It has been a long and challenging process, but I now have a mentor for my in-depth project! She is a grade 12 student who is doing an independent study with Ms. Croft. Her name is Nina and I met with her on Thursday with Amin. Nina has been interested in watercolour painting from a very young age and has been watercolour painting since grade 1, but started taking lessons in grade 10. During the meeting, we went over how the next few months would look like and what the overall plan was. Amin and I talked about what we are hoping to get out of this experience and discussed questions Nina or Amin and I had. We also outlined the mentoring sessions and Ms. Croft and Nina explained that Nina could teach a lesson in each meeting. She could demonstrate the techniques and we would work on it during the session and ask her any questions we may have. Then we would practice during the time before the next meeting and maybe have some homework to complete. Nina seems like a very kind and dedicated person and we are very grateful and excited to work with her for the next few months. Regarding the paperwork, we are hoping to hand in the forms early next week.
Amin and I will be having bi-weekly mentoring sessions with Nina on Thursdays. We have reviewed the schedule, and there will be six more meetings in total. Each session will be 40 minutes as we will be meeting at lunchtime. This is what works best for us as Nina is a very busy person and Amin and I also have extracurriculars and sports after school. We will be communicating with Nina via Instagram direct messages and in-person as she is a student at Gleneagle. We will also be meeting in the art room because it has watercolour supplies and equipment if needed, and access to a sink. It is also a good working environment as it is quiet and organized.
- What went particularly well during your mentoring sessions?
We have only had one session so far because I had a hard time finding a mentor, but I think the first meeting went very well. One thing that went particularly well was communication. Although it was a short meeting, we managed to cover all of the areas we wanted to, and planned the rest of our meetings. We all asked and answered important questions we had and made sure to be open while communicating our thoughts and ideas. Nina seems like a very understanding and kind-hearted person, and I feel that it was an additional positive to our mentoring session.
- Were you actually listening to each other? Explain
During our introduction meeting, Nina, Ms. Croft, Amin and I all provided ideas and actively listened to each other. I made sure I asked any clarification questions I had and also made sure that Nina and Ms. Croft were clear with what our plan was. We all thoroughly discussed our ideas and presented our questions and gave answers. All of us actively participated in the discussion and made sure we were all on the same page. Strong communication and active listening ensured that everyone understood what was going on and would not need further clarification.
- What logical challenges affected your communication?
At first, I didn’t have Nina’s contact information, so I was emailing and talking to Ms. Croft in person to relay information. This was not an effective way of communicating because it is a lot slower than communicating one-on-one. Then, I got Nina’s email and we communicated from there. Although that improved our communication, it still wasn’t ideal because it was inconvenient to send an email every time you had a question or something to say. At the first meeting, we decided that direct messages on Instagram would be an effective way of communication because we all had it and used it daily. Now I can text Nina when there is a question or something that needs to be talked about comes up.
Finding a mentor was the biggest obstacle to overcome so far but I know there will be many more throughout my in-depth journey. Our next mentoring session is set for Thursday next week. I am looking forward to learning a lot from Nina and excited to see how it goes! From now until Thursday, I will be communicating with Nina about the paperwork and anything else that comes up. I also plan on purchasing supplies this weekend so I can start practicing the various techniques I have been looking at. I have read about the basics of watercolour painting and will continue to research and learn new things from online resources because I would like to move forward in my in-depth journey.
I am excited for next Thursday and more updates to follow.