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The Qualities of a Good Mentor
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Be accepting of the person you are
mentoring. (Armstrong)
I think of a
mentor as somebody who is very accepting of the person
you're mentoring. Everybody's at a different level, its
very difficult for these people that you have to mentor
to feel inadequate. Their administration has made them
feel inadequate when they have said you will be assigned
to. So now you're going into this job with the job of
nurturing this job through learning, and focusing on the
things that they need to learn in order to do their job
better, which ultimately affects the kids. So, you need
a lot of honesty, and you need to be quiet about what's
happening. When an administrator asks about how she's
doing, I always say, "Just fine. She's doing great" And
that works. Because in her eyes, with you there, she is
doing fine. And if you create the mentoring session in
little bits and pieces, it works for that person. You
have to know that person well enough, so you have to be
a quick judge of character. It is unbelievable on that
one-on-one level how fast you have to operate. And you
have to know when to give, and when to listen. Because
you have to listen, too, what they need to learn. You
have to pick up on the clues. |
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Be personable
and flexible. (Ross)
The qualities of a good mentor, I would say a mentor
needs to be patient. This program took a while to get
off of the ground, and for me to get myself into a
position where I was going out to schools. You also have
to be very personable, you're dealing with a lot of
different personalities, and you also have to be
flexible - different teachers have different needs and
you have to be flexible to meet their needs, as well as
the working situation that you're going into. |
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Be organized (Fitzpatrick)
In order to be a mentor, you need to be organized, I
have folders that I have for each school, I keep the
sign up sheets, the handouts for each class. If you look
you'd probably be amazed at what you see that I filed.
That'd be one of the most important thing. The next
thing, you'd have to be flexible and be able to give a
teacher an idea off the top of your head; 'I want to do
this, how will I be able to do it?' And all of the
sudden you have all of your brain cells going around in
50 directions, 'we could try it this way, we could try
it that way.' That's been my hardest part, really; going
into a school, and not knowing what they might want to
do, or even what they're teaching. That's been my
hardest part, really; going into a school, and not
knowing what they might want to do, or even what they're
teaching. I could walk in, maybe it's a 9th grade
teacher, maybe it's a maybe it's a kindergarten teacher,
and having no clue of what they're teaching, which is
really tough. So I have tried to say, 'hey you signed up
for Internet training…' and then I would follow up in
the email, 'what are you doing in class?' So at least I
can have something to go with. And communication would
be another big factor.
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Show respect. (Lebow)
I think a good mentor
must be very patient with the person he or she is
working with. And I think number two, the next biggest
one, is respect. Too many times teachers are put down
because they don't know how to do something in
technology. And I don't think that's a way of getting
them to learn it. I believe that you need to be very
patient with them, and you need to respect their
knowledge level, whatever it may be. And the whole
purpose of mentoring is to raise that knowledge level.
So let's not walk it and put them down and say, 'what do
you mean you don't know how to answer your email'; 'ok,
you don't know how to do that, let me show you how.' And
to do it in a very positive way, and respect them for
who they are. |
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Have a spirit of mutual
collaboration; dignify the learner. (Ruben)
When you first consider mentoring, you have to
approach it from a place that mutually collaboration.
You have to expect that you're going to learn and gain
something as well, its not just you directing. I think
that you have to be very patient person, very
supportive. I think you have to allow people to grow. I
also think a sense of humor is beneficial in a mentoring
situation. It eases the tension, and it's more familiar
with the person. And you also have to be willing to talk
about the mistakes you've made, and make mistakes. I
don't know if you'd make mistakes on purpose, but you
have to let them know it's a growing process and you're
still learning too. You're just a guide.
Someone - when I first started with the fellowship I
think a lot of teachers weren't used to teaching
teachers as much as they were with students. And one of
the first things the state did was they had Lisa
Cummings from the Burlington County ETTC, and she did a
workshop on how to dignify the learner. And that's
something that really stuck with me. Whenever you're
teaching, whether its mentoring or in a formalized
workshop, you must dignify the learner. And I thank her
for sharing that with us.
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Acknowledging the abilities of the mentee (Sprague)
The qualities of a good mentor include patience,
include allowing for the abilities of the teacher, the
mentoree, and acknowledging those abilities, and never
working with thinking in terms of "I can't". I feel that
when I'm mentoring someone, they're also mentoring me.
It's a pretty equal opportunity. I feel that way even
when working with the students, especially special ed.
students. I'm surprised at what they can teach me about
technology or about learning one little trick. I think
that's the important piece of it. To work with their
abilities and to acknowledge their abilities first. I
mean I listen to Barry and sometimes I feel disabled.
Respect is the key word.
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Be patient. (Dickstein)
A good mentor has to be patient. Right now I'm
working with a teacher in Hamilton Township who is not
very technology proficient and she's building a website
in front page. She's very willing to do it, but you have
to be very patient. You have to be able to walk them
through the process.
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Have a
calm personality. (Roksvaag)
Patience. A good mentor needs to have patience, have
a calm personality, but be a cheerleader and a
hand-holder. Think on your feet, admit when you don't
know an answer, and find out with the teacher.
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A mentor must have broad knowledge. (O'Brien)
People who serve as mentors must have a broad base
of knowledge - working with different teachers in terms
of grade levels, subjects, etc. not a specialist in any
one area (can be a nuisance); the broader the area of
technology I have, the broader I'm able to bring my
experience in.
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Believe in the value of using
technology. (Faith)
Number one, they have to have some degree of
expertise of technology so that their confident in what
they do. But probably the most important thing is they
have to believe in what their doing. And if they believe
in the integration and making technology transparent in
the classroom, then people are going to believe in what
they do as well. It's almost the best selling point, and
it gets people excited about using technology. |
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Let the
person do the project on their own. (Viehweg)
A good
mentor has to to know when to shut up. A good mentor has
to allow their mentee to do the steps themselves. You
can't teach someone by doing it for them. You have to
say, "OK, show me how you do that." If they need help,
then help them. But you want them to become proficient
themselves, you don't want to be dependent on you. Its
finesse. It's knowing when to open your mouth and say
"ok, this helps." A broad outline, basically the
teaching part you do. But then you back off and let the
person do the project on their own and ask questions as
they come up.
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Give the teacher a sense of
participation. (Lohse)
I think giving the teacher his or her own sense of
participation is important. Not to go in and take it
over but to give them a sense that they've helped plan
it and they've really been a major part of it. It's nice
to have somebody take over your class once in awhile,
but you still want to feel like you're the one that's
still in charge of the class. So I think by having that
cooperation, that co-teaching aspect of mentoring is
very good.
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A person who has been in their
shoes. (Osei-TuTu)
First of all, a person who's been there. I would
think that, for example, if you've taught and you know
the classroom situation, its better for you to mentor
someone if you've been in their shoes. For me, that's
the top qualification. Someone who is compassionate
enough and has good ideas but has been in their shoes
before.
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