OnEdMentors Connect officially launched in September of 2018 as a collaborative inquiry into the impact of a 1:1 self-directed mentorship experience on professional learning and student achievement. Through a phased approach, feedback from our Mentors and Mentees, and a lot of insight from our critical friends and mentors, we discovered that OEMConnect is, in fact, a community that supports 1:1 self-directed mentorship experiences as professional learning to strengthen teacher efficacy and impact student achievement.
Each of the phases has helped us improve our understanding of the needs of our Mentors and Mentees and how to support our growing community. We launched Phase 1 with 5 mentees and 13 possible mentors. Phase 2 saw an increase in the community with almost 30 preservice teachers from Lakehead University and the University of Ottawa as mentees and 45 mentors. Phase 3 is about an open space. We have over 55 mentors and more joining each day. We have also invited community members to join our leadership team, and we are excited to support our community through Phase 3. We have been signing up new Mentors throughout the summer, and our applications for Mentees is now open. The OEMConnect team joined us as the panel for this past Thursday night’s OnEdMentors show on voicEd.ca. Although we have evolved from a collaborative inquiry into a community, our goal remains fostering responsive, reciprocal and non-hierarchical relationships between Mentors and Mentees and among the OnEdMentors community at large.
How It Began
When I first conceived of this idea, I spoke to the then OnEdMentor team at voicEd Radio and told them that I had someone in mind with whom I wanted to partner. I had first met Leigh Cassell as a guest on my other show, The Personal Playlist Podcast, and we became fast friends. When I approached her about using the digital Human Library (dHL) to build a community for educational mentorship, she has said that it seemed like a natural fit. “We bring people together…[who are] passionate about supporting the growth of student learners…” Through dHL, we have been able to build a catalogue of OEMConnect Mentors so that potential Mentees can make an informed choice about the person with whom they believe they can build a mentorship relationship to support their professional learning and, as a result, improve outcomes for students.
The OEMConnect Leadership Team
Leigh and I have been so privileged to work with amazing educators who volunteer their time to support teachers through this free offering. When we saw how much potential this community had, and to ensure healthy growth, we sent an open invitation to the OEMConnect community to join our developing leadership team. While many members offered support, Bernadette Smith, Christine Chin and Dr. Teri Rubinoff wanted to do more. We meet as an OEMConnect Leadership Team to help us plan ahead and evolve our ecosystem.
Bernadette Smith has been a fan from the beginning. She is a principal in YRDSB, and she was on secondment to the Ministry of Education when we opened up Phase 2 to new Mentors. She joined because she believes that, “being an educator has always been about developing relationships and learning from and with others.” Learning about the realities of different people and growing her own perspective from talking and listening has been one of her favourite outcomes of her OEMConnect experience thus far. In Phase 2, Bernadette mentored a teacher-candidate from Lakehead University who was a mature student. Supporting someone who was on a different path to teaching allowed her to help him see the “sphere of influence” in a big picture way that really helped him develop schema for his learning. Bernadette shared that she, “...feels that the role of mentor is about awakening ideas, helping people to think a little bit differently about the every day or what’s in front of them…, and being that person on the side that helps to ignite thoughts in different ways or opening up different paths for thinking about things.” Bernadette found this experience very rewarding and enjoys helping to cross-pollinate and help educators grow by forging new relationships and sharing ideas. That is why she is so excited to be part of leading this growing community.
Christine Chin, a French Immersion teacher and leader in YRDSB, was asked why she joined the Leadership Team. She said, “This is a fantastic organization that I think has given me a little bit of new life into my teaching career...This is a great place for not just new teachers to learn from other people but also for seasoned teachers to be inspired and to build and grow their teaching practice.” Through OEMConnect, Christine feels able to share what she has learned but also empowered by learning from the other community members.
Teri Rubinoff is exploring different avenues for her leadership and was elated to become part of the Leadership Team. She has held regional roles at YRDSB and been a lecturer at Ryerson University, so she finds it particularly interesting to be able to “gain insight into what’s happening in the classroom”. Teri loves being part of OEMConnect because she gets to share her learning while continuing to learn in a new way through her mentorship relationship. Teri is continuing to support her Mentee from Phase 2, Hoda. They had shared their mentorship story on a previous episode of OnEdMentors.
Spelling Out an OEMConnect M.E.N.T.O.R.
Mentorship often means something different to different people. The remainder of the show centred around each of the descriptors that we outlined as we “spelled out” what it means to be an OEMConnect Mentor.
Our first descriptor in the acronym is motivating. Teri said that mentors need to be motivating in order to help people discover their “motive” or their “why”. “I’ve provided professional learning in large and small group contexts and this has been a great opportunity to go deeper through the 1:1 relationship, [really getting to] know your learner.” That way, she can motivate them by stimulating their interest, feeding their enthusiasm and helping them to reflect on challenges in order to persevere. Christine said that, “It’s extremely motivating to be a mentor...I was so excited to be able to help motivate someone to feel really good about what it is that they’re doing. When we feel confident and we feel excited about what it is that we’re doing that can only have a positive effect on the students in our classrooms.” Bernadette added, “Even beyond the efficacy component, as educators, we have this ethic of care for our students, for each other as colleagues and for the communities that we serve. This opportunity allows us to demonstrate that care can be even more connected with people, which is rewarding in and of itself.” Leigh said that it’s motivating for teachers to be able to support others while feeling the reciprocity of giving and getting because everyone learns something. Teachers deserve to feel championed in their work. Helping to cheer on and motivate others is part of the kind of mentorship that we are fostering at OEMConnect.
OEMConnect works to enable teachers and create the enabling conditions for people to self direct their professional learning through mentorship. Christine said that OEMConnect enables seasoned teachers to feel that they are in charge of their own professional development. In a profession where we are often told what we are learning and have little agency, it’s great to be able to make a choice and find the person that you think can help you through a change. There are fewer barriers in terms of judgement as the person that is your mentor is outside your context and in a non-evaluative position. “There is that comfort in knowing that you can reach out and speak to someone who has knowledge without feeling concerned about what that hierarchy might look like.” Leigh shared that enabling is about making something possible and creating opportunity. Bernadette took the empowering aspect of being part of an informal setting with more opportunity to build confidence and trust with someone. She said, “We think about how are we supporting the mental health and well-being of our teachers, of educators, and this is one way. When you are building that trust and that camaraderie between two people where you’re sharing your insights and your ideas, and you're inquiring together. As well, it develops a sense of belonging for an individual because they have someone to go to to talk about what it is that they’re struggling with or getting excited about.” Teri noted that being enabling is defined as giving someone the authority to do something. “As a mentor, you can reassure your mentee that they’re on the right track.” She added that being enabling as a mentor is about helping to build the confidence of the mentee by having the opportunity to talk things out.
Being nurturing is about creating that sense of family. As Leigh shared, we extend that family beyond the walls of the buildings we work in through our OEMConnect community. Some of us are confined by our places of work and some want more than that context, however positive. “You are bringing people into your space through all the connections...helping you grow as a person helps you become a better community member in your own school, as well.” Bernadette spoke about how mentorship elicits introspection and encourages reflection. As a Mentor, she helps nurture her Mentee’s ability to backwards design their learning and help them set goals. She sees her role as helping to get mentees to think about where they want to do and how she can help them get there. We are developing catalysts for introspection to help everyone in our community generate the questions that can help drive their professional learning. Additionally, we have developed a goal setting sheet with Janelle McLaughlin who is also part of the community. OEMConnect allows us the chance to nurture learning in ourselves and our Mentees. Christine said that having the time to self-reflect and ask where we are going gives us more energy and enthusiasm because it helps to give us directionality. “It helps you with setting up goals and coming up with a plan to meet them.”
Being timely is something important. Leigh and I made a video to speak to why making time for mentorship is worth your time. Allocating time to seek guidance is wonderful, but having just-in-time support makes it even better. Time is a construct that we can direct where we choose, not wait to see what’s left over at the end of a day when there is so much competing for it. Teri teased this out to say that being timely is about providing timely feedback, being responsive and setting up a mutually agreeable time to connect. Leigh said that the time that we make for learning is enhanced by its timeliness, when you need it not when someone else gives you the time to get support. Both the Mentor and Mentee are in control of when, how and for how long. Time is enhanced by leveraging the various mediums and technologies for reaching out and OEMConnecting.
OnEdMentors Connect is an open space. It's free to sign up and open to all educators, at any stage of their career as both Mentors and Mentees. Bernadette said, “When I think of crowdsourcing...seeing and hearing ideas coming from across the province and beyond in terms of being able to grow our networks beyond what was conceivable... even a decade ago.” There is an efficiency to being able to reach out and finding a common time to be open with your mentor or learn from the perspectives of everyone in the community. This gives us exposure to many perspectives and creates opportunities to build equity. “We are widening our scope in terms of how we are experiencing the world...All of us should be seeking out mentorship...to grow our perspectives and continue to understand the word in different ways.” Teri added that that there is an interconnectedness to all of these words and that a part of being open isn't just exploring what these words mean for us as mentors, but discovering what they mean to our mentees. Through explicit conversations we can build a common understanding that will help ensure that we are open to our mentees needs and providing support that works for them. Christine made the point that both our Mentors and Mentees come with open minds to this open space and that the approach to this relationship requires a mindset of exploration and choice. Leigh asserted that the barrier free aspect of being open allows us to build many different kinds of opportunities through this offering. We are exploring the concept of open even more through Phase 3.
What makes the OEMConnect mentorship experience responsive? Teri said that, “It’s something you're building and creating with your mentee,” noting that it is different things for different people. The whole idea of responsiveness, as Leigh shared, is about exploring how we provide an opportunity where there is something for everybody, knowing that parameters can help some and not others and determining how open is open enough. Bernadette added the term personalization because there is a professional intimacy built through the mentor-mentee relationship that is responsive to the partnership and based on the terms that they set for themselves. The responsiveness of OEMConnect can also be about giving the participant agency to personalize the learning experience and relationship, and if necessary, even find a different mentor to ensure that the relationship is reciprocal and responsive. Being able to find a person that you connect comes with the freedom and responsiveness that only a personalizing approach can provide. This is a self-directed experience, and we are hoping to continue being creating materials and finding the resources to be responsive to everyone’s needs, as best as possible, as we grow this community.
Join Us
Phase 3 is an exciting next step in our OEMConnect journey. Mentees are welcome to apply. Mentors are still registering. This round, we have Mentors who have also signed up as Mentees. Our team, having just started the school year, came to the conversation on Thursday exhausted and yet, by the end of the show, we all felt energized by our work and the possibilities of the year ahead! Leigh reflected that what makes this so incredible is that, ”We’re all here to do better and be better.” She also shared something I think we were all feeling; that it’s so motivating to be around people that are deeply committed to professional learning and growth. That is the hope and promise of this space. I hope this post entices you to get OEMConnected, too.
Tune in to voicEd radio tonight, October 10th, for our OEMConnect episode. Here's the audio from our Sept 26th episode when we introduced the OEMConnect Leadership Team.