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“The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other. Without collaboration our growth is limited to our own perspectives”.

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“The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other. Without collaboration our growth is limited to our own perspectives”.

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Robert John Meehan, American Educator and Author of “Teacher’s Journey: The Road Less Traveled”

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In this module, we explore the practicalities of the mentoring conversation such as the importance of establishing a climate of trust or scaffolding and stimulating discussion and reflection in a context that is understood as collaborative in nature.

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Simona Candeli I didn't have any mentor either when I started teaching. I must admit that at the very beginning I wasn't really aware and conscious of all the different aspects and shades connected with teaching. At present, after 25 or more years spent at school, I can 'see' it more clearly. First of all it would have been so important to know more about 'class management techniques', counselling, learning disabilities and pedagogy. I think these are relevant features which can really make the difference when you start teaching your discipline.

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When two or more people work together on a joined project or activity they are both prepared to invest time and energy in it.
Collaboration occurs when two people create something together which may not have been enabled to be working  the same way if they had worked separately and individually.
Their ideas merge and they give eachother time to think.
Mentor and mentee looking together at something, wondering why something happens in the way that  it does;taking on board new board new ideas.
Developing a collaborative conversation is critical.
If the mentee wants to try new practices, a collaborative conversation is one in which the new teacher feels that he/she is being given permission to try something else in that safe where he/she will not be judged and  will come back to the problem together, where you will solve the problem together.
This Sense of solidarity is critical

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what do you understand as being a collaborative conversation?

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Listen to Rachel's perspective on this and think about how collaborative your own mentoring relationship and conversations are.

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2.2 Developing a Climate of Trust with your Mentee

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2.2 Developing a Climate of Trust with your Mentee

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For an effective mentoring relationship and for effective collaboration to happen, trust is an essential ingredient. Without trust, a mentee will not openly share their concerns and challenges with you, making your work as a mentor very difficult, if not impossible.

It's important to take into consideration that mentees are vulnerable and they feel they are exposed; they are anxious about whether they are meeting expectations.
To develop a climate of trust you should try to be as honest and open as you can be; the mentor should put away some of the tendencies to assert authority.
Mistakes should be openly discussed, problems can be addressed and the mentor can show that they both are consyantly learning.
Building a climate of trust requires quite active decision making about what will and won't be said, quite active decision making about sharing experiences and it's the mentor's job to MODEL that. So the mentee can feel that he can trust the mentor

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Strategies to develop a climate of trust-refelections

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Strategies to develop a climate of trust-refelections

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All are important strategies. Listening is like a sort of refrain which regularly appears whenever people debate about relationships in general. It is usually said that people are NOT able to listen to other people's needs and 'listening' stands there just to reinforce one's personal position and not to meet someone else's needs. Actually it must be recognized that the 'listening skill' is the most difficult one to be developed when studying a foreign language; therefore we can say that it must be really a hard job to strengthen it. Despite all this I would choose 'Creating a safe environment for sharing' since there two key words that I like: 'safe' and 'sharing'. 1) In a 'safe' environment the mentee can feel free to express his/her own ideas, try new things, make mistakes without being judged. 2) Then we have 'sharing', where sharing is the the key word when talking about effective and positive collaboration, both when dealing with work issues and personal ones. Sharing together leads to naturally building trust and 'open doors' will come as a result.

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2.3 Stimulating and scaffolding thoughtful reflection and discussion

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2.3 Stimulating and scaffolding thoughtful reflection and discussion

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Stimulating and scaffolding thoughtful reflection and discussion is at the heart of any mentoring work and a key part of a good collaborative conversation with your mentee, so it is important to think about how best to achieve this.

1) The importance of listening, truly listening to your mentee, something that is harder than it often seems. You might have heard of the following quote by Stephen Covey, an American educator and author of numerous books:

“Most people do no listen with the intent to understand, they listen with the intent to reply.”

Remind yourself of this next time you have a conversation with your mentee and see to what extent you already form an answer in your head before your mentee has even finished talking.

2)The importance of qu estioning correctly

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Trying to follow the Ontario model:

If the mentee is already feeling vulnerable, I would not mention what I had heard, but I would allow him/her to tell me his view, so as not to put more pressure on him/her. I would try to empathise first, then listen to his accounts and suggestions, guiding the conversation through questions. Questions would be posed in such way that they wouldn't make him/her feel guilty or embarrassed.

So here's my (imaginary) plan:

Elegant Paraphrase

So you’re feeling dispirited and discouraged by all this situation. You’ve tried to shape up things, but their behaviour didn’t improve, right?

The truth is we all come across situations like that throughout our careers. Can I be of any help? Maybe together we can figure out how to deal with this.

Explore Options

Do you know those students well by now? How would you describe them?

Could there be any explanation for this kind of behaviour?

Why do you think the stricter approach didn’t work out?

Is there any other way of addressing these problems? What other options are there?

How do you feel the tension in the class could be reduced?

In terms of class management, what would help these kids to focus on their tasks?

What would motivate them?

Plan Next Steps

Which strategy seems best to this kind of student?

Are you willing to try it?

How can we prepare this ahead?

Which steps would we need to take to reach that?

Would you like some help to prepare /apply that?

What about...? Would you consider ...?

Ex: Would you consider rewarding them for good behaviour/results?

...

Self-Evaluation

What would you consider a success?

What kind of result would make you feel satisfied?

If the strategy doesn’t work, what else can be done?

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Reading carefully all the previous replies, I would say that a lot of colleagues have already very well explained my same ideas (thanks to Maria Nica, Maria Teresa Rughi, Enrica Maragliano and lots more...)

Let's go step by step...

Elegant Paraphrase

"If I understand well, you don't feel confortable with your class, and perhaps the same happen to your students too... Let's try to explore what could be the real causes of this lack of respect both towards you and their classmates, avoiding them to active participating in the lesson"

Explore Options

" I think that you have been thinking about how to deal with the situation... Would you like to share your thought with me? You know, this is a very common behaviour among students, and we can struggle with it together. Do you remember Pink Floyd's "Confortably numb" lyrics? Together we stand, divided we fall ..." ;-)

After active listening to his ideas, we can go forward to

Plan Next Steps

"Great ideas! May I add one more? What do you think if we plan some "observation class" together? You know, students not always behave the same way with different teachers. If you agree, I could be with you in your class just to have an "external eye" and you could do the same with me. I think that we can learn a lot one from each other and then we can have a meeting together to see what works in our respective ways of teaching and what can be improved. Afterwards we could plan some activities to "break the circle"...

If the mentee agrees, we can have one or two lessons where I observe him and viceversa. This could give him more self confidence and allow me to give him some advice on how to deal with the situation. For instance, we can think about setting up new activities, trying with a more motivating methodology (e.g. PBL, flipped classroom, etc.), actively involving the students in their learning...

Self-Evaluation

"Let's go! You have decided to try this measures ... What do you think if we meet again in two weeks (or even before if you need it) to evaluate together if it has worked? Do you think that it could be useful for you to have some tools to check your activities? Would you like to choose or create them together?"

The main aim of the whole process is to make feel the mentee more at ease in his attempts, not to feel him alone in his struggle and give him effective help without any "you have to..." attitude.

Will it work? I hope so! It worked with me when I first started teaching (a million of thanks to my two dear and unforgettable mentors!) and it worked as well with one of my last mentees..

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My strategy would be first of sharing with the mentee common feelings of frustration in relation to similar situations which most teachers experience and not only at the very beginning of their school career. In this way I would try to lower the affective filter and to make her/him feel more comfortable and 'safe'.

ELEGANT PARAPHRASE

- Don't worry! All teachers have the same experience sooner or later in their lives, and sometimes more than once! Last year I....

HEXPLORE OPTIONS

Then I would listen to what the mentee says. Maybe he/she asks me about how I cope with such situations and in that case I may tell about a particular meaningful episode. That might be the right opportunity for introducing the issues of class management and inclusion strategies. And I would ask questions like:

- Have you planned how to involve your students more into your lessons?

- Are you integrating technology in your didactics?

- What about spending some time observing a collegue of yours while running a similar situation? That might be helpful!

- I know you are very busy in this period of the school year and it's very difficult to cope with everything...

PLANNING NEXT STEPS

- you know what? I am attending a Mooc at European Schoolnet Academy about 'Competences for 21st Century Schools. If you like you can join.      It's free and very useful and you may find useful tips for a more inclusive didactic. I have met so many collegues from all over Europe willing to share experiences...

- Why don't we start a project together!

- So what are you going to do the next time you enter your classroom? You may start with an 'ice-breaking' video? The 'wow' effect will not be missing!

SELF EVALUATION

- So you are going to start your next lessons with a video both as an introduction to the new topic and as an ice- breaking activity. Maybe your student gets more involved...I am sure he will.How are you going to see if this works?

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Mentoring in Schools Self-Evaluation Template - M2.docx

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Module 2 Self-Evaluation & Development Plan How to use this document  This document is there to help you consolidate your reflections and sharing of ideas during the module and turn them into concrete, actionable steps to improve your practice as a mentor. The document will also be part of your ...