Archive for the ‘Mentoring’ Category
Tips on Successful Implementation of Mentoring
Mentoring, training and coaching programs for novice teachers are excellent ways to improve the quality of skills and knowledge of a new teacher, his job satisfaction, and his professional competence. These programs available for the new teacher are also effective means of enhancing the student?s abilities and the mentor?s skills as well. In many US schools, these mentoring programs are mandatory to ensure that the new teacher is fully capable of handing the classes.
In some schools, mentoring programs are instituted not only to prepare the new teacher for the job but also as a way of addressing the problem of teacher shortage. A recent news published on Contra Costa Times reveals that almost 25% of new teachers in California leave their job in their first four years of teaching because of lack of support from the administration and fellow teachers. Also, the mentoring program adds bureaucratic burden both for the novice teachers and their mentors. Apart from the additional responsibilities that are given to the teachers, there?s a lot of paperwork that needs to be accomplished. This includes preparing lesson plans, evaluations, and progress and accomplishment reports.
In order to ensure that mentoring programs are successfully implemented, here are some tips and pointers to remember:
? Eliminate unnecessary paperwork and requirements ? this has been recommended by UC Riverside researchers after finding out that a lot of mentors and new teachers engaged in the program are complaining about the repetitive tasks and extra paperwork they need to accomplish. Aside from the fact that neophyte teachers are already overwhelmed by their new responsibilities, they are still burdened with lots of paperwork including preparing lesson plans, which usually consumes so much of their time. It is recommended that programs should focus on mentoring itself. The new and veteran teachers may engage in less taxing activities that would allow them to interact and share knowledge, skills and experiences freely.
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? New teachers must be matched with the right mentors ? It is important for the new teacher and the mentor to interact without any inhibition. To be able to achieve this, the administrators must strive to match news teachers with mentors who share with them same qualities and interests. This would allow the new teacher to freely ask questions and ask for tips and advices from the mentor.
? Have separate evaluators ? In order for the mentor and the new teacher to focus on their main tasks, they must be relieved from doing additional tasks such as evaluation of the program. A separate evaluator who shall meet the veteran and the new teachers to discuss the progress of the mentoring program may be assigned.
? Conduct regular assessment of the whole mentoring program ? Campus-level administrators should not only evaluate progress of the newly hired teachers but as well as the whole mentoring, training and coaching program of the school, which includes the mentors capability to coach neophyte teachers, the process of mentoring, the students? progress vis-à-vis to the new teachers? progress during the program, and other forms of support and assistance given to the new teacher.
It is also important to determine the thoughts or opinions of other teachers about the program and its impact on their desire to stay or leave the school or the teaching profession.
These things are vital to the implementation and improvement not only of the mentoring programs of the particular school but of others as well.
When word gets around about your command of Mentoring facts, others who need to know about Mentoring will start to actively seek you out.
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Mentoring Teachers Programs ? Improved Professional Competence and Educational Reform
In today’s world, it seems that almost any topic is open for debate. While I was gathering facts for this article, I was quite surprised to find some of the issues I thought were settled are actually still being openly discussed.
Many schools in the US have formalized the process of mentoring novice teachers as their way of inducting the new teacher into the teaching profession. They run Mentoring Teachers Programs, which enable a newbie to adjust to the new teaching career through the assistance of a veteran teacher. In these programs, the veteran teacher, the mentor,
coaches the new teacher on several areas in teaching such as how to prepare lesson plans and execute them, how to handle students of different ages and characteristics, how to teach more effectively in different kinds of settings, how to resolve classroom conflicts and the like.
Benefits to the New Teacher
The program leads not only to improved teaching skills but also to increased job satisfaction on the part of the new teacher. According to Evenson in his book on mentoring teachers, the new teacher benefits in three ways. First, the program allows the new teacher to easily adapt with the school environment. Aside from helping the new teacher get acquainted with the school?s staff and facilities, the mentor also teaches him how to observe and cope with the school?s rules and regulations.
Second, the program allows the teacher to establish teaching competence. This is achieved as the mentor provides the new teacher with opportunities to observe, assess, and practice his and other teachers? teaching. The process encourages feedback from and constant communication with the mentor.
Lastly, the program introduces the teacher to teaching as a continuously developing and a life-long profession. If the new teacher feels that he gets as much support as he can from colleagues and the school administration, he will likely stay in this profession and would gladly make himself available as well for future teachers who would need his assistance.
Other Benefits of the Program
The information about Mentoring presented here will do one of two things: either it will reinforce what you know about Mentoring or it will teach you something new. Both are good outcomes.
The benefits of mentoring programs are far reaching. It is not only the new teachers that benefit from the program but all the participants in the program including the mentor, the student and the school as a whole as well. Thus, mentoring programs are seen not just as a form of assistance to the new teacher but as a vehicle for the improvement of the school?s whole educational system.
For the mentor, the program serves as another opportunity to share his wealth of experiences, knowledge and skills. Much of these skills and knowledge are not found in books or reference materials. They are accumulated through time through extensive training and professional practice. Without the mentoring programs, these experiences, knowledge and skills gained and acquired through time may gradually fade away.
In a way, the mentor also improves himself as a teacher in the process of mentoring. He does this as he reexamines his professional experiences inside and outside the classroom and as he provides tips and guidelines to the new teacher.
Moreover, the mentoring program provides him with an added source of income as mentors are usually compensated for the extra services they render.
Students are directly and indirectly benefited with this kind of program as their new teachers gain more teaching skills and knowledge, which are imparted to them. Ultimately, the students learn more things and enjoy their classes more when the teacher is prepared and well versed with the topics he or she is discussing.
A research conducted by Southwest Educational Development Laboratory to study the mentoring programs in Texas reveals that many districts see mentoring teachers programs also as a vital retention strategy. The study recognizes that the attrition of new teachers is among the cause of shortages of teachers in some schools.
Is there really any information about Mentoring that is nonessential? We all see things from different angles, so something relatively insignificant to one may be crucial to another.
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Youth The Concepts Behind Christian Mentoring
The process of guiding and mentoring people is a highly delicate one: mentors need to be able to allow their protégés to progress and get out of their shells, but they have to strike the balance between directing the movements of their followers while still allowing these fledglings time to find the strength of their own wings and fly with their own will. One such form of mentoring is Christian mentoring, in which a Christian looks after a protégé who may or may not be a Christian, but who will benefit from the strength and wisdom of the older or more experienced person.
One such mentoring relationship, at least in the Christian sense, is that between a senior pastor and his junior. The former will guide the younger in speaking the voice of God, and in bringing a sense of unity and Christian goodness to a flock. Another such Christian mentoring relationship is that between parents and children, where Christian parents have to guide their children in following the Christian way of living. Christian mentoring, therefore, is the passing down and sharing of knowledge and wisdom by someone who is an expert in a field, and with the precepts and principles of Christianity guiding the mentor and protégé.
In general, Christian mentoring programs will help people guide those who are younger than they in living a Christian way of life. Some mentoring programs will even exhort would-be or aspiring mentors to do two things at the onset: find a good mentor who will pass down knowledge and get an aspiring mentor started on good living and good Christian teachings; and, at nearly the same time, find a protégé who might benefit from your teaching and wisdom further down the line.
Once these two persons are identified, a would-be or aspiring mentor is exhorted to be as creative as possible in meeting such people. These meetings might be as simple as stopping over at someone?s house, meeting over for coffee, or having dinner together.
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Another way for the mentor and protégé to meet is through a shared hobby. Such a hobby might include running, biking, writing poetry, reading books, or even cooking. Despite the image of intense and sometimes alienating spirituality attached to Christian mentoring, many Christian mentoring programs are actually more about building a stronger relationship between mentor and protégé. The shared hobby may actually be a simple beginning: many mentors will share tasks with their protégés, such as smaller jobs at one?s office, training the protégé in various tasks, or simply listening to the protégé talk.
What makes Christian mentoring unique, however, is its emphasis on things that would otherwise make people appear vulnerable in the secular arena. For instance, mentors and protégés are required to listen to each other intently, and to avoid speaking about oneself as much as possible in order to learn better. Second, mentors and protégés are required to be as real and as truthful to each other as possible. Honesty is certainly the best policy in Christian mentoring, and if a protégé is feeling down, awkward, unwanted, or simply out of sorts, he or she is encouraged to talk to his or her mentor and humbly ask for guidance.
There are many different kinds of Christian mentoring programs out there. If you need more information, talk to your local Christian pastor, or do research over the Internet. Many such mentoring programs also have their own websites and mailing lists that can make it easier for you to read about their activities and enroll in their program.
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The Concepts of Coaching and Mentoring
The following article includes pertinent information that may cause you to reconsider what you thought you understood. The most important thing is to study with an open mind and be willing to revise your understanding if necessary.
Guiding people through the right way through life can be a daunting task for any person who is tasked to do it. A person who has to do the guiding has a lot of delicate balances to strike: he or she has to be strong enough to reprimand the person who is following him or her when that follower is not being obedient or is straying from the right path; on the other hand, he or she has to sometimes allow the follower the chance to stray, so that the follower can gain experience and thus be much wiser. There are many different things that a person has to do to guide his or her follower or followers, and these concepts of guidance are covered under coaching and mentoring.
The process of mentoring involves the relationship and bonding between master and pupil, a togetherness that is more commonly referred to as mentor and protégé. A mentor is someone who may sometimes be older, but who is certainly more knowledgeable, more wise, and perhaps even more serene and settled than what might predictably be a less knowledgeable, less wise, and flighty protégé. The mentor?s task is to be the guide for the inexperienced protégé: as the protégé learns more and more from the mentor, the protégé is farther thrust into greatness.
The mentor-protégé relationship has long existed in history, and has been glorified by pop media. There are also many different mentor-protégé relationships in the modern world. For instance, when an employee first enters a company or business, he or she is adopted by someone who has been in the company or business for a long while. Because a new employee might experience culture shock, or might not be prepared for the rigors of the current workplace, the mentor serves as a buffer and guide through how the company or business operates, making the transition easier for the protégé.
Once you begin to move beyond basic background information, you begin to realize that there’s more to Mentoring than you may have first thought.
Still in line with workplace relationships, an existing employee might show potential as someone who could one day lead, or who could move on and be great elsewhere. In this case, a person experienced in the company could informally take on this employee and be his or her mentor. In this relationship, the mentor will teach the protégé the necessary skills to advance in the workplace, so that one day, the protégé might perhaps take the mentor?s place, advance elsewhere in the hierarchy, or move on to another company and do even better.
The concept of coaching, on the other hand, is quite different from that of mentoring. In coaching, a method is employed in which a leader or overseer directs the movements of a person or a group of persons. In coaching, the instruction and training given are done with a definite end goal in mind. The methods of directing people?s movements and thought process might include giving motivational talks. There are also ways to train people in order to make them perform better, such as through seminars or workshops, or through practice, such as those done by sports teams.
In mentoring, a mentor teaches a protégé how to live better or how to function better. In coaching, perhaps better seen as a more specific method of mentoring, the coach guides his or her team in order for them to meet an end goal. For sports coaches, this will mean victory in a game.
For marriage coaches, this will mean a stronger marital bond. For family coaches, this will mean a stronger familial bond, between parents and children, and sometimes, amongst the children themselves.
There are many different kinds of mentoring and coaching, as well as different techniques associated with each. For more information, you can talk to professional mentors and coaches, or do more research online.
When word gets around about your command of Mentoring facts, others who need to know about Mentoring will start to actively seek you out.
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Mentoring: A Glue that Binds African Traditions
When the subject of conversation turns to rich culture and traditions, Africa would definitely be a part of that discussion. And with the voyage of Africans to the Great Americas, these people have endured so much?poverty, discrimination, racism and numerous other attacks. The society, as it seemed, had waged war against this race but they were resilient. And now that they are among a different nation, it is imperative that these African Americans uphold their traditions.
Just looking at how African Americans survived the slavery and intolerance against them, you would grow to respect these people. But what made them pliant to all these trials? Was it keeping their traditions
? If it was, how did these traditions reach the modern day African American kids? Handing down these customs to younger generations meant having someone teach the ways of the old. This is where mentoring comes in.
Mentoring is simply defined as a process where an experienced individual gives support and encouragement to a person who has less experience. The mentor then serves as the advisor though his example and guidance. Mentoring could be informal or formal.
With formal mentoring among African Americans, the mentor could be the guide of the student on his academic works. He could also guide the student to community affairs which aim to maintain their traditions through several factors such as religion, music, poetry, and others. It could also be as serious as coping with racial discrimination and how to be confident despite the environmental circumstances. With informal mentoring, it could simply mean teaching time management or networking with the same groups of people.
How can you put a limit on learning more? The next section may contain that one little bit of wisdom that changes everything.
But what are the traditions that need to be handed down to the next generation? Looking at the younger generations of African Americans now, we can conclude that they have gone a long way and have improved immensely in all aspects. Confidence and self-worth is a great part of African American mentoring. What is there to be ashamed about their culture anyway? They are a great people and they value close family ties, respect for the elderly and they excel in arts and sports.
Due to this need for mentoring among the black race, 100 Black Men, Inc. was born in 1963. Its purpose is to improve African American lives in a community full of whites. Currently, there are famous members such as Denzel Washington, Bill Cosby, Michael Jordan, to name a few.
Mentoring was and still is an essential duty of this organization. One of their programs intended that children ages nine until post secondary learning would get holistic knowledge through some rites of passage which includes preparation of the males for their manhood. Also, the subjects cover aspects of heritage, family, etiquette, survival and other skills, and even faith. Resource management, athletics and tutoring are also essential parts of the learning process.
By taking part in such mentoring activities, the young African American would develop better understanding of his culture. Pride and self-esteem would also be established without disrespecting other colors or race.
The mentoring process, in general, teaches respect and appreciation for the African culture. By knowing the rich history and contemporary assets of these people, they are better able to keep and protect what rightfully belongs to them which no amount of slavery would be able to corrupt.
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The Fine Art of Mentoring
This article explains a few things about Mentoring, and if you’re interested, then this is worth reading, because you can never tell what you don’t know.
Mentoring doesn?t have to be a complicated process or business. Once it is designed to fit a particular need, it can be a very effective and simple method to implement, something that will be easy to use once it’s established. Although it consists of certain processes and procedures, mentoring is actually like fine art in that it requires creativity in design and implementation. It’s also a practice that requires flexibility and adaptability and will require participants to look beyond the mere series of techniques in order to put it into practice more effectively.
Why use mentoring programs
In many organizations, a gap often exists between the actual needs of the individuals and the established practices. Depending on how well the organization works to fill this gap, the difference may be great or small. The role of mentoring is to close this gap and allow staff, employees, personnel or students to access resources that will allow them to improve their learnings and skills.
Mentoring is also used to increase the quality of the intellectual capital of an organization, allowing employees to be trained in order to meet set standards of quality in terms of qualifications and technical skills. It is also an excellent tool for improving the standards of service in an organization. As a recruitment and retaining tool, mentoring is also effective, allowing businesses to attract quality employees by providing new ones with a means to adapt well to their new environment.
The fine art of mentoring
When people view mentoring, they see it as a means to transfer knowledge. However, it is so much more than that. Choosing, designing and implementing a mentoring program often requires inventive solutions in order for it to remain attractive, relevant, updated and useful. It has proven to be a very effective method in improving business processes and has become one of the highly valued issues within many organizations.
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Matching
The main concern of mentoring is matching, something that requires patience and imagination on the part of the administrator. Having a good pairing between the mentor and the mentee is crucial to the success of the program. If the match is in place, both parties will benefit from a strong, mutually rewarding relationship. If the matching fails, either or both parties will suffer from negative learning or feel frustrated about a system that does nothing.
This is why administrators who wish to implement an effective mentoring system should find creative ways to determine the matching qualifications between the mentor and his protégé. Certain factors, for example, such as temperament, personal characteristics, values, philosophies or similar goals can impact the relationship. There is no set standard for matching, which makes it important that those who wish to implement the program should be able to apply a certain adaptability and imagination when determining a successful match.
Keeping the mentoring system fresh
A mentoring program also thrives on being up-to-date, which keeps it interesting. Implementing a mentoring program that is outdated can have disastrous results, encouraging participants to perceive it as ineffective and useless. Like art, mentoring must remain dynamic and appealing, keeping participants’ interests up, which gives them more reason to use the program.
Establishing a successful mentoring program
Mentoring is like fine art in that it needs to remain relevant and an effective source of motivation. As such, it has to undergo improvements along the way and must be open to changes. The best way to determine the success of the mentoring program is to compare the initial goals of the system to the results. This may be done through feedback and evaluations, allowing participants to comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the program. Without a set feedback system in place, it will be difficult indeed to quantify the efficacy of mentoring within an organization and thus rate its success.
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What to Avoid in Mentoring Programs
Would you like to find out what those-in-the-know have to say about Mentoring? The information in the article below comes straight from well-informed experts with special knowledge about Mentoring.
What is mentoring?
Before we can effectively look at the benefits you can derive from mentoring programs, it is first essential to understand what mentoring really is. Mentoring is simply the process wherein people are helped by a person or an organization for their personal and professional development. The person who is doing the supporting role is called the ?mentor? while the person being supported is called the ?mentee?. This relationship may sometimes because complex because there are many types of mentors, just as there is many types of people. You can expect the mentor to be somewhere between being a ?trusted friend? and a ?counselor?. But how exactly, can a mentor be defined? Well, we came up with several categories; your mentor will most likely fall into one of these categories. Read on to know what kind of mentor you should choose and which ones you should avoid:
1. The crowding mentor
This is the type of mentor who seems to be ignorant of the term, ?personal space?. This mentor may not necessarily be your choice but he or she was assigned to you by your organization.
2. The impossible mentor
Meanwhile, the impossible mentor is simply someone who you are not comfortable being with no matter what you do or what the mentor does.
3. The younger mentor
In some cases, you might encounter a mentor who is younger than you. You might be more experienced than he is on work-related matters but this mentor was assigned to help you nonetheless. You find it difficult to take such a young mentor seriously though.
4. The ardent researcher
Your mentor would be someone who puts a big emphasis on academic research and theories. While this characteristic may not be a fault in itself, you might discover that it is hard to schedule important meetings with this mentor because he always outs research as his priority. In addition, this type of mentor might not believe that teaching the mentee is important so you are low in his priority.
What does a mentor actually do?
Sometimes the most important aspects of a subject are not immediately obvious. Keep reading to get the complete picture.
So after you know the type of mentors you should avoid, it is time to take a deeper look at what a good mentor should actually do:
? Be available for a chat over the telephone or face-to-face contact
? Be optimistic about the mentoring program and the development process of the mentees
? Help mentees feel good about their achievements
? Help mentees stick to deadlines and schedules
? Know someone who can aid their mentees when there are cases that they can?t
? Aid the mentees in their work plan. For example, they should help the mentees write realistic goals, deadlines, and the strategy on how these can be achieved.
? Give feedback on the work. They should give their opinions about the mentee?s performance so that the mentee will know which areas they should improve on.
? Help the mentees look at the feedback of other people. The mentees should take a serious look at the opinions of other people so they can determine their weaknesses.
? Make learning possible for the mentees. The mentors should provide the necessary resources such as time, effort, and space so that their mentees can learn even during their day-to-day work.
? Motivate their mentees. The simply act of asking how a person is doing is an act of asking how a person is doing can be motivation for them to improve their performance.
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Teacher Mentoring Defined: Uses, Advantages and Limitations
For many professionals, such as those involved in education and academics, mentoring is an important resource, particularly because it helps encourage new learnings and improve on established ones. Mentoring is a highly valued practice and it is a recognized method used by many educators for sharing information and knowledge. It is also a way for more senior members of the academe to train beginners, allowing protégés to be sponsored both professionally and organizationally.
The purpose of teacher mentoring
Teacher mentoring involves the pairing of a beginning teacher with a teacher who has more experience. Sometimes, the pairing can involve one or more new teachers or a group of more experienced teachers, depending on the perceived need of the beginning teacher/s and the goals of the organization.
The purpose of teacher mentoring is not only to build a mentor-protégé relationship between two or more individuals but also to provide support for the new teacher. This will help establish the teacher’s confidence, allow them to settle into the organization immediately and maximize their effectiveness as instructors.
Mentoring can also help establish an educational system’s quality standard, allowing a school to ensure compliance with prevailing benchmarks. It is also helpful in the recruitment and retention of new staff.
As a process, teacher mentoring may be used formally, such as when a school wishes to implement particular programs or informally, where no programs are in place. Either way, it can benefit a system if the program is implemented correctly.
So far, we’ve uncovered some interesting facts about Mentoring. You may decide that the following information is even more interesting.
Benefits of teacher mentoring in education
Teacher mentoring is one of the best interactive systems that mentors, mentees and the educational system can actively participate in. It helps create a quantitative program to help train new teachers, develop more experienced educators and improve the techniques and methods used in instruction. It also helps build a sense of community within the school and help it comply with existing standards.
Limitations of teacher mentoring
Teacher mentoring has its benefits and has been acknowledged as very advantageous especially for beginners. However, it has its list of disadvantages. In 1996, teacher mentoring w as criticized
as a means with which to promote practices and norms that are deemed too conventional. Critics say that most teacher mentoring programs encourage participants to learn and implement outdated practices. Teacher mentoring participants may also risk picking up bad habits as demonstrated by their mentors.
The lack of trust and follow-up can also spell a huge difference in teacher mentoring programs. If the system cannot be assessed or evaluated properly, it is easy for the program to fail. An ineffective evaluation system can also frustrate the mentor, especially if the system is too saddled with details and other unnecessary activities.
Implementing an effective teacher mentoring program
The most important consideration when implementing a teacher mentoring program for an educational institution is determining its match to the goals and objectives of the school system. Choosing the type of mentoring programs that are appropriate to the grade level of the teacher mentee is also essential. If there is a fit, it is easier for the program to be designed and put into practice. It is also important that the processes and methods are clear and specific, something that can be quantified and measured, to allow administrators to determine whether the program works or not.
It is also important that the teacher mentoring program receives sufficient support from the school management and that sufficient resources are provided for the participants. Without support from the administration, a mentoring program will be difficult to sustain if it is run independently of the institution. Appropriate methods for assessment of the program is also important, to allow the organization to determine if it is effective or if there is a need to improve certain aspects.
Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.
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By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his soon to be top ranked Perpetual20 training site: Perpetual 20
Breaking the Ice: An Important Part of Mentoring
When mentoring is mentioned, what comes into anyone?s mind? It could be Socrates and Plato. Or it could be Jesus the Christ and his disciples. Whether these men used ?ice breakers? to make their students feel at ease, we would never know. But for sure, ice breaking exercises open doors for both mentor and student relationship or student to student relationship.
Mentoring is doing something valuable such as leading a less experienced individual to improve aspects in his life. It could be his faith, his skills or even simple time management. But even if you are the best mentor in the whole world, you would still need to break that barrier that comes with the stranger whom you will now teach. And this is the area where ice breakers come in.
An ice breaking exercise need not be an unruly game. In fact, it doesn?t always come in the form of a game. Sometimes, ice breaking exercises could simply mean the mentor introducing himself to his students and encouraging them to do the same. It could also be storytelling time for everyone. The main purpose is to make the students relax and feel comfortable.
An effective ice breaker is one that suits its participants. A more serious group could feel at ease with open forums or storytelling while an active group could easily relax physical activities. Ice breakers should also avoid activities that coerce communication, games that are not related to the course, games that take too long to finish, or activities that foster cultural biases.
In finding the perfect activities for a mentoring session, it is also important to consider the time factor. How long will the mentoring last? Would it take a week or two? Or will it only last for two days? You should be able to suit the activities to the available time that you have.
Here are some tips on making your games or discussions much more interesting:
Sometimes the most important aspects of a subject are not immediately obvious. Keep reading to get the complete picture.
1. Be enthusiastic. Feel the game. You should be able to explain the mechanics with much liveliness in your voice. An important part of this is to know every detail of the game. You don?t want to be caught unaware that you are confused with the game yourself.
2. Experiment with a different game each time. Variety displaces boredom (which the mentor might feel once he gets familiar with the activity).
3. Bring props. Funny props create funny moments. Make fun of anything except someone from the group.
4. Encourage each member of the group to participate. Don?t leave anyone out. But if someone is implying that he is still not ready to be open or active, then respect his desire.
5. The mentor should actively participate in all given activities and not watch from a corner after explaining the mechanics.
6. Make fun of situations that are outside of the circle. Be careful of sensitive topics such as politics, religion, sexual preference, etc.
The most important part of mentoring is achieving the student?s goal which is academic, religious or social improvement. Although ice breaking exercises are fun activities, they are still a necessary part of the mentoring program. In fact, it?s so important that it?s considered as the key that opens closed gates. With that in mind, participants should pay more attention and participate more on their next ice breaker.
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By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his Perpetual20 training site for great bonuses: Perpetual20
The Growing Need for Mentoring in Healthcare
Are you looking for some inside information on Mentoring? Here’s an up-to-date report from Mentoring experts who should know.
Of the many programs that have been introduced and integrated in the healthcare practice, mentoring has been one of the most misunderstood and under-utilized. This is unfortunate, considering that healthcare is a sector in many areas of business that has seen an upward growth. Without mentoring, many of the practices and important methods and procedures involved in healthcare may not be maximized at all.
The need for proper mentoring in the healthcare sector
According to registered nurse and author Zardoya Eagles, a mentor can help a healthcare provider prepare himself for public service. A mentor can also help someone in the advancement of his/her career. The human factor, according to Eagles, is one of the best reasons why mentoring should take on more significance in many of today’s healthcare settings.
The results of a well-implemented mentoring practice may be difficult to quantify but it is by no means a less important undertaking. It is an acknowledged process that helps improve the processes within an organization and actually leads staff to achieve better results for their efforts, particularly in today’s knowledge-based institutions.
Benefits of healthcare mentoring
There are several advantages to ensuring that mentoring resources are provided in healthcare sectors. These include:
- The opportunity for departments within organizations to check flaws in their practices and to improve their services significantly.
- Provide a way for newbies in the industry to develop the necessary skills to work and thrive in the healthcare environment more quickly and efficiently.
- Provide the means with which future leaders within the organization are spotted and developed. Mentors within the organization can also develop their own skills and become highly valued employees.
- Provide a means for the organization to offer a nurturing form of practice to its staff and employees.
- The opportunity to achieve compliance in the industry through the improvement of services.
- Improve the management of hospitals, clinics and other healthcare institutions.
If you find yourself confused by what you’ve read to this point, don’t despair. Everything should be crystal clear by the time you finish.
- Develop staff and employee and increase intellectual capital.
Having mentoring practices in place is also an excellent recruitment tool for healthcare institutions and a way to increase positive feedback. It is also a way for institutions to share their knowledge and other important information to help other hospitals improve
their own practices and services. Mentoring is also an excellent means to keep updated about the latest practices and developments in the healthcare sector.
Implementing mentoring in an organization
Mentoring may seem like a set of procedures that are simple to implement but it is in fact, a process that might be problematic and counter-productive if not used properly. Some of the most important considerations when implementing mentoring for any organization include:
1) Proper understanding of the goals of the organization, its resources, facilities and manpower.
2) Proper understanding of the interests, goals, expectations and values of the staff.
3) Proper knowledge in the implementation of mentoring activities and procedures that will fit the needs of the organizations and those of the staff concerned.
4) Adequate information about the most successful techniques and methods in mentoring that will help an organization meet its goals.
5) Sufficient knowledge in matching mentors and mentees in order to take advantage of the perfect mentoring relationship.
The healthcare mentoring outlook
Already, the advantages of providing mentoring resources for many members of the healthcare profession have made the practice essential to many of the hospitals in the U.S. The Campaign Mentor Hospitals, for example, is a network of medical institutions small and large, urban and rural that operates throughout the country providing mentoring support in healthcare. Many of these organizations are high-achieving institutions that offer some of the most useful insights that other organizations can integrate into their practices.
Today, mentoring in healthcare continues to expand, undertaken by numerous groups of hospitals throughout the country in order to provide a more effective means to care for and assist clients, develop staff knowledge and skills and improve the practice of healthcare.
Of course, it’s impossible to put everything about Mentoring into just one article. But you can’t deny that you’ve just added to your understanding about Mentoring, and that’s time well spent.
About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO