Have fun! The aim at the end of the day is to show learners that coding and tech is nothing to be afraid of, but rather a lot of fun. This holds true for our mentors - let your enthusiasm and passion guide you through your mentoring experience.

Dos and Don’ts!

Do…

• Be nice
• Treat people with respect
• Listen carefully, even when you got the question straight away
• Explain/discuss so mentee come to answer by themselves - promote independence
• Be prepared
• Be enthusiastic
• Be encouraging but honest
• Point on achieved success
• Be accessible to the mentee
• Teach by example
• Learn how to look for solution - as it what devs do most of the time

Don’t…

• Don’t assume people know something - ask them
• There is no stupid questions
• Never say - ‘oh, it’s easy!’, ‘you don’t know what is …?’
• Take over: do not do what the mentees should be doing themselves
• If person doesn’t understand - don’t repeat yourself, try to find new words or explanation
• Expect to bond immediately. It takes time
• Adopt an authoritative tone
• Don’t be a teacher, be a study-buddy
• Don’t be afraid to admit when you are wrong or uncertain. Learning together will strengthen a relationship
• Don’t take it personally if a mentee does not heed your advice

After the workshop

If you don’t mind spending some time helping people after the workshop, we encourage you to stay in touch with your team. It is great to have a mentor - somebody to ask a question if you are stuck with something.

Improve the tutorial

In fact, it’s helpful to do it even during the workshop. If you see that something in the tutorial is wrong, take the 5 minutes to submit a pull request right away. Or even better: teach your group how to do it! It’s important to do it right away, otherwise you will forget. Believe us, we’ve all been there.

If for some reason, you can’t do it right away, at least report an issue. The tutorial is getting invaluably better with each event that takes place. It is important.

Share your experience with us

Teaching others is a very hard thing. You will learn a lot during the workshop and we would be happy to hear about your experiences as a mentor.

Please share all your findings with us. We will keep making the tutorial better and more complete.

Drop us a line at info@musescodejs.org.

Stay in touch with your group

As much as possible, please stay in touch with your group after the event. Answer their questions, encourage them to follow on with programming or invite them to your local JavaScript and women in tech meetups. It’s super important to have a friendly face in the community.