Being A Mentor

[princessbloom]

I'm a mentor. I was surprised to find during this process that there is no official checklist for me to give to my mentee! I think it would be nice to have something official from a mentor to the new teacher. Additionally, I was also surprised to know that admin does not ask for any evaluation on the person I am mentoring. I would think what I have to say would matter!
I attended a class, but they didn't provide us much of anything aside from how to "be there" for them.

Do you have any official paperwork to fill out on your mentee? Does admin take into account what you have to say at the end of the year?

[FourSquare]

I don't think a mentor should be evaluative at all. You're a support role, not an administrator.

My mentor's never even come to see me teach. She's just there if I have questions and she shares resources. She's more of a friend than anything. I love it! The relationship would be weird if she were an evaluator.

[dgpiaffeteach]

Our mentor's are specifically forbidden by contract to do any sort of evaluation. Ohio's department of ed has a lot of paperwork for the resident educator program if you want a guide of some sort. Any paper work done stays with the mentee. Mentors are not supposed to have anything. They are there to support, not evaluate.

Ps and other admin are not allowed to use them at all in the evaluation process.

[princessbloom]

I understand the supportive role but I think what we say really matters and am surprised it doesn't weigh in at all.

In particular, I mean something that is between the mentor and mentee. Just a list of things to work on that goes through every part of being a teacher.
I could make one up, but I didn't want to reinvent the wheel. Surprised it wasn't provided.

[Caesar753]

I don't think that mentors should evaluate teachers or report to admin.

[princessbloom]

It just surprises me. Admin should know all of the great things that they are doing on the side, and if you aren't given an opportunity to tell them then they won't know. In these instances I wish there were something more formal in place.

Good can still be reported, yes.

[Caesar753]

I think that teachers have a right to be evaluated by an administrator, who is presumably trained in how to effectively evaluate teachers.

I also think that a mentor/protege (I don't think that "mentee" is a real word; even if it is, I hate it lol) should have a safe relationship. A new teacher might be hesitant to report problems or questions to a mentor for fear of that getting back to admin.

[ku_alum]

We had a monthly list of topics to discuss that lined up with things going on through the year. Unfortunately, it is not a digital form that I can share.

Have you done any Google searching for Mentor Checklists?

[czacza]

Originally Posted by Caesar753

I don't think that mentors should evaluate teachers or report to admin.

Right on!

[agdamity]

When I have mentored, we did complete observation paperwork on the mentor and turned it in to the state mentoring program, but it was designed to help prepare the mentor for the Praxis 3 and was never shown to admin. In fact, mentors are not allowed to discuss the mentees performance with admin at all in order to develop a trusting relationship. It helps the mentee feel like they can really be open with the mentor instead of feeling like they have to say everything is great all the time.