Tips for Mentors
December 2024
End-of-Year Celebration and Reflection
Dear Mentors,
As we reach the final month of 2024, let's take a moment to celebrate the intentions, efforts, and learning that have shaped our year. Celebration is not just about acknowledging our achievements, but also about reflecting on the journey that brought us here. It's important to recognize the connections between our successes and the actions we took to make them happen, and to appreciate the growth we've experienced along the way.
In this month's learning-focused conversations, we would like to deepen the thinking around success and strengths last month. Use these questions to reflect and celebrate your 2024.
- What are 3 things that went well in your mentoring work so far this year?
- Why did each thing go well?
- What did you do to make it go well?
*This is one of the resilience-building strategies called "Three Good Things" from Coaching for Equity, Elena Aguilar, pg. 110-111.
You can also adapt these questions and use them in your coaching conversations with your mentees.
- What are 3 things that went well for you and your students so far this year?
- Why did each thing go well?
- What did you do to make it go well?
Standards to Connect With:
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Standard 2a: Connecting Instruction
to Outcomes: I use a variety of data- collection
tools during observations to engage my mentee in reflecting on the connection between their
instructional practice and student learning.
Use these tools and resources to celebrate strengths, make positive connections, and facilitate positive conversations:
Celebrating Strengths | The Art of Coaching Workbook, by Elena Aguilar
Mind the Gap | The Art of Coaching Workbook, by Elena Aguilar
Observation Support: Receiving Feedback
Learning about ourselves can be painful- sometimes brutally so- and the feedback is often delivered with a forehead-slapping lack of awareness for what makes people tick. (Thanks for the Feedback, pp.7)
In addition to the holiday frenzy, lots of the mentees are having their observations during this time of the year. In the book "Thanks for the Feedback", it reminds us that receiving feedback could be a trigger of deep emotions.
As mentors, let's be mindful for the triggers while giving feedback, AND let's think about how to support mentees cultivate a growth identity.
One of the strategies in the book "Thanks for the Feedback" resonates with our theme this month:
Name One Thing
(Chapter 12, Thanks for the Feedback)
For mentees, they could try the following questions to center their autonomy and identify even at the receiving end of a feedback session.
- What is the one thing you and the feedback giver(s) see as most important for you to work on?
- What is one thing that you see me doing that gets in my own way?
For mentors, you could consider asking your mentee:
- What is one thing I could change that makes a difference to you?
Receiving feedback well means engaging in the conversation skillfully and making thoughtful choices about whether and how to use the information and what you're learning. (pp.8, Thanks for the Feedback)
We hope the observation season will bring lots of learning and growth for both you and your mentee!
December Roundtable Sneak Peeks
In our Roundtables this month, we are going deeper with the essential question:
How might we support our mentees' reflective practices to promote equitable student learning outcomes?
We will continue to explore this question by reading "Looking at Data Through an Equity Lens" by Candice Bocala and Kathryn Parker Boudett.
Mentor Roundtables are a wonderful, on-going, professional learning community. You can mix and match sessions to fit your schedule, needs, and interests.
If you would like to learn more about how to support mentee reflective practices to promote equitable student learning outcomes, sign up for our Roundtables this month!
Andrea's Roundtable: SPED, Mondays, 4-6pm
Ashley's Roundtable: NAKIA/BIPOC, Wednesdays, 10-12pm
Alicia's Roundtable: SPED ESAs, Tuesdays, 4:30-6:30pm
Annie's Roundtable: Burnout/Wellness Focus, Wednesdays, 3:45-5:45pm
Hilari's Roundtable: Inspired by the book, Thanks for the Feedback, Wednesdays, 10-12pm
Julie's Roundtable: Full Release Mentors, Tuesdays, 10-12pm
Katie's Roundtable: School Nurses, Wednesdays, 2-4pm
Kathy's Roundtable: Colleague Mentors, Tuesdays, 4-6pm
Kjell's Roundtable: General/Open to All, Mondays, 10-12pm
Linda's Roundtable: General/Open to All, Mondays, 4-6pm
Mary's Roundtable: General/Open to All, Tuesdays, 9-11am
Tanisha's Roundtable: NAKIA/BIPOC, Wednesdays, 4:15-6:15pm
Tara's Roundtable: Small/Rural Districts, Thursdays, 10-12pm
Coaching & Mentoring Tools
Choose from the following list of tools to support your practice:
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