When I first envisioned building a mentorship experience for teachers, it came from the idea of a 1:1 teacher self-directed relationship where mentees had a choice of the individual with whom they wanted to work and voice in terms of what they wanted to learn. I had been so deeply and positively impacted by my mentors that I wanted every teacher to get the chance to have this experience. Now, going into a third summer of planning and growth, we have become The Mentoree. Even though we are in the process of revisioning our work, so much has happened in a few short weeks.
For the first year and a half, OnEdMentors Connect was the extension of the OnEdMentors Podcast that provided 1:1 mentorship for teachers at any and every stage of their career. We learned through our work with Mentors and Mentees that we were nurturing a non-hierarchical and reciprocal mentorship relationships. This was a wonderful early accomplishment and something we continue to value in our work. We were partnering with an instructor in the Faculties of Education at Lakehead University, Helen DeWaard, and students from Ottawa University to find Mentees, but we are slowly seeing more and more Mentees coming from within our community of Mentors. It is important for us to share that at any and every stage of a career, mentorship makes a difference. Now, as The Mentoree, 1:1 Mentorship is only one of our offerings.
When Covid hit and we started working from home, Conversations to Build Capacity was born as a response. We wanted to tool educators for remote learning, so we invited Mentors from the community to facilitate sessions. Through these experiences, we evolved our offering to include Responsive Presentations and Circles. While they were amazing ways to engage people from where they were at and build a more flexible learning experience, they also allowed us to grow our understanding of ourselves as a community. We were more than a group of educators engaging in 1:1 mentorship. We were more than a group of Mentors and Mentees; we were really becoming a mentorship community.
One of the indicators that we were a community was evident as a result of current events. When George Floyd was killed, Rashmee Karnad-Jani reached out and asked me what we can do about this. The answer was for her to facilitate a Circle inviting anyone who wanted to talk about anti-racist education to the conversation built around them, with Rashmee as a facilitator to invite people to think out loud, share and explore next steps together and individually. It was the mirror we needed to see the power of these mediums of mentorship. Recently, the Ontario government announced the destreaming of Grade 9, and we knew that we could give educators a space to have constructive conversation about how to implement this for their classes. Conversations to Build Capacity has evolved our sense of who we are and what we are about, and it allows us to be responsive to educators in a unique way. We believe that, together, we can move our learning forward, which will positively impact our students and teaching practices. That makes us a community.
It was the core value workshop with Zoe Share that has grounded so much of our work so far this summer. A group of Mentors gathered with Zoe and Alan of Schmooz Media to help us discover our core values as a community. Besides learning a lot about our collective sense of The Mentoree, we have been able to understand who we are and where we are going. While the exact wording will probably evolve, we have our Mission, Visions and Values statements on our website, and they reflect our shared beliefs in what The Mentoree is about. They will also be central to our upcoming strategic planning.
Vision
Our vision is to promote professional learning and efficacy through various forms of supportive mentorship.
Mission
We are on a journey to support teachers. We are always learning, fostering connections and creating opportunities to reflect and grow.
Values
Community
We have shared values and goals to support educators at any and every stage of their career.
Caring
We value authentic reciprocal relationships that have individual agency, dignity, and belonging at their core.
Choice
We value self direction and agency as key aspects of effective professional learning.
Collective Efficacy
We value the shared belief that we can create and sustain a community that supports each other, evolves pedagogy, and helps improve teaching practice.
Connection
Connection is at the centre of everything we do.
We have created a graphic that reflects these core values, and we are proud to now feature that on the homepage of our website. The Mentoree’s 8C’s of Mentorship is a model building upon Wellman, Humbard and Lipton’s 3C’s from Mentorship Matters, grounded in our core values. Our next steps are to continue developing our offerings to Mentors and Mentees as well as to The Mentoree community at large. We have already created a Google Classroom to provide a welcoming entry point to everyone joining the community as well as a deeper dive for those who are committing to becoming Mentors or Mentees in our 1:1 Mentorship offering. While it took me a while to shift my thinking and let go of the term OnEdMentors Connect fondly referred to as OEMConnect, it convoluted what we are actually fostering, and this is a time for clarity. Through this core values work, we have found our direction. We are more than one offering, and we are well on our way to becoming a place for supportive mentorship in a growing variety of forms.
I want to give a special shout out to The Leadership Team at The Mentoree. Teri and Christine are so deeply committed to this work, and we have done so much so quickly because of our shared understanding of who we are, what we believe and where we want to go next. That is also thanks to the people who stepped up to lead Conversations to Build Capacity and those who participated in our Core Values Workshop including: Jen Giffen, Michael Drezek, Lynn Thomas, Jordan Rappaport, Elisa Waingort, Melanie White, Janelle McLaughlin, Ramona Meharg, Rola Tibshirani, and Rashmee Karnad-Jani. I could not be more grateful for their leadership, and I am excited to share this first stage of The Mentoree 2.0 with our community. Check out some of our changes so far and things to come at TheMentoree.com. We will be reopening to new members, Mentors and Mentees in August. Stay tuned!
