Be a great mentor

1. Self-Assessment Inventory
1. Think of a person who had a positive and enduring impact on your personal or professional life, someone worthy of being called your mentor.  
1. What was it about them did you connect with?
2. What qualities do you have to become a great mentor for a new teacher in our district?
3. Are there areas that you can anticipate needing guidance or support?

1. Reflect:  What from the TedX video caused you to think more deeply about becoming a mentor?
   

I think the idea that you want to develop the next generation is the idea that comes to mind most after watching this TedTalk.  Teaching is a difficult profession to get into due to the lack of supports and stigmatization of it.  Working with ELL students as well.  But the background of our students is changing.  A study I just read said that "by 2030 40% of students will speak a language other than English at home."  That's in 6 years and we are already seeing this increase here at Sweet Home. I am passionate about working with diverse students and I do truly want to help develop the next generation of teachers to be competent in working with them too.  I have learned so much through my mentorship too.   

1. Reflect: From the Self-Assessment Inventory, what stands out the most about the questions and your answers?

I think what stands out to me the most was that I had a lot of great mentors in both my professional and personal life through my formative years.  As a teacher, I worked with a lot of veteran teachers who shaped me into who I can become.  Even today, I look to people in my department for advice and support when dealing with issues that arise.  I think that learning communities are also valuable supports for teachers, not just new ones.   

1. Reflect:  What do you believe you might need help with as a mentor in our school district?

I would like to work on being more direct and explicit with goal-setting in the beginning.  I think I have just trended with working with what the mentee has brought to the table and usually its a lot of getting accustomed to Sweet Home and our systems in September.   Goal setting has happened to late in this process.  If our first meeting during New Teacher Orientation was a mixture of get to know you as well as discussions on what areas they want to grow in the most this year, I believe future meetings would be more productive and could oriented themselves to discussion/