Tips for Mentors
March 2023
- BEST Virtual Mentor/Coach Equity Conference: March 8 & 9, 2023
- BEST Virtual Grantee Convening: March 15
- Symposium Agenda
Registration is open to the public!
Sign up today. Registration closes on March 8th.
Click here to register.
Keynote Speakers
Get excited with us and check out the speakers before the symposium! We hope you love them as much as we do.
Mentor/Coach Equity Conference:
Grantee Convening:
The 4Rs
Dear Mentors,
I have an invitation for you. There is no requirement to accept. I am just asking for a moment to pause with me and think together about something I learned growing up and continue to study as an educator and a researcher. It is a framework of the 4Rs: respect, responsibility, reciprocity, and relationship.
The 4Rs are Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee worldview. As an educator of special education, an educator who identifies as BIPOC and is Anishinaabe, and as a doctoral candidate studying the conditions of belonging in learning communities, I find the 4Rs supportive in the journey of educational equity. Maybe you will too.
Below are some prompts, teachings, and a text intended to support equitable coaching practices. I hope these offerings are received in the way they are being given--with compassion, respect, and humility.
Sincerely,
Bawaajigekwe, BEST Program Supervisor
The 4Rs:
Respect
- Imagine a basket as your vessel. What are you bringing in your basket? How does that impact yourself and others? Thinking about the way we show up and how that impacts self and others is an act of respect.
- I offer encouragement to keep what is in your basket for yourself and give away the overflow. Keep the core contents for you.
- The overflow is where the sweetest parts of you live, and that is what those closest to you deserve.
- You deserve a full basket. This can be an overwhelming and even frustrating notion--prioritizing self. Take it one step at a time. Being whole and healthy as an educator is a complex and daring expectation in today's world. However, it is one that can offer healing, restoration, and harmony.
Relationship/Being in Relation
- A knowledge bearer from my home says, "We always want to be understood and appreciated. From birth, we are born seeking connection, and this teaching is good to renew throughout our lives." -Dr. Alton Sonny Smart, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point & Enrolled Member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe
- Dr. Smart reminds us to approach life with a curiosity that positions ourselves as knowledge seekers.
- How are we seeking to understand and appreciate ourselves and one another?
- When working with new teachers, especially during this time of year, seek to connect, understand, and help mentees appreciate how far they have come, where they are now, and what is yet to be. Help them remember and model as an act of relationship.
Responsibility
- Spring is coming, and it is a great time of anticipation and renewal. New life and more light is upon us.
- Take some time with your mentee to ask why. Why are you showing up?
- Renew your why together. Try this as a partner exercise.
- Another teacher and elder from my home says, "When we have a reason, we put our heart, mind, and soul into it." -Ernie St. Germaine, Elder of the Ojibwe Nation, Lac du Flambeau & Lac Courte Oreilles
- Prompts: What is your motivation? What is your why? Who are you responsible to?
Reciprocity
- BEST uses a metaphor of a web of support meaning we are all connected and we rely on one another. Nothing in this program rests on one point or one person.
- Encouragement is offered to reflect on the intent of mentorship within BEST and that mentoring is one part of what we want for new teachers within a web of support.
- "One's very existence depends on the web of interconnectedness between the self and the community and between the community and nature." -Stewardship Guide, p. 53-54
Phases of First-Year Teachers
 This is a good time of year to remember the phases of first-year teachers' attitude towards teaching. This can be a personal journey and story, and also it doesn't hurt to review the research.
New Teacher Center has a two-page article discussing the phases of first-year teaching. We have shared this before in Mentor Tips, and we offer it again as mentors check in with mentees this month.
Read the full article here: FROM SURVIVING TO THRIVING: THE PHASES OF FIRST-YEAR TEACHING
Comprehensive Induction
Mentoring is a piece of the pie or a part of the web of support new teachers need. Dr. Ana M. Elfers and Dr. Margaret L. Plecki will speak in detail on this as keynotes at our BEST Grantee Convening on March 15th. Along with Dr. Camille Ungco they published a final report on their research about teacher induction and mentoring.
Read their full report here and find it on our BEST website.
New Teacher Spotlight
BEST is looking for new teachers to interview for our New Teacher Spotlight section in Mentor Tips. Know someone? Email us!
We are looking forward to hearing from you and meeting new teachers around the state. |
