MoCo Development Ltd 2010.