Ensuring That No Child Is Left Behind: A Strategic Mentor Program for Middle and High School Students

Copyright © 2018 J.D. Jones.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-5462-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-5463-1 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 07/31/2018

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Part II Activity Modules

Study Skills and Habits

Career Exploration

Self-Esteem

Relationship Issues

Decision-Making Skills

Time and Stress Management

Conflict Resolution

Life-Skills

Job-Seeking Skills

Communication Skills

"To my Students whom I still learn from

even after they have graduated."

J.D. Jones

When I learn something new

and it happens every day

I feel a little more at home in this universe,

A little more comfortable in the nest.

—Bill Moyers

Introduction

In our classrooms and in our schools, we want to feel satisfied in our work. We want to feel like we are making a difference. We want to feel that some time during the day we actually connect with our students and teach in positive, collaborative ways. The challenge has always been to find the right combination of strategies to reinforce our teaching methods and support our personal and professional development. We look for educational tools that encourage students to express themselves, gain confidence, and participate in class. We strive each year (even daily!) to organize our classrooms in ways that foster positive behavior and reward students' creativity.

A simple thing, though, has been missing from our school week: time built into the schedule for teachers and students to talk and work through activities that focus on developing our personal qualities. During each period of the day, teachers are expected to be on and in control of activity in their classrooms. They teach according to lessons planned to achieve defined learning outcomes. Students are expected to perform and demonstrate competency in a variety of subjects. In this system, teachers have the most contact with either the bright students or the problem kids who demand attention. Generally, we hope the rest of the students can take care of themselves, and we move through the school years wishing for some simple change that gives us the time to appreciate each child and assure no student falls through the cracks.

Teachers have incredible talents and experience to share with their students who, in turn, so often need at least one adult in the school who knows their stories, appreciates their achievements, and will answer their questions about everything from what to expect on a driver's test to what to wear on a first job interview.

The purpose of this guide is to describe how principals, counselors, and teachers can jointly plan and conduct an Mentor-Mentee Program that is wonderful in its simplicity and effectiveness. The chapters to follow recommend how to support teachers with the time and tools needed to step away from the lecturer role for even an hour each week so they can spend satisfying, structured periods with a regular group of students. When an SMP is managed with care, the entire school flourishes with a more optimistic atmosphere. Students who participate in the SMP meeting and working through planned activities like those recommended in this guide, discover how to be more responsible and involved in their own learning.

Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four Cs. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.

—Walt Disney

Whether you are an experienced teacher, new to the profession, or have the special role of inspiring and coaching teachers, the fact that you have chosen this guide shows you are among the gifted educators who recognize that teachers, as leaders and as individuals, play a special role in the lives of their maturing, teenage students. We offer this guide as a reference and desk-top companion to use while you engage your group of student mentees in challenging and satisfying SMP periods that enhance their learning in all other classes.

Jerry D. Jones

Chapter 1

Fundamentals of the Mentor-

Mentee Program

The Mentor-Mentee Program (SMP) is a student development program which helps students mature from young adolescents to curious, confident young adults. The SMP is an opportunity for each student to receive ongoing attention and guidance from at least one professional staff member in the school.

Students enter the program at the beginning of their first year at the school. They are assigned to an SMP group along with 10 to 15 other first-year students. Throughout their high school experience, the students meet regularly with this same peer group and benefit from contact with a consistent mentor. As an SMP group matures, the mentor leads students through developmentally appropriate activities. Early on, the group may focus more on building and maintaining self-esteem, creating a high school plan, or practicing study habits. Later in the program, they will work more on communication and job-seeking skills, ways to explore careers, and issues involved in selecting a college.

The SMP provides time when students can intellectually and emotionally explore a range of interests. It is a time for them to talk with an adult at school in an environment focused on issues other than academic subjects. It also is a time for mentors and students to share interests, concerns, and achievements with one another in guided group discussions.

The best mentors, helpers and friends, always are not those who tell us how to act in special cases, but who give us, out of themselves, the ardent spirit and desire to act right, and leave us then, even through many blunders, to find out what our own form of right action is.

—Phillips Brooks

One of the finer points of the successful SMP is that teachers and students meet during the school day. The program is built into the regular calendar. While some schools schedule teachers and students to meet in their SMP groups daily, others schedule SMP periods three times per week or only twice per semester. Ideally, each SMP group will meet two times per week in 30-minute sessions. This level of frequency supports the group to build familiar relationships and frames the SMP period as a refreshing, interactive respite during the week. When a school decides to adopt a new program, it is important to appreciate that no one person can control its success. Sustained support for a new initiative can only come when every person working and learning in the school identifies with the concept and receives personal satisfaction from participating. When you begin reading this manual, we hope you will take a moment to shift your perspective and notice how a simple change can encourage you to see new opportunities to enjoy your work and have positive exchanges with students in your school. This book is a guide for program planners to implement an Mentor-Mentee Program in any high school. The remainder of this chapter will focus on the principles of the program.

Advice Does Not Equal Counseling

The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.

—Hannah Whitall Smith

Advice is sometimes misunderstood as counseling. It is important to appreciate the difference between the two roles. Counseling is a therapeutic approach to assisting people in dealing with their concerns. Individuals practicing counseling must have specialized training in counseling and should be licensed by their state and/or national boards. In contrast, advice is a recommended opinion. Giving advice is a way of offering suggestions, usually from a wiser or more highly trained person to one considered to need guidance. Advice may be given in a structured program or in a casual friend-to-friend manner. It is important to recognize that advice can be offered by anyone, regardless of age. The most effective suggestions often come from our peers—whether we are 12 or 50 years old.

SMP Group Process United We Climb!

Have you ever heard of those team-building exercises where a group of people are physically tied together and then directed to tackle some challenging feat like climbing a tree or a rocky hill? In the SMP, mentors and their student groups are similar to these bound climbers. They may not have to contend with rope burns, but they are united in an assigned group and challenged to advance through a range of issues. One of the lessons students and mentors learn in their SMP group is that we can't always control who we encounter in life's experiences. Another lesson comes when we accept disagreement among peers and mentors. These lessons are inevitable in the SMP when students and mentors have personality or opinion conflicts. The way an SMP group handles such conflicts reveals a distinguishing difference between the way students interact in the regular classroom and the way they behave according to rules they set for themselves in the SMP.

One can be very happy without demanding that others agree with them.

—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

SMP groups operate according to a meeting style appropriately known as group process, which includes an array of factors such as methods of communication, placement of furniture in the room, and seating assignments (or lack of seating assignments). As we will detail in Chapter 6, the process includes deciding, as a group, how the group will make any decisions and manage its discussions and activities. Using the process, an SMP group also acknowledges that the teacher does not, by virtue of being an adult, get any elevated status in the group. The teacher, as the mentor, becomes a member of the group and must adhere to rules the group collectively agrees will govern its conduct during SMP sessions.

Understanding Consensus

Con-sen-sus (noun)-1a: harmony, cooperation, or sympathy, especially in different parts of an organism; lb: group solidarity in sentiment and belief. 2a: general agreement: Unanimity, Accord; 2b: collective opinion: the judgment arrived at by most of those concerned.

To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.

—Anthony Robbins

In group process, checking for consensus is a useful way to make decisions. Let us be clear: Reaching consensus does not mean you vote on a decision. It is a way for the mentor and students to share responsibility for the way they work together. It is a way to purposefully check with everyone in the group to confirm agreement before proceeding in a certain direction. In a voting situation, a majority of people in favor of one position wins. In group process, however, the mentor checks the group's consensus by stating the issue to be decided and summarizing the group's intent for how to proceed. The mentor then asks if there is consensus (unified agreement) on the decision. Reaching consensus means everyone in the group can live with a decision. If any group member says a suggested course of action really bothers her, or she just doesn't think it's right, the group does not have consensus and may not proceed. Every voice matters. It is the Mentor's responsibility to guide discussion so the group may generate other solutions to the problem and decide on a course that every member can accept or support.

Benefits of Implementing an Mentor-Mentee Program

We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.

—Chretien Malesherbes

In the SMP, everyone benefits. Students benefit from knowing they have an adult in the school who is available to discuss their triumphs and concerns. You probably know students who think they should not bother staff They are shy or insecure. They often isolate themselves and don't ask questions. If something is bothering them they keep it to themselves because they don't want to talk with adults they don't know well. The SMP offers these students a regular time each week to get to know an adult in the school and develop a consistent relationship.

Teachers benefit from the SMP as they become well acquainted with 10-15 students they might otherwise not have known in class. Teachers get to work with their SMP group on issues outside their curriculum area, having a welcome change of pace during the weekly teaching routine. Teachers also may learn more about their own motivations and hopes while conducting small group sessions on various life skill topics.

School administrators benefit as the SMP provides a forum for conducting programs which are awkward to fit in a regular school schedule. For example, if your school needs to do test review for state standardized testing, you can make short-term changes in your SMP group assignments and review with those students who need extra help. Also, it is helpful for administrators to know all students are receiving special attention from at least one staff member in the school. As students adapt to the program as a structured opportunity to discuss their concerns about school and their lives, there should be fewer discipline problems occurring during the school year.

Parents benefit from the SMP as their children gain confidence and learn life skills that they can use in school and at home. Parents will know their children are receiving assistance not only in academics, but also in career choices, job seeking skills, personal adjustment, and more. Parents also benefit from the program because it defines more professionals in the school with whom they can discuss their children's needs and progress.

The program further energizes and strengthens a school because:

• every student is involved

• every teacher is involved

• teachers and students