Just to add my story to the long and wonderful list that has been 
generated today.

When I was first learning about teaching ESL, I was formally mentored at 
the Riverside Language Program (RLP) in New York City during an internship 
I did there with Flo Fooden.  During my six week mentorship learning about 
the Community Language Learning approach to teaching, I spent 5 hours a 
day in the classroom with the teacher.  In addition, I spent time after 
class with Flo discussing what had happened and why AND what was going to 
happen the next day.    Flo always took time to answer my questions, and 
even to this day I can remember her dedication to helping me learn.  I 
spent a great deal of time observing the class in the beginning, and then 
in the middle weeks I took over a small group, and by the end of the class 
I took over the whole group.  It was a great way for me to transition into 
the real classroom.  The experience gave me the full foundational 
grounding that I needed.  I was hired (after graduate school) at RLP that 
same year, and I took all that I had learned during the internship with me 
to my teaching.  That might have been enough, but I was lucky to have even 
more "mentoring" support in this job.  In addition to what I had learned 
from Flo, I was given an extremely important gift of "mentoring" just by 
being at Riverside.  I was teaching in an extremely supportive community 
of veteran and new teachers who were constantly sharing ideas about 
teaching and learning.

I have carried that tradition of sharing about teaching and learning to 
every job I've had since then (14 years ago).  I moved and grew in my 
approach to teaching, but one thing I have tried to abide by since I 
learned about the Silent Way approach (through another informal mentor 
Shakti Gattegno) is to subordinate teaching to learning.  This helps me 
"see" my own steps more distinctly, and hear the teachers I work with 
these days more clearly.  And that might be what Michael means by 
"everyone learns through the heart."



 
Moira Taylor




Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt <katherine.gotthardt at gmail.com> 
Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov
09/29/2009 12:14 PM
Please respond to
specialtopics at nifl.gov


To
specialtopics at nifl.gov
cc

Subject
[SpecialTopics 1431] Re: No mentoring in Adult Literacy?






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

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