Mentor FAQs on Submissions | Modern Classrooms Help Center

Each mentee brings a unique context to their learning experience. As you continue in your mentor journey, you may come across new situations! Leverage these commonly asked questions for our recommended practice.

💡 Remember, you can also reach out to other Expert Mentors in our #mentors-only Slack channel or review our Mentor Checklist for Submission Scoring resource.

Do I need to score my mentee's Orientation Mastery Check?

No, you do not need to take any action on your mentee's Orientation Mastery Check. This is optional for mentees.

Though you will receive an email notification when your mentee has completed the Orientation module in our course platform, you do not need to score it.

The purpose of Mentee Orientation in Moodle is to help mentees get acquainted with our model and orient them to our Mentorship Program. The questions in the Orientation Mastery check are informal and optional and do not affect your mentee's course completion status.

My mentee needs support submitting their Course Companion link in Moodle.

Check out the resources under "Submissions" ("Turning in a Submission") to support your mentee with successfully sharing a linked document in Moodle and formally submitting each submission. For clarity on scoring, watch a video walkthrough or read step-by-step directions.

My mentee's links are not publicly accessible.

If a link is not publicly accessible, score the submission as a "0" in Moodle. Do not submit an activity entry at this point. Email the mentee to request access, then wait for the new submission attempt to score and provide feedback.

We know this is can be a challenge! We remind mentees to submit public links whenever and wherever possible, and we have created this handy guide to share with mentees.

How can my mentee resubmit a submission?

Revising and resubmitting assignments is common! Encourage and reassure your mentees that this is a part of learning the model. They will resubmit in the same way they turned in their first attempt.

Go to the submission in Moodle.
Click on "Redo submission." This creates a new attempt for mentees to upload a link to their Course Companion.
- (If your mentee enrolled before Summer 2024) Click on "Preview Submission Now." This creates a new attempt. Any new attempt automatically pulls responses from the previous submission. Mentees can then focus on revising/editing specific components.
After editing, continue the prompts to fully submit the assignment again.

My mentee can't find my feedback.

In the Moodle course platform, your mentees can access their Course Companion (or their Feedback Journal if they enrolled before Summer 2024) in the "Personalized Supports" block on the right-hand side of the course platform. We recommend that you re-share the Course Companion (or Feedback Journal) with your mentee each time you update it.

You can re-share the Google Doc, tag your mentee in a comment to send a notification, or send your mentee an email each time you update, but make sure your mentee is aware! This step is very important, as it is the only way your mentees know that their submission has been reviewed!

My mentee submission videos that they did not create or from YouTube.

To complete our Mentorship Program, a mentee must:

Submit at least three original, teacher-created instructional videos.
Provide a mastery check for each lesson.
Complete each Must Do element of the culminating submission.

If a mentee has not met this mark, please do not approve the submission. If your mentee added supplemental videos that they did not create, that's fine!

If your mentee contests or has additional questions, please reach out to mentorship@modernclassrooms.org for further guidance and we can support you and/or the mentee directly.

My mentee submitted another Modern Classroom educator's work.

Mentees who are unsure how to implement our model for their students may occasionally submit work they’ve taken directly from our website or course.

It’s generally acceptable to approve submissions that are explicitly modeled off our exemplars - unless it’s an exact copy - but encourage educators to adjust our templates to make them their own. For instance, you might offer feedback such as:

“I see that your [submission] is very similar to one of our exemplars. This is okay for now, but I’d strongly encourage you to adjust this and make this your own, so it meets the needs of your unique students. Our teachers spent a lot of time refining their materials and system to meet their own students’ needs, and I think you’ll be better off over time if you can do the same.”

Of course, you should adjust the language above to fit the situation and your voice!

My mentee hasn't taken any of my feedback into account.

Use your best judgment here. If you think that the mentee really wants to improve and has just missed your feedback, then feel free to reiterate it and ask for resubmission.

We also find it very effective to voiceover your feedback during a coaching call - feel free to request a call to speak live. Mentees may be more responsive to feedback through a conversation.

If, however, you feel that giving more feedback will not be a good use of your time, feel free to approve the final unit plan (assuming it meets all minimum requirements) and note the mentee’s lack of responsiveness on the Mentee Evaluation Form. If you continue to be challenged, don't hesitate to reach out to us (mentorship@modernclassrooms.org).

I won't be able to meet the two-day/one-week feedback timeline. What do I do?

We understand life happens! If you are unable to provide feedback within the two day/one week timeframe:

🚫 If you cannot review the submission or support your mentee(s) moving forward: email us at mentorship@modernclassrooms.org as soon as possible, including URGENT in the email subject line. Our team will follow up to either reassign the submission or reassign the mentee moving forward.
⏳ If you need more time (if you're sick, traveling, etc.): email your mentee directly to let them know your delayed timeline and copy mentorship@modernclassrooms.org. Provide feedback as soon as you can, ideally on the third business day. Let us know how we can support you!

We will make note of this, but you might still receive automated reminders to review the submission.

My mentee skipped assignments or submitted out of order.

It is not required to review or turn in submissions in a sequential order, though we encourage mentees to submit #1-4 first. Please provide feedback and approve as long as the submission meets all requirements.

I'm not sure how to grade my mentee's work. Should I approve the submission?

Just as you would with any student, please use your professional judgment to grade your mentee’s work. 💡 Check out this step-by-step checklist to review submissions.

Submissions should be graded either 0 (Redo) or 1 (Complete) in the Moodle course platform. By complete, we mean that the mentee has met the minimum requirements of the submission. Lean on the rubrics in the Course Companion. A mentee should redo and resubmit a submission that does not meet these requirements.

💡 You can always seek perspectives from other Expert Mentors in the #mentors-only Slack channel or refer back to your learning content from Mentor Academy.

What's the recommended length of a video? My mentee's video seems too long or too short.

Our recommended practice for videos is 6 - 9 minutes. This length is based on research-based best practices for learner engagement.

If your mentee submits a video longer than 9 minutes, you can use your best judgment to request a revision and shorten the video.

My mentee asked me about grading policies. What can I share?

While MCP does not offer specific guidance on grading, you can direct your mentees to our curated examples of grading policies. This site offers subject and level-specific examples to guide your mentees around grading.

I've already reviewed a submission, but it's listed as open on my Mentor Activity Hub, Mentor Digest email, or in the Grade Me block.

There are a few reasons why you see a submission listed as open:

You haven't entered an activity entry. If you've already reviewed the assignment but it shows as open, it's possible that you forgot to enter an activity enry! Please check the 'All Activity Entries' tab of your Mentor Activity Hub to make sure you have entered your activity correctly for that submission. If not, use the activity entry form.
The Grade Me plugin is slow to load. It can take up to an hour for submissions to appear (or disappear!) in Grade Me.
Your mentee has submitted multiple attempts for the submission. If your mentee has submitted multiple attempts, simply grade them all to clear the submissions from the Grade Me block.
We update the Open Submission section of the Mentor Activity Hub once a day, Monday through Friday. If you have reviewed an assignment that still displays on the Open Submission section of your Mentor Activity Hub, it should be cleared within 24 hours when the next refresh occurs.

If none of these solutions work, please let us know - this means there is a bug on our end, and we will correct it. Thank you for helping us troubleshoot this issue!

My mentee's work is amazing! How can I highlight their awesome work? 🤩

Please let us know if you believe a submission is exemplary! When you submit an activity entry for the submission, you can indicate an exemplary submission. You can also share this in your final mentee evaluation.

Since you are closest to your mentee's experience, we value your perspective. Sharing exemplary submissions with our team helps us identify teacher leadership opportunities, such as educators who might be a great fit to become a DMCE, or feature the educators and their implementation across our community.

You can also submit this form to let our Marketing Team know to create a "teacher feature." Thank you in advance for helping us share your mentees' great work!