How Mentoring Programs Establish Self-Confidence

Mentoring programs establish the self-confidence and the self-assurance of a mentee who uses it as a tool for personal and professional development. There are certainly many benefits you can expect from joining a mentoring program because you will learn from someone who has the necessary experience to coach you on what you have to do. Some of the benefits of mentoring include:

?Becoming a standout

?Leadership abilities

?Working smarter, not harder

These benefits may sound simple, but when you translate it in real life, you can definitely feel that mentoring is one of the best options to succeed in your career. Mentoring is actually a two-way relationship and both the mentor and the mentee will learn something from the mentoring program. Primarily though, mentoring programs are designed to enhance the capabilities of the mentee.

At the start of any mentoring programs, both the mentor and the mentee are encouraged to clarify their goals and expectations from the program. They need to create a well-designed plan and follow a specific course of action. There are a lot of cases wherein the mentoring program far exceeded the expectations of the mentee because the program provided the following as well:

?An insider抯 realistic perspective on his career goals and progress

?Clearer understanding of his career plans

?Exposure to varied experiences and perspectives

?Access to powerful sources of information

?Access to resources within the industry

?Greater knowledge about yourself and your goals

?A wider network of contacts

?Identification of any lacking skill that is required for career advancement

?Establishment of a foundation for a lasting professional career

?Access to a support system during the critical stages of your career growth

But the mentor would not be able to do everything for you; you need to help yourself as well. You need to do this by listening to the mentor抯 ideas and suggestions, try implementing these suggestions if you feel that these can help you in your career. It is also essential for you to listen to the feedback of others especially the opinion of the mentor during this critical time so that you can adjust to the situation accordingly. In addition, you should have set realistic expectations from what you hope to achieve from the mentoring program because it is difficult to have impossible goals and then expect the mentor to help you achieve these objectives.

You likewise need to have the willingness to learn and adapt to the different situations you might be facing at work. The mentor is simply the person you should count on for advice and suggestions about the path you should take. Mentoring should not be seen as the easy way out; rather, it should be seen as a tool that will help you grow further in your career and on your personal life.

And these objectives are only possible if you learn to believe in yourself and know that you are capable of doing great things in your life. Mentoring programs can help you reach this state and once you are at this point, it would be inevitable for you to enjoy the fruits of your success. As you can see, while the mentor will provide you with guidance during the mentoring program, your success is entirely up to you.

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What to Avoid in Mentoring Programs

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 搈entor?while the person being supported is called the 搈entee? 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 搕rusted friend?and a 揷ounselor? 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, 損ersonal 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?

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抰

?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抯 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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Mentoring Teachers Programs ?Improved Professional Competence and Educational Reform

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抯 staff and facilities, the mentor also teaches him how to observe and cope with the school抯 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 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抯 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.

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All About Juvenile Mentoring Programs

Guiding young people toward a better life can be a rewarding experience, but it can be a difficult and harrowing experience as well. Many young persons are not necessarily open to being guided, and will often protest that they are shackled and constrained especially when someone insists on being the wiser being over them. Young persons need to be approached in a certain manner, and with a certain mien and creativity that should not go overboard into cuteness or cheesy lines. In other words, young persons need to know that they have someone to talk to, and in the process, they can still be guided.

It is in this league that juvenile mentoring programs operate. The process of mentoring involves matching mentors to a suitable younger person who need an adult who is responsible and caring. The adult mentors that participate in juvenile mentoring programs are usually not related to the teen or the child in question; this is because relatives are not often perceived with trust, especially where children of broken homes or abusive parents are concerned. The adult mentors that participate in juvenile mentoring programs are also usually volunteers who work through a program that is sponsored by the local community; a local school or community college; or the local church or religious group.

The mentoring process may be either formal or informal. In formal mentoring, the juvenile mentoring program has certain criteria to match mentors to their prot間閟, and these criteria are determined by social service workers, social psychologists, psychiatrists, and other experts who are working with the local community or the state. Formal mentoring might even involve a regimented schedule around which the mentoring will progress, where the mentor will be provided modules in order to guide the prot間閟 or youth that are assigned to them.

Informal mentoring can also be done in a juvenile mentoring program. In this case, the criteria are not as stringent, and there are no set deadlines or schedules around which the mentoring will operate. Instead, the mentor will simply aim to educate and encourage the mentee, prot間? or youth to whom he or she is assigned. In some cases, there may be more than one mentee to a mentor, and it is these support groups that likewise help each other succeed.

There are many juvenile mentoring programs that are available around the world. For instance, there are after-school programs in which youth leaders help younger persons succeed in the world by teaching them different skills, knowledge, and even arts and crafts that are meant to impart independence and creativity. Such organizations might include the local 4-H or FFA. There are also programs in which young delinquents are assigned to mentors who will help them get a better education. Moreover, there are programs in which at-risk youth, such as those in inner cities or in the ghettos, are helped by mentors who will help them overcome their personal limitations and thus succeed in life.

Some juvenile mentoring programs might include the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, which helps youth do better through the help of older teens or young adults. There are still many other juvenile mentoring programs that are being developed, especially now that there are also many different kinds of dangers to which youth may fall into. Such dangers may include drugs, smoking, pornography, and even the Internet, where children may be preyed upon if they are not wise and careful enough.

If you want to find out more about juvenile mentoring programs, look online for programs that may either help you as a mentee, or train you as a mentor. You too, can help the younger generation do better in the years to come.

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