Greetings to All,

I normally don't have the time to reply to our special topics discussion; however, on this one I must include my thoughts. As I began my college career at late age in my life, I found myself being guided into a life of service in adult education. It was many of my professors, College Board members and administration, and my college peers (both directly and indirectly) that gave me the courage to allow myself to be open and dedicated to a process of life long learning.

I really appreciated those opportunities to learn. One person in particular told me that teaching is reciprocal. I know that what we do as adult education teachers, leaders, and administrators have given us the opportunity to teach and learn simultaneously. Our learners depend on us for guidance and we depend on them to come to us with there suggestions and concerns so that we can best serve them.

In all, I would like to say just as teaching is reciprocal mentoring can be reciprocated as well. Thanks for allowing moments like this for all to share.

Patricia Edwards
Intake and Outreach Director
Baltimore Reads Inc.
31 S. Calvert Street, Suite 4
410 752 3595  ext 1107
410 752 9409 fax
pedwards at baltimorereads.org


________________________________
From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of JURMO at ucc.edu
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 9:53 AM
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1427] Re: No mentoring in Adult Literacy?

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<mailto: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<mailto:djrosen123 at gmail.com>> wrote:

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

Subject: [SpecialTopics 1413] No mentoring in Adult Literacy?
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov<mailto: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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