MENTORS, WHERE ARE YOU? WE WANT TO HELP.

What an interesting concept - an online site for Ontario mentors! A meeting place where mentors can go to survive and thrive. A site where a mentor can listen to experts, share with colleagues, ask questions, read research, and improve mentoring skills.

Is such a site needed? You bet! Mentoring is a highly complex activity that involves two professional teachers in a mutually supportive and symbiotic relationship. The Mentoring Leadership Resource Network (www.mentors.net) defines mentoring “as a mutually agreeable relationship that is sustained over time and intended to further the educational and professional development of the protégé.” We believe that mentoring also furthers the educational and professional development of the mentor!

We know that professional dialogue does not come easily; it requires specific skills and training. There needs to be a delicate balance between mentoring and leading, modeling and cloning, dialoguing and critiquing. Mentors are born but they also require training. In an article from “Educational Leadership” entitled “The Good Mentor”, James B. Rowley identifies six basic qualities of the good mentor:

o Commits to the role of mentoring.
o Accepts the beginning teacher.
o Is skilled at providing instructional support.
o Models being a continuous learner.
o Communicates hope and enthusiasm.
o Is effective in different interpersonal contexts.

Joellen Killion and Cynthia Harrison in The National Staff Development Council (NSDC) publication December/January 2006) have identified 9 roles of the school-based coach. These nine roles may also be applicable to mentors:

o Catalyst for Change
o Classroom Supporter
o Curriculum Specialist
o Data Coach
o Instructional Specialist
o Learning Facilitator
o Mentor
o Resource Provider

Reflect on the skills, attitudes, knowledge and behaviours each of these nine roles entails. In your role as mentor teacher, you may be called upon to provide leadership in some or all of these areas.

This section of our website has as its goal to help you enhance the incredible skill set you already possess so you may grow in your role as a mentor.

Beginning teachers need you for support and motivation, as professional role models, as critical friends, and dialogue partners. The school system needs you to help us retain these quality new teachers, improve their skill and performance, and above all, to help them grow by providing a supportive and positive environment. Such a task! Such a challenge! But what an opportunity!

Let's work together to make the role you have chosen easier and more fulfilling for you.