Archive for the ‘Mentoring’ Category



Preparing a Proposal for a Teacher Mentoring Program

Do you ever feel like you know just enough about Mentoring to be dangerous? Let’s see if we can fill in some of the gaps with the latest info from Mentoring experts.

An established teacher mentoring program is an important asset for any educational institution. It helps develop talent, maintain a school’s quality standards, ensure its compliance to state or even national benchmarks and provide high quality standards of teaching for students.

It’s also a way to help improve the quality of teacher personnel and assist new teachers in getting assimilated into the environment. This is why preparing a proposal for a teacher mentoring program should be a careful and well thought-of process, something that must be carefully deliberated and designed in order to produce a plan that will be a perfect fit for the institution.

There are several important steps and considerations to keep in mind when designing a proposal for a teacher mentoring program. These include:

Establishing the goals and purposes of the school
Before writing a proposal for a mentorship program, it is important that the goals and purposes of the school is understood and considered. Ultimately, this is the benchmark upon which the efficacy of the program will be assessed. Determine what the organization wishes to achieve through the mentorship program and how the program will fit the image, values and philosophies set by the school.

Determining the needs of the organization
In every organization, there are areas where it can show strengths and weaknesses. If the goal of the organization is to close the gap between its weaknesses and the current standards, it will be a lot easier to establish what the organization needs and design a more effective and successful teacher mentoring program.

You can see that there’s practical value in learning more about Mentoring. Can you think of ways to apply what’s been covered so far?

A mentoring program also has to fit the specific requirements of the participants. Elementary level teachers, for example, may have different needs than high school level or collegiate level teachers.

Assessing the available resources for mentorship
The next step to preparing a proposal for a mentoring program is to find out what kind of resources the school has that may be used with the program. Staff specialization, number of teachers or personnel that can assist or participate in the program, materials, funding and even external resources that may have to be tapped should be considered.

For many organizations, including schools, the use of resources can be a touchy subject, particularly if it involves budget. Establishing the cost and type of requirements that may be involved in a mentoring program initially will help school administrators to decide whether or not the program is feasible.

Establishing the responsibility and accountability of the program
It is important to establish which department will be responsible for the implementation and assessment of the program. This department will ensure that correct practices are enforced and that certain standards are met. If necessary, creating an audit team might also be considered.

Establishing the benefits and creating quality perimeters
The benefits of the program should be enumerated in order to show the administrators that it is necessary and useful to the school. The proposal should also include the standards for checking the validity, relevance and efficacy of the mentoring program. These standards should be quantifiable to allow for easy measurement and evaluation.

Preparing the proposal
The proposal is a formal presentation of the mentorship program and as such, should follow certain guidelines. The proposal must be well-written and informative, establishing the facts about the program immediately. This will allow the administrators to see whether or not the program will be useful for the school. The success of the proposal and ultimately, the teacher mentoring program will depend on how well it is designed and accepted by school administrators.

Don’t limit yourself by refusing to learn the details about Mentoring. The more you know, the easier it will be to focus on what’s important.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

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:

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? An insider’s 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’s 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.

As your knowledge about Mentoring continues to grow, you will begin to see how Mentoring fits into the overall scheme of things. Knowing how something relates to the rest of the world is important too.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

The Fine Art of Mentoring

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.

Is everything making sense so far? If not, I’m sure that with just a little more reading, all the facts will fall into place.

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.

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.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Youth The Concepts Behind Christian Mentoring

So what is Mentoring really all about? The following report includes some fascinating information about Mentoring–info you can use, not just the old stuff they used to tell you.

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.

There’s no doubt that the topic of Mentoring can be fascinating. If you still have unanswered questions about Mentoring, you may find what you’re looking for in the next article.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

The Proper Way of Mentoring Special Educators

There’s a shortage of special educators these days. Special education teachers are badly needed by almost all of school districts today. They are wanted in 98% of all the educational institutions of the U.S. And over the next years, more than a million new special educators are required.

Special educators leave their jobs a lot faster than regular teachers. This is because of the tasks that are placed on their backs. Special educators are tasked to manage IEPs, give alternative assessments, become paraprofessionals, use assisting technologies, comply with complex legislation, and write all the paperwork. All of these they have to do, on top of the emotional and physical toll of doing individualized instruction.

The effective way of mentoring special educators play a special role in their development and preservation. To mentor special education teachers, the following should be done:

1. Effective identification, recruitment, and selection of mentors.
There may be a handful of special education teachers. But only a few of them are really up to the task. Before training a teacher to be special education teachers, they have to be psychologically, physically, and emotionally up to the task.

2. Provide adequate action planning
With the many tasks facing a special educator face, mentors should take part in the action planning process in everyway they can. Mentors should be always available for the teacher could confer with them. Mentors should take part of the special educator’s task every time they can.

Hopefully the information presented so far has been applicable. You might also want to consider the following:

3. Continuous evaluation
The evaluation of special educators should be continuous. The regular evaluation of special education teacher is going to be helpful in determining whether or not the skills and abilities of the teachers are up to the present challenges of their job. Should teachers fall short, they can easily update their knowledge through retraining.

4. Address diminishing support
Diminishing support for special educators is real. Expect this to happen even if you have tried hard to provide the support special educators need. Whenever the support of your team to special teachers is failing, address it with a special meeting to solve the immediate problems the teacher encounter at hand.

5. Check instances of isolation and burnout
The psychological and emotional toll of teaching special education is high. Teachers get drained out most easily if they feel isolation from their peers and experience burnout with their work. Try to check the level of isolation and burnout teachers have. Solve it by offering out of town team building activities, regular brainstorming and interaction with colleagues.

6. Conduct regular counseling with teachers
Teachers should be subjected to regular counseling sessions, whether they need it or not. This would help teachers a lot, because they could share their stories, experiences, frustrations, and successes with a person that could really help. Regular sessions would help teachers with their day-to-day activities.

7. Facilitate workshops and trainings
Special educators need to update their knowledge through trainings and workshops. These activities are very important because it allows them to learn more techniques that could help them a lot in their daily jobs. Make sure that the workshops and trainings made for teachers are as lively and as fun as it should.

These are the things can do to properly mentor special education teachers so that they won’t give up their jobs easily. These professionals are very important in the society. Their roles are indispensable so they have to be given the proper attention they need.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

All About Juvenile Mentoring Programs

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 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 protégés, 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 protégés or youth that are assigned to them.

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.

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, protégé, 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.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Teacher Mentoring Defined: Uses, Advantages and Limitations

The following paragraphs summarize the work of Mentoring experts who are completely familiar with all the aspects of Mentoring. Heed their advice to avoid any Mentoring surprises.

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.

You can see that there’s practical value in learning more about Mentoring. Can you think of ways to apply what’s been covered so far?

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 was 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.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

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.

Now that we’ve covered those aspects of Mentoring, let’s turn to some of the other factors that need to be considered.

- 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.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO

Peer Mentoring ? Helping the Teens Beat Pressures of Adolescence

The following article lists some simple, informative tips that will help you have a better experience with Mentoring.

Teenagers are facing the most critical stage in their life ? adolescence. At this stage, they experience the transition from childhood towards adulthood; in the process of transition, teens deal with lots of biological, emotional, social and psychological changes. Often, these changes make a life of a teenager miserable. There is a great desire to fit in, to be accepted for who they are, to find their true identity, and to realize their own strengths and weaknesses. This is where peer mentoring becomes a lot of help. It keeps the youth guided and makes them feel loved, cared for and accepted.

Features and of a Peer Mentoring Program

Peer mentoring is a kind of mentoring program, which matches older youths with younger ones. The former provide the latter with guidance, advice, and all forms of support they need to be able to meet challenges of adolescent life. The older youths do not only serve as mentors but as role models to the younger ones. They are not perfect but having been through the same stage and most likely, the same problems, predicaments, and challenges in their homes, school and community; they are in the position to provide friendly advice, positive influences, attention, and moral support to these younger teens.

Mentoring programs, either in schools, local communities, and youth organizations bear the following characteristics:

? Centered on the needs of the youth ? Every peer mentoring program is designed to meet the specific needs of the teens to be mentored. Those who come from broken homes, for example, may need more time for counseling and recreation activities that would help them divert their thoughts on sad experiences at home towards happy ones. Those with academic problems may require more time for tutorials.

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? Participants voluntarily join a peer mentoring program ? A big part of the success of peer mentoring lies on the voluntary participation of the mentor and the younger teens. The student must not be forced to attend the peer mentoring program as this would only make things more difficult for him. The student must first acknowledge the need to have a mentor, someone who is older, wider, and more experienced than him. Only upon acknowledging this need can he actively participate in the activities in the mentoring program.

? Mentors are bound by the responsibility to keep things confidential ? Trust is very important in building good relationship between the mentor and the student; thus, it is a must or the mentor to keep things that he and the student talks about confidential. Without trust, it would be hard for the person mentored to talk about the things he feels and thinks especially about very critical issues involving him, a close friend or his family.

Joining a Mentoring Program

Joining a peer mentoring program starts with the eagerness to be a part of a support group or program that is aimed at creating changes both on the life of the mentor and the younger person to be mentored.

If you want to be a mentor, first you must be prepared in all aspects. Do you have a plan on how to conduct peer mentoring? Do you know what to do when trying situations arise? Do you have the patience necessary for you to deal with persons who might be going through tough moments in their life? How would you handle issues such as early pregnancy, divorce, and drug addiction?

When you are ready, the next thing you should do is to look for a pee mentoring program that is suited to your interests. You can look for these in your school, local community and even online. You may also ask for your teachers, schoolmates, and friends’ recommendations. You can also ask the head of your local community church or youth organizations in your community or neighboring areas.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO

What to Avoid in Mentoring Programs

So what is Mentoring really all about? The following report includes some fascinating information about Mentoring–info you can use, not just the old stuff they used to tell you.

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?

See how much you can learn about Mentoring when you take a little time to read a well-researched article? Don’t miss out on the rest of this great information.

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.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO