Mentoring is not so common in most schools in our country, especially among young educators. The mentors we get are usually the formal ones – professors on our thesis or professional development instructors. But what happens when two young teachers enter the mentorship circle? There is an eternal question we keep asking ourselves: How to be a good mentor?
We must not forget that mentorSHIP ends with SHIP, so like any other relationship, both sides get something in the process. But, what does that mean exactly?
This means that by mentoring someone, you develop as an educator in countless ways.
Here are some ways you improve as an educator by mentoring someone! You will:
- Become a better active listener, and you answer questions better;
- Discover new angles of observation for various methods, activities, and tools you haven’t thought of before;
- Get better as a teacher trainer, and you learn how to motivate adult learners;
- Learn how to explain things to an adult, educated individual in a respectful way;
- Revise all the teaching methodology you learned throughout the years;
- Finally, you feel the deepest, sincere joy when someone you mentored succeeds and becomes a mentor to someone else. This feeling of being proud of someone is truly priceless.
Now, if you ever had the opportunity to mentor someone, you have to bear in mind that one size does not fit all, just like with all your students. Mentoring is very personal, and each mentoring program has to fit the specific needs of the person who is being mentored.
Here are some ways in which I help my colleague Nevena achieve her full potential as an online English teacher
- We have meetings and live training on tools and methods she wanted to use or something I suggested;
- We share feedback on each other’s articles, video tutorials for digital tools we created, lesson plans, and more;
- She is leading a reflection journal on Padlet – she writes a note about every online lesson she conducts to help her see her teaching gaps;
- We share a classroom on Edmodo with our online learners so that I can see how they communicate and jump in if necessary;
- We have group lessons with all our students once a month so that we can work together;
- She follows the articles on my website and participates in professional development sessions (webinars) as a moderator.
I started mentoring Nevena because she was not confident enough, and she needed a little push in the right direction. Sometimes mentors coach mentees and help them with personal development, not only professional development. Our mentorship is mostly focused on teaching online since I have vast experience in distance learning. Still, these activities I listed above can be applied to any educational mentorship.
Here is an unedited text with tips from my colleague, Nevena, whom I have a great honor mentoring in her quest to start teaching online
Trying to start working online without a mentor is much more complicated than you think. There are so many options available for online tutors, and for those who are looking for tools online, it can be a disaster. Unfortunately, we don’t know where to search, what to look for, or the other side of the coin of that shiny tool advertised so much.
Despite what most educators think, a new teacher will not have too many questions in the beginning. This is because new teachers don’t have any ideas about the main aspects of a quality teaching process online.
How to be a good mentor, according to a mentee
Here are some tips I found useful while working with Milica and trying to develop my eclectic online teaching methods:
1.Listen and apply
If you are lucky enough to have a mentor as I did, the first thing to remember is – listen and apply. Then, you will save yourself a lot of time and effort.
2. Ask without fear
Secondly, write down all the questions you have and don’t be afraid to ask. You also need to remember that sharing ideas and experiences is the most crucial part of the journey because it can help another teacher, even if they are more experienced. You will make many mistakes along the way, but that doesn’t matter as long as you improve.
3. Use proper digital tools in the classroom
Using the right tools determines the quality of your online classes more than you think. Ask someone with more experience in ed-tech because you will not remember to test anything before your first class.
If you are still thinking about sharing your teaching experience (read failures) – find a mentor. Even when that person doesn’t have an answer (which will rarely happen), it is good to know that someone has your back and that you can share your failures and learn from them.
Nevena and I worked together and invited teachers in Serbia for a webinar about distance learning. The webinar was a complete success, and without my mentee moderating a meeting with more than 500 people, I would not be able to lead the webinar.
This article is originally published in British Council Teaching English.
What is your experience with mentorship? Have you been a mentee? Have you been a mentor? What have you learned from this experience? Write in the comments or via the contact page. I would love to hear your opinion!
Click here to explore my store where 99% of materials are forever free!
All the materials except lesson plans and 30+ page interactive activity books will be free FOREVER! Why? Because sharing is caring, and 2020 hasn’t been kind to all of us. Please consider donating so I can keep making FREE materials for everyone and keep my website open for all of you.
Don’t forget to leave a review when you download materials! It’s just a minute of your time, and it means a lot to me.
P.S. The store and the freebie library are not the same things. The freebie library has some extra materials like conference presentations and webinar recordings which are not available in the store ✨
The subscription link for the store is below my bio in every post. ?
