Download - Aspirations - Mentor e-Booklet
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
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