written with Dr. Teri Rubinoff and Christine Chin
Just in time for our presentation at #ECOOcamp, our web developer (Steve) walked us through the redesigns of our site. We had hoped for this ever since Awesome Table changed their policies last year and wanted an exorbitant monthly fee to show the table of Mentors that were available for our 1:1 offering. Beyond the database of Mentors, there were a few other changes that we were hoping for on the website. We wanted to embed the orientation in the community registration, allow Mentors to set up and be in charge of their own profiles, allow Mentees to have the chance to set up profiles, and have more member benefits. You can now join The Mentoree as a community member (no profile), Mentor, or Mentee. You can connect with each other through an internal mail system until you feel safe and confident about sharing your personal or school email. There is now members-only access to the interactive components as well as some of our resources. As we had hoped, our website is now a HUB for all things The Mentoree.
When we first started what became The Mentoree, I imagined a place where Mentees could find Mentors for themselves. Between prescribed mentorship programs and new teacher support such as NTIP (The New Teacher Induction Program in Ontario), I had yet to see mentorship fully leveraged to support educators. There was a lot of support for new teachers, but nothing that really embedded a mindset of support through mentorship for a teacher’s entire career. And yet, teachers change schools, jobs, and positions, and those changes can be stressful and challenging. Mentorship is something that educators should be able to access at any and every stage of their careers. I had also never seen a self-directed mentorship experience, so I created one. Over the years, as our work and leadership team evolved, so did our thinking about Mentorship. We learned that many Mentees may know what they’re looking for in a Mentor but don’t always seek them out. We have some theories about why that might be that we will investigate, but based on what we know right now and, thanks to feedback from the community, both Mentors and Mentees can have a profile page and seek out connections. We are still migrating our previously registered Mentors and Mentees over to the new system.
The Mentoree grew in numbers and in iniativitives. We had more and more Mentors join our successful model for 1:1 Mentorship The weekly OnEdMentors podcast on voicEd Radio was growing an audience, and each week’s panel came with many ideas and new thinking about a variety of educational topics that helped inform our Conversations to Build Capacity offerings. Under the Conversations to Build Capacity umbrella, we launched Circle Conversations and Responsive Presentations. These models proved helpful for our learning community, so we added Casual Conversation. We also developed Carousel of Conversations for the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Education. We started Mpact which isa 3 part learning experience led by a Mentor who creates a plan to support the participants as they direct the learning in view of their stated needs and interests about the topic. It’s a powerful model that has room for agency, time to deeply embed change, and the Mentorship power of the facilitator and the team of participants. We wanted people, even if they were only joining as community members, to understand who we are and what makes The Mentoree unique. Last summer, we created an orientation for those joining The Mentoree. It allowed people to learn about our initiatives and see how our goal anchors our work. The Mentoree aims to cultivate a collaborative mentorship community grounded in professional learning, well-being, and efficacy.
Go to our website and see the Community page. Once you sign up, you will create a login. After the orientation, you will have access as a community member, Mentor and/or Mentee. You will also be able to access members-only information, links, and more. You don't have to set up your Mentor or Mentee profile right away.
You can self-direct your mentorship experiences from there. You will have a choice in terms of how and when you want to engage with this community. There will be opportunities for different ways to learn and participate. We are so excited to continue evolving what we do in view of YOU. The opportunities to personalize your professional learning experiences through The Mentoree are yours to explore and discover. We don't just want our community to be a list of educators. We want to create an active and supportive community that understands the power of Mentorship for education and educators. Signing up is as simple as going to our site, looking to the right to find the community drop down, and signing up. See you around the HUB!
