Hi, Colleagues,

 

I've been very lucky to have had many, many great mentors in my adult
education career.   In some cases they were supervisors. In others they
were peers (including adult learners) with whom I worked on projects.  

 

They provided a mix of guidance (feedback, suggestions, ideas), material
support (they might have been my employer or someone who helped me get
funding for a project), encouragement (especially when we ran into
resistance or a lack of resources), and a sounding board (during
brainstorming and gripe sessions). 

 

I won't list them all here right now, but I want to thank all those
great mentors. 

 

Paul Jurmo

 

From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Katherine Mercurio
Gotthardt
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 8:41 AM
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1424] Re: No mentoring in Adult Literacy?

 

What would formal mentoring "look like"?  Obviously, I have never had a
formal mentor : )

On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 10:35 PM, Rosemary Dill <rhdill at yahoo.com>
wrote:

In my years of Adult ESL ( more than 20) I have never been formally
mentored. In a  couple of settings, I was informally mentored which was
very very helpful to me.

I would like to see more formal mentoring in the Adult Education
community.New teachers usually have lots of questions, both educational
and procedural, and they often are not sure where to turn for help. 

 

Rosemary Dill

 

 

 

Mon, 9/28/09, David J. Rosen <djrosen123 at gmail.com> wrote:

	
	From: David J. Rosen <djrosen123 at gmail.com>

	
	Subject: [SpecialTopics 1413] No mentoring in Adult Literacy?

	To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
	Date: Monday, September 28, 2009, 8:08 PM

	 

	Colleagues,

	 

	I am disappointed at the poor response to these two questions
about mentoring. Perhaps you have meant to reply but have put it off.
Don't delay much longer. This discussion ends tomorrow, Tuesday,
September 29th.

	*	 Have you been formally or informally mentored by an
experienced adult education leader? If so, was that a positive
experience? If so, what made it especially beneficial?

	*	Have you mentored a potential adult literacy education
leader? If so, was that a positive experience? If so, what do you think
was especially effective?

	Maybe not many people in our field have mentored someone, or
have been mentored. If so, we may have a serious leadership problem.
Leadership requires good models, of course, but would-be leaders also
need help, support, encouragement, people who believe in them, people
who will take the time to show them how to be effective.

	 

	I have been mentored and I have mentored. My mentors did not
necessarily think of themselves as my "mentor", and I am sure the people
I have mentored have thought of me more as just someone who cared enough
about them to answer their questions, take them seriously, suggest some
other ways of solving problems, and most important, someone who believed
they had the makings of good leadership and wanted to see them succeed.

	 

	I am less interested in whether we have formal mentorships with
that name, although these might be useful. I am interested to know
whether mentoring is taking place, if people new to our field are
getting the support they need to be education leaders. 

	 

	Now is the time to speak up, please. What and how is our field
doing with mentoring? Even if all you have to say about this is "I never
thought about this before. I have never seen mentoring in this field.
What is it?" now would be a good time to say that. 

	 

	Of course, if you have mentored or been mentored, tell us about
that, too. 

	 

	David J. Rosen

	Special Topics Discussion Moderator

	djrosen at theworld.com
<http://us.mc576.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=djrosen@theworld.com> 

	 

	 

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