Mentoring Program: Pilot for 09/10

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Comment by Connie Weber on August 31, 2009 at 3:50pm

Hi Ken,
Yes, we are getting some people from teacher-education professors I've written to (and others are writing to) who are contacting former students they think are likely to enjoy and contribute positively to the e-mentoring program. I'm hoping we'll get several more that way.
Wow--you've already started classes? I've just dug myself out of the materials-chaos that was created from a roofing project at school this summer. I can actually see the floor and desktops now! Yahoo! Getting ready for the real thinking side of class prep, much more fun.

Comment by Ken Messersmith on August 31, 2009 at 1:33pm

Connie,
My students started last week. It will take us a couple of weeks to get organized. I will ask them what they think will work. I noticed that there was one person who signed up to be a mentee this morning. She is not my student but I was glad she discovered us.

Comment by Connie Weber on August 31, 2009 at 12:44pm

Ken and Nathan,

When do you start with students? Do you have particular ways we can orient the program in order for it to be meaningful for your students who choose to participate?

Open to ideas...

Comment by Connie Weber on August 19, 2009 at 1:45pm

Here are my thoughts to date about basic plans for the program. Open to all suggestions.

The way to think of it: individualized, proactive learning. People are seeking out what they need and sharing what they can help with.


For the mentor, it's a giveback, a contribution to the profession as a whole. Also, a shaping of the future, by watching over teachers who are new to the field and helping them along.

It involves being reflective and instructive, both. It involves idea-sharing for practical ideas for class (or whatever setting one's in) as well as helping with big-picture perspective. I see the mentor operating in instructive, reflective, questioning, and most important of all, supportive ways.

For the mentee (or mutual learner) it's an investment in professionalism as well as personal growth. And that's true for the mentor, too.

If people sign up, here's what I'd like to propose they are signing up for:

a one school-year commitment

four check-in conferences over the year (taking the form of emails, skype discussions, phone conversations, etc.)

about two or three times over the year, each pair will choose a forum on Fireside to participate in together, or they start one up.

culmination: (I have lots of ideas about this, but maybe should wait to hear others' ideas first!)

I lean towards calling the pair M1 and M2 which is appropriately nebulous. (They can both be mentors for each other.) Most often we'll have pairs with M1 being the more seasoned professional and M2 being the newcomer to the profession.

How is this sounding so far?

Please send people this way that you think will have a lot to contribute to and gain from this program. Please send along some designers for the program, too, ones who will help with the initial--and ongoing--workings of the program.

I see tremendous power of learning that we can create, together. Very excited about this.

Send ideas! Give feedback! I'll start a feedback forum.

Comment by Laura Gibbs on July 3, 2009 at 2:10pm

I couldn't find if there was some place I should list the "wildlife" so to speak in my "field" - but I could help with anyone who is interested in:

English composition-related stuff:
-- creative writing (esp. narrative storytelling)
-- revision and the writing process
-- spelling skills (that's one of my focuses for this year)

Here are the main tools that I use and would be glad to share:
-- Ning.com for student interaction and feedback
-- Blogger.com for blogging
-- Twitter.com for micro-blogging (I think that's the hip new term)
-- RotateContent.com for date-based and random content widgets
-- PBWorks.com for wikis (individual and collaborative)
-- Delicious.com for dynamic, shared link libraries
-- TarHeelReader.org for authoring basic, illustrated stories

Comment by Laura Gibbs on July 3, 2009 at 2:03pm

Hi all! I'm guessing there is a discussion that goes with this which I missed, but yes, I'd definitely like to help out if I can. If there's a teacher out there interested in getting help and feedback with any of the strategies/technologies that I've been using, I'll be glad to share what I've learned! :-)

Comment by Nathan Lowell on July 3, 2009 at 8:54am

I'm here.

I'm kind of a shill, since I don't teach kids. "First year teacher" means something different when you're talking grad school.

But I'll do what I can.

Comment by Ian Carmichael on July 1, 2009 at 7:38pm

A challenging project, I'll put on my best energy and thinking for it.
At a trivial level, I use a counterpart for mentor of 'mentee'.
As a long title, how about something like
Teaching21C: Connections for Growth

taking out the word 'teachers' puts more concentration on the process rather than the people labels. (I think that's a good thing!)

Comment by Ken Messersmith on July 1, 2009 at 3:19pm

I'm in. I think we need to form a nucleus from this group and others we know to come up with ideas of how to proceed. It depends on how formal we want to get.

An informal approach would be to just have people who are monitoring this group and who will jump in whenever a mentee (is that a word?) brings up an issue. Those of us who work with beginning teachers and future teachers could easily require participation or optionally make this network known to our students and let the ones who are interested participate.

A more formal approach might be to match one or a few students with one teacher. The logistics would be more work to set up but there might be a potential for a deeper conversation between the two parties.

I am having a hard time coming up with a term to use for the future and beginning teachers. What is the counterpart to mentor?