Mentoring Philosophy and Document Analysis

Mentoring Philosophy and Document Analysis

Part 1

A mentoring philosophy is a statement that justifies and explains the way one approaches professional and personal relationships with learners as one guides their growth into professionals (Merkel, 2020). Therefore, it is my primary objective to recognize the goals and needs of my mentee. It will be vital to begin by asking what inspires them to educate young learners. In addition, I will inquire about what truly persuades them to pursue the early childhood education discipline. Kauchak & Eggen (2015) insist that mentors are primarily important because they enable and encourage the mentee’s personal and professional development and help them focus their efforts by giving feedback and setting goals. Thus, my goal will be to ensure I respect my mentee the same way I expect them to respect me and make sure they feel appreciated. Respect while mentoring encourages mutual relationships as each party works to constantly cultivate trust and build a bond as the relationship develops.

Mentees who respect and are respected by their mentors are likelier to work harder as they will not desire to disappoint their mentors. Thus, my goal is to create a conducive environment to encourage free conversation and feedback without fearing backlash and criticism (Goldhaber et al., 2020). I will give the mentee the freedom to seek my help anytime. I will encourage them to be free to call, email, or message me or ask for a face-to-face appointment to freely converse about what might be challenging or the help they need. As a mentor, I want to establish a trusting and lifelong rapport with my mentees. Therefore, I will educate my mentee on the importance of owning activities and goals by offering them a simpler learning structure. Complex frameworks or structures will likely discourage mentees, as they would feel the career of choice is too complicated or hard to accomplish.

Throughout this career journey, I have been lucky to benefit from the guidance of some excellent mentors. One of them is my aunt, an Early Childhood educator; I loved her passion and efforts in ensuring that young children excel regardless of their challenges. She has done excellent work developing my skills and confidence, inspiring me to pursue my early childhood education to higher levels. Therefore, my goal is to replicate the mentorship I gained with my mentee and learners. My goal is also to simplify the hurdles of mistrust by sharing my encounters and ideas that molded me into the individual I am today. Finally, any good mentorship must have an assessment procedure that gives results and feedback. With this, I will make sure I evaluate and assess my mentee practically by asking them to demonstrate their learned lessons. Then, I will give appropriate feedback on the mentees’ areas of strength and weakness that need improvement. Through practical demonstrations, the mentee will be in a position to exhibit active learning. In that case, I will be happy and contented that my coaching was fruitful and worthy.

Part 2

Kauchak & Eggen (2015) assert that locating, reviewing, and revising forms is an important process for educators and students; it gives them a chance to apply their knowledge. Reviewing, when executed effectively, gives the students a chance to learn, own, and apply it. The most appropriate way to do this is to apply the gained knowledge to authentic circumstances that arise naturally in our daily lives. Therefore, reviews can come in different forms, like worksheets. The form provided for review is indeed a good form and an excellent mentorship or coaching form. The form has various sections, starting with the teacher’s name, the coach’s name, and the date. The form is in a table form with two columns and six-row rows with six important sections. The first section is for writing long and short-term goals, interests, and needs of the teacher or an identified issue and how the teacher will know a goal has been achieved, which is ideally the first step in any mentorship. The second section focuses on discussion, inquiry, or other strategies, which is the second vital step in any mentorship. The other section included the coach-linked teacher to research-based concepts. Here, the coach can use probing and open-ended questions and even demonstrate a relevant strategy, like problem-solving. The other section entailed the resources and strengths of the teacher. These resources can be given or discussed depending on the mentor. It also ensures that the coach or teacher writes the resources that are still needed. The last section is the conclusion, which briefly summarizes and gives an idea for the next step while also providing the correct timeline. That is all entailed in the provided form. With all the included sections, the form is good and beneficial, as it will help the teacher track their progress, areas of strength, weaknesses, and what they still need to do in the required timeline.

The form will also be beneficial during and after visits because it will help evaluate the position of the teacher and where they still need assistance. The form ensures that the mentor can inquire, link, and develop the mentee’s experiences within the teaching space. Therefore, the mentor’s primary objective is to make the tutor aware that they are around to assist and not criticize or discourage. Thus, the documenting process should be a very simple one.

The two revisions that I would execute on the form are; I will make it have more columns and sections where the tutor has a chance to write a problem, and the mentor can show or give the explanation of the state problem. Essentially, in the form, there is no section compelling the teacher to write a problem, so they could easily avoid writing it. Secondly, I will make the form more goal-oriented in the classroom. The form solely entails the teacher and is not much focused on the classroom. Therefore, I will add a section where the teacher can observe, reflect and apply ideas effectively in a classroom and add a section for the mentor to comment and advise on each section. Mentorship forms should be formatted so that the mentor tests the understanding of the tutor’s research about the young learner’s interest and development (Merkel, 2020).

References

Goldhaber, D., Krieg, J., Naito, N., & Theobald, R. (2020). Making the most of student teaching: The importance of mentors and scope for change. Education Finance and Policy, 15(3), 581-591.

Kauchak, D., & Eggen, P. (2015). Introduction to Teaching: Becoming a Professional. Pearson.

Merkel, W. (2020). “What I Mean Is…”: The role of dialogic interactions in developing a statement of teaching philosophy. Journal of Second Language Writing, 48, 100702.

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As leaders and mentors in early childhood education it is important to plan for mentoring activities and documenting expectations, progress, and outcomes. By planning and documenting the mentor can review what worked and what did not work in a specific situation. Additionally, mentors can reflect on what skills they have, and what competencies they need more professional development in to grow and learn in their role. Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read the required text chapters to incorporate concepts and ideas into your submission. In your two-part submission, you will craft your mentoring philosophy and analyze how you might document and evaluate a relationship-based coaching process.

Part 1: Your mentoring philosophy is a statement that explains the way you approach professional relationships with early childhood teachers and staff as you support their professional development goals. Write a reflective mentoring philosophy of at least 300 words, including rationale supporting your statement with at least one scholarly resource or reference to the course text. Keep in mind the following ideas while crafting your philosophy:

Identifying adult learners’ motivators, goals, and communication style.
Evaluating adult learners’ strengths and building on them.
Creating an interactive inquiry environment.
Creating a safe environment for growth and change.
Encouraging growth through challenges.
Part 2: Over the next few weeks you will be locating, reviewing, and revising forms while discussing the importance of tailoring them to meet your specific needs. These forms can be used to create a mentoring portfolio for your own professional work in current or future mentoring relationships. To practice revising or adapting effecting mentoring forms, review the form below and respond to the questions. Be sure to use the course text to support your response. You are encouraged to save this form for your own mentoring portfolio.

Would you find this form useful during and/or after each visit with a teacher?
If so, how? If not, why?
Discuss a minimum of two revisions you would make to the form.
Provide rationale for each suggested revision.