Thank you, Paul, for clarifying what we all mean when we discuss mentoring!

On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 9:52 AM, <JURMO at ucc.edu> wrote:


>  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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>

> --

> Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt

> Community Writer for NEWS AND MESSENGER

> www.insidenova.com

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-- 
Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt
Community Writer for NEWS AND MESSENGER
www.insidenova.com
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