MENTOR LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP
Dates for 2016–2017 below!
Nearly every school selects teachers and administrators to serve as mentors to beginning teachers and others new to their particular schools. The mentors, however, are seldom trained in the processes and skills that make mentor-protégé pairs successful. This workshop, scheduled for four sessions through the school year (two full days and two half-days), establishes expectations for mentors, counsels best practices, and delves into the foundations that support effective mentor/protégé partnerships.
In many cases, information presented is designed specifically for mentors to share with their protégés, as well as to extend their own learning and capabilities.
The sessions are hosted in Dupont Circle in Washington. Lunch and snacks will be provided for each session, as appropriate. Participants are expected to attend all four sessions — the workshop format suffers when participants fall off, and we have found that the times teachers have most to do are the times they benefit most from attendance.
Core workshop faculty members have extensive experience with beginning teachers, boasting combined experience of more than 20 years running similar workshops for AISGW (Independent Education) in the past decade. To learn more about the workshop faculty, click here.
Dates
The Mentor Leadership Workshop runs 8:30 to 3:30 on full days (8:30 to 12:30 on half days) at the Friends Meeting House of Washington, near Dupont Circle, on the following dates:
Thursday, October 6, 2016 (concurrent with the Beginning Teachers Workshop)
Tuesday, December 13, 2016 (half day)
Thursday, February 9, 2017 (half day)
Tuesday, April 11, 2017 (concurrent with the Beginning Teachers Workshop)
Mentor Leadership Workshop Syllabus
Note that each session comprises significant topical conversation and exercises, as well as time for exercises in self-care (essential for teachers!), and time for “stuff” — a forum for mentors to speak candidly about the successes and challenges they’ve encountered.
Participants should ask their schools to purchase these four essential books on leadership. We will use each in various ways:
Session 1: Boots on the Ground — The Essentials of Mentorship (concurrent with protégés)
- Welcome
- Why are you a mentor?
- The elements of the mentor/protégé partnership: Institutional expectations, procedures, and culture; Ongoing collaboration with a protégé; Modeling professional conversation, practice, and improvement
- Leadership objectives: the qualities of effective mentors
- Self-care
- “Stuff” — what you’re dealing with
Session 2: Listening and Thinking (half day)
- Listening and Feedback
- Visible thinking in the mentor-protégé relationship
- Mission, vision, and values: An echo of the protégé discussion from Session 2
- “Stuff” — what you’re dealing with
Session 3: The Choreography of Conversation (half-day)
- Taking care of oneself
- Closing exercises
- Communication with colleagues and protégés
- Advanced
- “Stuff” — what you’re dealing with
Session 4, half day: Ongoing Skill Sets: Global Topics (concurrent with protégés)
- Technology for leadership
- Feedback as leadership
- How’m I doing? A framework for evaluating our teaching success and challenges
- Self-care
- “Stuff” — what you're dealing with
- Closing exercises