April 27th, 2008
The End is Near
We are closing in on the end of the year. (Can it be true?) I think the Mentoring Program has been a mild success. I know that I have a different relationship with my small group than I do with my larger group of students. I know that I did not do everything the administration hoped we would all do–contact parents regularly, be advocates for our kids, etc.–but I also know I’m not alone. I think the best use of the time has been the last 3 weeks. The school-wide TAKS Review activities I think will be helpful in the coming week of testing.
I think the one thing that could have helped the most was a more concrete set of rules. We needed more guidance than, “Go form a bond with this small group of kids.” Also, there were no repercussions for not following through on the parent contacts and other expectations.
Personally, I don’t think I’m cut out for blogging. I was never one to keep a diary in my youth, and this is similar to that in my mind. I feel bad when I don’t have something to say and I also feel the need to reply to every comment, even when I have more pressing things to do. But it was a fun experiment and maybe I can work a discussion board back into my classes in the future.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I don’t know whether mentoring will continue next year. It seems that new 4×4 graduation requirements will be moving us closer to an 8-period day, and if that happens, we probably won’t find space for mentoring. If mentoring does survive, I hope some fundamental changes are made. I think it was successful only to the extent that individual mentor teachers, like yourself, worked to make it so. If we surveyed kids I bet we’d be met with a harsher sense of reality. Plus, if we surveyed parents, it would be bleaker, still. While I believe I earned the trust of my mentoring group, we didn’t start that way, and that, to me, is the biggest obstacle. Just saying that “I’ll be your personal advocate” doesn’t cut it. Kids are way too skeptical. Now, if I were to start over, given the relationships I’ve developed with students in my group and given structure of things we need to accomplish in mentoring, we might have a chance to do something admirable. But to set aside 28 minutes a day to watch TV, pretend to hear announcements, distribute and collect papers and to “cool down” doesn’t seem worthwhile (and I’m an advocate of mentoring/advisory periods). I’ve had a tremendously successful advisory class in the past but 1.) students shared common interests to begin with; 2.) we didn’t meet on a daily basis — it wasn’t built into the schedule. Those are two changes I’d like to see.
Regardless, we (staff and students) will miss you and I wish you well on your journey.
May 1st, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I have to agree that a periodic meeting would be better. I also got frustrated at everything we were supposed to be doing in addition to making time for Channel 1 and announcements. I also feel as you do that if we surveyed parents and students, the reality of the program’s effectiveness would smack us in the face.
Again, I really enjoyed my group and I think there is a lot of value in something like this, we just need to have planned it out better.
May 29th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
How did I miss your blog? I have lots of catching up to do with it. You’ll have to promise to set up a personal blog once you leave so that we can keep up with you. Dang…I still don’t like to think about that…
May 30th, 2008 at 8:31 am
I don’t like to think about it, either. It seems so…final. Oh well. There are always road trips!
June 1st, 2008 at 2:22 pm
And you know how I love a good road trip! Maybe next summer after Natalie’s wedding. Of course we’ll expect you here for the wedding. Maybe that will be your first road trip back to Paris.