Power and Process of Mentoring TWO

Further to my first post, earlier this week I started to delve into the second chapter of the Mentee's Guide "Preparing Yourself to Make the Most of Mentoring."

Preparation is the key to any successful venture, and it seems that being a mentee is no different - it is just as important to prepare for this as for any venture!  This chapter of the book provided opportunities for reflection and review as well as forward thinking to the future.  While I completed all the exercises, I'm sharing just some snapshots of the process as this will enable me to reflect, to look forwards now, and provide a baseline to review in the future.

2.1 Personal Reflection Exercise
The task:  Create a timeline of your career journey, including highlights, milestones, marker events, challenges and disappointments.  Use this timeline to complete the accompanying questions.

Identify your top three professional successes - I've had an amazing start to my teaching career and I feel the opportunities I've been lucky enough to have all build on my start in the Manaiakalani Digital Teaching Academy (MDTA).  My passion for technology started before the MDTA, which is perhaps why I made the most of the opportunity and am so passionate about using the affordances of technology to personalise learning today.  Being accepted as a Google Certified Innovator ranks as another of my top three professional successes - this opportunity has been a challenge, at times hard work but I've enjoyed (and will continue to enjoy) every moment of this journey.  Lastly, but definitely not least, I have had the privilege to work in two amazing schools with terrific colleagues who inspire me daily to continue striving to be the best teacher I can be.

2.2 Creating a Personal Vision

My #SYD17 innovation came about because I believe personalised learning has helped accelerate learners in my classroom and I'd like to inspire other teachers along the same personalised learning pathway.  My journey using personalised learning has taken many hours of my own time to get to where it is now - and time is one commodity that teachers have so little of.  My vision is therefore:

To inspire other teachers to use the affordances of technology to personalise learning through the creation of a community which encourages sharing of resources, ideas and pedagogy to save time and benefit all learners.

2.3 Mentee Skill Inventory

Evaluate your proficiency on the mentee skill inventory - you may wish to share this with your mentor as you look for ways to develop your skills.

2.4 Know your Learning Style

The book refers to David Kolb's Learning Style model, and I know I am a blend of the four types of learners mentioned.  In order to check my own understanding I completed this questionnaire.  I'm not surprised to see a strong leaning towards a reflector style of learning, with less emphasis on the pragmatist and a medium leaning towards activist and theorist styles.  Reading over how the selected learning styles are described, these are where I feel I fit:

Once again, using The Mentees Guide has enabled me to be more formal in my thinking and reflective through this blog post.  I look forward to continuing with my mentee journey as my #SYD17 project continues to blossom.

The Power & Process of Mentoring

My #SYD17 journey continued this week with the announcements of our mentors, and the above book arriving by courier from the USA.  As I started to read, I hadn't even completed the first page when I was inspired to take notes - what better way than through a blog post!

A mentor is defined in this text as "a guide who helps us define and understand our own goals and pursue them successfully."  I'm excited that I've been matched with a mentor I had the pleasure of working with in the past, and I can't wait to continue on this journey with her.

I've never been a mentor before, however I believe that collaboration and communication would be essential to a mentor/mentee relationship.  Further reading unpacks the following elements as crucial:

Many of the elements of success occur frequently in my day to day teaching and school relationships.  Rather than unpacking each in more detail in this blog post, this is what I'm most wondering or feel is important when working with my mentor:
Partnership - valuing the uniqueness of each of us in the partnership and drawing on the experiences, and individuality of my mentor while sharing my own experiences with her.
Relationship - I'm lucky in that I already have an existing relationship with my mentor so I feel trust will develop more easily because of this.  I look forward to, and welcome honest, reflective and authentic conversations with Fiona.
Learning - I have a belief that I will never stop learning and I certain hope to grow through this experience.  As always, I will be critically reflective, unafraid to try things and learn from any mistakes I make along the journey.
Collaboration - One of the things I'm looking forward to most is the experiences we are both bringing to the discussions that will take place - I feel comfortable sharing with Fiona with an openness that will lead to greater collaboration as well as willing to give and take as required to enable the best possible outcomes.
Reciprocity - Both of use bring different perspectives to this relationship and I look forward to exploring these over our mentoring time.  I'm excited and inspired to have Fiona as a mentor and I hope she enjoys the process as much as I hope to.
Development - This is perhaps my biggest wondering - what will I be able to achieve as a result of our partnership and what knowledge, skills and abilities will I develop over the next 11 months?  While its definitely a wondering, I'm excited about the possibilities and cannot wait to continue the journey.

The Mentee's Guide by Lois J. Zachary with Lory A. Fischler