The "High
Impact Mentor Strategies Training"
By Barry Sweeny, © 2008
PAGE INDEX:
What
is Meant by "High Impact"?
Typical mentor trainings prepare mentors
to orient, support, and encourage new teachers so as to ease their
transition into their new career as teachers. These typical trainings
usually include a review of district checklists, some ground rules
for the mentoring relationship, effective communication, advice
for working with another adult, and expectations for mentors' time.
The High Impact Mentor Training accomplishes
A WHOLE LOT MORE, but does not include unnecessary elements.
1. We know that you can already provide the elements
described above as 'typical" mentor training content, so
WE don't address those easier topics in the High Impact Mentor
Training. Why pay us to do what you can do for yourself!
2. We do not include staff development in instructional
strategies that are specific to any subject area. There is no
doubt that your district is already heavily invested in just such
staff development, and so, you don't need us to provide that.
3. What you DO NEED is mentors who know how to
facilitate their protege's implementation of those instructional
strategies in their classroom with students. That's the "high
impact" we target.
4. The term "High Impact" identifies
that the primary goal of this powerful mentor strategies training
is to prepare mentors to have a high impact on the effectiveness
of their proteges' teaching and on the learning of their students.
In learning how to promote that quality of mentoring, mentors
themselves must learn the same high impact strategies. That is
why the mentor's own teaching is improved as well.
The emphasis on increased instructional skills for
novice and mentor teachers AND results for their students is our
specialty and is what makes this High Impact Training so unique
from every other training available. This is not just a "marketing
claim". This is the result we deliver!
A Description
of the High Impact Teacher Mentor Training
This training is designed to give mentors the knowledge and skills
they need to effectively promote and accelerate the professional
growth and instructional effectiveness of beginning teachers. The
mentors' professional skills are also increased because each completes
three self-assessments to analyze their mentoring skills and style,
each sets improvement goals for their work as mentors, and each
plans how they will implement their intentions in practice. The
training works because it is inspiring, yet practical and specific,
and because it utilizes best practices from effective staff development,
leadership development, adult learning, coaching, and performance
appraisal and improvement.
Each participant also receives a mentoring manual and several other
support materials.
THIS TRAINING HAS BEEN UPDATED AND PROVEN OVER 20 YEARS OF MENTORING
EXPERIENCES.
What is the
specific content of the training?
Click on the link to see the New Teacher
Mentor Training Agenda.
How
many days long is the training?
The training can be adapted to fit different time
schedules. How it is scheduled depends on whether the training is
one step in a sequence of development or intended as the only event,
and also on the goals of the training. Here are some possibilities.
Let us know what meets your needs.
OPTION #1: THREE DAYS - The "High Impact
Mentor Strategies Training" is most powerful and efficient
when it is a comprehensive 3 day training, including effective
mentoring strategies, plenty of involving activities, and training
in high impact observation and coaching skills. This format saves
about 1/2 day overall because it places all mentor learning within
three consecutive days. The result of this event will be mentors
who are ready and able to effectively mentor and coach for instructional
improvement.
OPTION #2: THREE & 1/2 DAYS (SPLIT INTO 2 INITIAL DAYS and
1 & 1/2 DAYS LATER) - A very effective and engaging "High
Impact Mentor Strategies Training" can be provided in 2 initial
days by postponing the coaching skills training component until
later on. This is the most common format, as it is often most
appropriate to begin new teacher coaching later in the middle
of the first school year. In this format, the coaching strategies
training requires an additional day and 1/2, and is often scheduled
in November or January. Again, the result of this sequence will
be mentors who are ready and able to effectively mentor and coach
for instructional improvement.
OPTION #3: TWO INITIAL DAYS and NO COACHING - The same "High
Impact Mentor Strategies Training" as described above is
all that is provided. This option makes sense when the district
already provides an effective coaching training to mentors and
new teachers and does not need Barry Sweeny to do so, when program
implementation plans do not yet call for coaching by mentors,
or when the program goals do not include support for new teachers'
instructional improvement.
OPTION #4: 1 DAY - The "High Impact Mentor
Strategies Training" can be adapted to one day for experienced
mentors who have previously received other mentor training.
This time reduction is accomplished through analysis of the prior
training content and by eliminating those activities and content
areas which have already been addressed. This is assumed to take
a full day, as there are some components of barry Sweeny's High
Impact Mentor Strategies Training Model which are completely unique.
The "High Impact Mentor Strategies Training"
should not be reduced to just one day when mentors are not previously
trained and experienced as mentors. To do so requires elimination
of critical activities which provide the powerful personal learning
experience for mentors which helps them to build their skills as
mentors.
Can the training
for mentors be adapted for other situations?
Yes, just let me know what you need and we will customize the training
to address those needs. The basic mentor training has already been
adapted for DOZENS of different settings, not just in education, but
in business, high tech R&D, not-for-profit community organizations,
even for a Las Vegas casino!
The easiest mentor trainings to do will incorporate materials which
have already been developed for one of the following 6 different
settings and for which these materials are immediately available:
- - Mentors trained ALONE by themselves
(without their protege)
- - Mentors and beginning teachers who are trained
together as a TEAM
- - Mentors who are "cooperating teachers"
or university supervisors with PRE-SERVICE student teachers/interns
- - PEER Mentoring as in the work of a
pair of experienced teachers to support implementation of staff
development
- - Mentoring by SUPERVISORS AND ADMINISTRATORS
to support instructional improvement in teachers
- - University faculty who will mentor
new faculty members and students
Barry's experience includes a wide range of mentor
trainings in other settings in which, unfortunately, the materials
which were developed are proprietary. That means that Barry signed
a non-disclosure agreement as a part of the contract to develop
those materials and that they are now owned by that specific client.
As such, those materials are unavailable for use with other organizations.
Never-the-less, these many other diverse experiences
allow us to quickly develop just the training YOU need. Let us know
what your setting requires and your goals for mentor training. You'll
be impressed with the results!
Participant
Comments about the High Impact Mentor Training ONE
DAY INTRODUCTION FOR MENTORS - "Thank you for your role as
the presenter in the three recent, one-day mentor trainings around
our state for the Missouri NEA's Professional Development Series.
We had heard so much about your work from others that we were really
looking forward to working with you. We were very pleased with the
trainings you did for us and the good start on mentoring you have
given to our Missouri educators." - Marty Pavlik, Professional
Development Director, Missouri NEA
"Barry, I want to thank you for the outstanding
presentation you provided at the Houston TX Focus Conference. I
heard numerous positive comments from your audience before we headed
back to Austin and also excitement about your ideas. We were very
pleased. During the presentation, it was easy to see that the participants
were engaged in your topics. Thank you ever so much for all the
effort and thought you put into it to adapt to our special educators.
I'm really glad that I now know about all the resources you provide.
You WILL be hearing from me again." - Ruth Ann
Marsh, State-Wide Mentor Coordinator, TX School for the Blind and
Visually Impaired, Austin, TX
TWO DAY FOR NEW MENTORS - "The two day training you provided
last year provided an excellent foundation for the new
mentors. This letter confirms our plans to repeat the training
this year for new mentors and a "refresher" training
for returning 2nd year mentors Thanks for your willingness to adjust
to our evolving vision for this program." - Claudia Kasper,
Director of Human Resources, Hinsdale Elementary School District,
Hinsdale, IL
TWO DAY FOR EXPERIENCED MENTORS - "All seven
of the full time Milwaukee Teacher Mentors really enjoyed
your training last week. We wondered how much more we could
learn, since all of us have been mentoring full time and already
have learned quite a bit! However, we learned a great deal from
you that we know will improve our work with the new teachers in
our system. At our mentor meeting that Friday we unanimously voted
to purchase all of your fine mentoring resources
. Thank you so much." - Mary Ellen McCarty, MPS/MTEA
Mentor, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- "Barry is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic
about helping new teachers, mentors AND their students. Any one
needing guidance for making induction and mentoring more effective
will find time with him to be informative and insightful, and that
his strategies are workable and useful to accomplishing that purpose."
- Rebecca Braaten, Mentor, Farmington, New Mexico.
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