Mentors Anonymous aka Teacher's Lounge, whichever is cleverer

[steve kim]

dear mentors,

in here mentors chew the cud. what trials and tribulations have befallen you? what has surprised and delighted you? what excuse made you roll your eyes back and keep them there? how does it feel to be on the other side of the teacher/student dynamic for a change and how might you do things differently?

just wondering. dunno where else to post this so here it is!

edit: would be delighted to hear from real instructors too! not necessarily just m-m-mentors. i know you're out there!

[Chance.]

I'll get the ball rolling. This is a great idea.

I have not truly begun mentoring yet. It took me a while to find a mentee.
It was more difficult than I thought. The thing is, I want someone who is displaying some dedication. There are an amazing number of people who either have just joined CA or have been around for a while but have not posted hardly anything. Nothing makes me more wary than a join date of half a year ago with 10 whole posts to their name. If I am going to invest the time to teach someone I'd like to see some initiative.

So for anyone searching for a mentor who may be reading this. Get a sketchbook and start posting as much art as you can. It looks really good to the guys(and gals) searching for students.

Thankfully I have finally hooked up with someone I think will be pretty dedicated.

This is my first truly "teaching" experience so it may be a bumpy ride, but I hope to learn a lot along the way.

[Seedling]

Teehee! Hiya! Can this thread be read by everyone?

The ball is firmly rolling for my classroom thingy, and Ilaekae will be teaching with me there. This should hopefully give the unattached folks who are wanting a mentor something to do in the mean time.

I, too, would like to hear from real-life teachers. I know you’re out there!

[DIMAGYAN]

one thing i found interesting and complex beside the comunication is explain what you do.

explain many things you do (by instinct, by learning, experience, etc) in a clear well presented way. and it has to be understandable.

one thing i want to avoid is the "how to..." type of explanation.

"teaching" is a very nice way to learn(i feel that way)

as for tribulations that would be doubts about my skills and knowledge, if there would be of some use for someone.

but a nice experience so far.

[Moai]

I think I've learned as much as my mentees just in doing the research for my lessons. And it makes me feel really good when random non-mentees pop in and tell me how much they're enjoying reading along.:bashful:

[Justin.]

-sigh-

[Seedling]

Hmm. . . seeing as this doesn’t have the privacy that an actual teacher’s lounge would have, this thread has the potential to turn ugly. I advise any of you who have had frustrations with mentees to contact a fellow mentor through PM to let off steam or seek advice. I would hate to see your frustrations with one person become irreconcilable or foul up a future relationship with another.

[chaosrocks]

in other words... please don't vent here. I was hoping it would be more like a place for teaching techniques that work, and stuff

and Justin...I have a trout..and know how to use it
chaos

[arttorney]

Mmmm. Trout!

I think it is a fun challenge to integrate lessons containing what the Mentee has asked for with information the Mentee should also have. It is fun to orchestrate exercises leading up (hopefully) to a point where the lights suddenly come on in somebody's thoughts and perceptions.

[Seedling]

Something I saw again and again as a mentor at icouldbe.org is that mentees will always start out eager and then lose interest. Looking back on my experiences as a student I see the same pattern in my own learning. So don’t be bummed when your mentees lose momentum or drop out. Consider it a challenge to keep their interest up, and consider each week that they stay motivated a success. Or take on a new one and keep going. :)

In the role of a teacher/mentor, sometimes it’s easy to forget how hard it is to be a student. And as a mentee here, it’s easy to go leaping into a mentorship that looks all shiny and fun, only to realize that there is real work involved. So there is likely to be a lot of churn as mentees and mentors hook up and then break up. Don’t sweat it; it’s all a part of the process.

[mybutterflyiris]

Too right you are seedling. I was just telling that to one of my mentees before taking them on. Art isn't always "fun"... sometimes you have to endure in order to better yourself. In the end, I think it's worth it. The trick is to genuinely love what you're doing and be determined.
Personally, I'm excited to see what will unfold from this...seeing others grow and improve is always encouraging to one's own artistic endeavors.
On another note, I think this will be an interesting learning experience as a mentor. For example I just learned the value of making a mentoring thread lol. :bashful: :bashful: what can I say...I still have a lot to learn.

[chaosrocks]

hey teachers
although Im not a mentor, to my shame. I kind think of myself as fosteringthe whole mentor system. Justin I didn't mean t for you to delete it. its valid experience.and seddling's was probably the most valid response. As far as Im concerned if this whole business makes a few
friendship and solid learnign relationships it has suceedded. there are a number of pair ups that aren't posting here
but i think they are working none the less
Im sure a few have failed. The closure of Steves Class saddens me . but a lot of the other one seem to be going well. Attrition is expected.
thanksyou all for volunteering andpersevering
crx

[Seedling]

The closure of Steves Class . . .

Oh no! What happened? :(

[steve kim]

Oh no! What happened? :(

i knew i had to get around making a statement :).

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=110320

since the forum is locked i've pasted it here as well:

--

well i guess should make an announcement since some people have been wondering...

long story short my class of 15 when from 14 assignments turned in on time, to 10 or something, to only 6. so i decided to end things before it just got plain said.

i expected a dropout rate of about 30-40% over severals weeks but not over 60% in 4 weeks.

i feel bad for the students who consistently handed their work in but with the amount of time i put in the video lectures and critiques i couldn't justify it.

in the end i learned quite a bit and i hope that pound for pound the students who participated got something out of it. we only got to scratch the surface but a scratch is better than nothing, especially if you're really itchy!

i personally take it as a sign to either approach this kind of thing on a more professional level (tuition/fee-based) or drop the idea altogether. i'm not sure which way i'll go.

thanks to the admins for taking the time out to setup this sub-section, i really appreciated it and i feel bad it has ended so prematurely.

i'm personally going to archive the threads so since the class is over i guess you can delete/archive it as well (just let me know in advance!).

steve

[_ J]

Steve:
If you are not really determined to end the class completely then I may be able to give you some advices on how to continue it in some alternative arrangements. (pm me in this case)

If you are determined, it's fine too.:)

[Jacob Kobryn]

Well I haven't been doing my own assignments and my mentoree hasn't been doing his so I guess we're even :P

[chaosrocks]

get to work you ingrate.....
chaos

[Ilaekae]

My first formal assignment is up. Shit should be hitting the fan over the next hour or so. Is this thing really open to the public? i mean, I'm not going to say anything bad about that little mob of lunatic bastards running loose in my thread, anyway, but it's nice to know in advance I can't come in here in hopes of convincing someone to kill one of them. Hate when they get a warning like that...:P

What's the general consensus so far on how things are working in this grand experiment?

[Chance.]

[Gulp!]

I wonder who he could possibly be talking about...

[Ilaekae]

You turned in a thumb first. You're off the hit list...this week, anyway...>:D

[arttorney]

Looks to me like people can get something out of it if they put something in. I'm seeing a reasonable to pretty good effort from a couple of young people who are probably surrounded by a million distractions in life.

For my own part, my sketchbook productivity is down in part because of mentoring, but I am learning how better to systematize my own approach to art (as I think about how to present the information in an understandable manner). Part of the drop off in sketchbook and activity productivity is due to work related issues so I am not sweating the problem per se. I am just figuring out how I can rearrange time so I can reclaim that artistic "me time." I can understand how that loss of personal production would rankle if I did not see effort from the other people in the relationship.

[Ilaekae]

Damn...I always post in the wrong place. I accidentally posted this in the mentee's clubhouse...

One thing I'm starting to notice, even this early, is that we're not going to be able to keep everybody happy every time, but they'll come back if we do something they "like." I think it's inevitable, especially with younger students, but it can make the people at this end feel like we're letting people down. Don't worry about it. All we can hope for is that something--even an inane aside reference--will stick in their brain somewhere and come back to haunt them just when they need it...and that means we're doing our jobs, I guess...

[DIMAGYAN]

my mentor "class" was over two weeks ago.
was a nice experience, i learn a lot from the mentees.
learning trough teaching is a true statement, it was really helpful for me
see what they need and try to acomplish that.

the class was short, and maybe i should say the duration of the experience since the first post, but all was made on the fly. this is something i have to considerate from now on. so i learn a bit about formal aspects of a mentor class.
i have a great time and i hope everyone of the people who participate and watch the thread too.

thanks and props for the people who run and manage this part of the forums.

[juxsen]

My only intent was to find a mentor on concept enviro design, character design, and coloring, of which I still haven't found one... I had no intention of mentoring nor was I expecting any, but the fate has dealt me a card and now I have a mentee 'Ashess'. I feel as though blind leading the blind... nevertheless I'm hoping and expecting to learn much from this experience as well as 'Ashess'

[arttorney]

It looks like the two main things needed for the long haul are

1. Ability to adapt
2. relentlessly giving a damn

Even if it seems you are away from your original game plan these things can keep you setting an example of consistency for people. They need consistency as professional artists, but if you tell mentees "draw the same thing over and over again exactly the same every day so you learn consistency" they'll quit. I guess some things get taught by example.

[ashess]

hmm I wonder if anyone ever checks this place. I have a question; I'm thinking of putting myself available for mentoring, but I have to admit my reasons for doing so are very self-centered. I just need a place to talk about drawing. not that I'd stop drawing if I cant. but I need to talk about it.. to feel like I'm learning anything. anyway, with selfish reasons like that, is it even a good idea to mentor anyone. not to mention the point that a lot of mentees drop out and disappear. and that would make me very unhappy. ye...
I suppose it could be win/win, right?