Comments on: Guest piece- Why I Mentor http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/tefl/why-mentor/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:17:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Systematic http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/tefl/why-mentor/comment-page-1/#comment-9861 Systematic Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:18:00 +0000 http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/?p=4738#comment-9861 Lovely article paula. I'm biased. i'm one of those people who has gone through life, plodding through courses, study, practicing, getting a lot of empirical experience, and never asking for free help (or paid help either) from anyone. By and large, I didn't do to badly; I've had two distictly different careers and got to the top of both of them. The main career was teacher training - I managed to avoid becoming a permanent backpacking TEFler. As you say, it is not spending tons of free time making someone else’s life easier and shortchanging yourself, and if I were to be a mentor I would need some convincing that my time would not be wasted. Lovely article paula. I’m biased. i’m one of those people who has gone through life, plodding through courses, study, practicing, getting a lot of empirical experience, and never asking for free help (or paid help either) from anyone. By and large, I didn’t do to badly; I’ve had two distictly different careers and got to the top of both of them. The main career was teacher training – I managed to avoid becoming a permanent backpacking TEFler. As you say, it is not spending tons of free time making someone else’s life easier and shortchanging yourself, and if I were to be a mentor I would need some convincing that my time would not be wasted.

]]> By: David V. http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/tefl/why-mentor/comment-page-1/#comment-9102 David V. Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:54:54 +0000 http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/?p=4738#comment-9102 A lot of time, resources and commitment are required, which is why mentoring is less seen than it should be. A great post, thank you. A lot of time, resources and commitment are required, which is why mentoring is less seen than it should be. A great post, thank you.

]]> By: Karenne Sylvester http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/tefl/why-mentor/comment-page-1/#comment-9031 Karenne Sylvester Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:37:58 +0000 http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/?p=4738#comment-9031 I so much enjoyed this piece. I have had great experiences with some wonderful teachers who worked for me and I've also had bad experiences with mentoring when working as an equal level colleague - so to be honest, it does pivot a bit on perceived "position"!!! Also, it takes a very special kind of teacher who will even allow themselves to be mentored - i.e. willing to listen to advice (and I mean listen) rather than be told off :-) So many teachers don't actually want to be told about a new activity or a different approach to what they're doing: they simply want to be told how great they are... can be a wee bit tiring that!! But like you, Paula, when it works, it's payment enough! Karenne I so much enjoyed this piece.

I have had great experiences with some wonderful teachers who worked for me and I’ve also had bad experiences with mentoring when working as an equal level colleague – so to be honest, it does pivot a bit on perceived “position”!!!

Also, it takes a very special kind of teacher who will even allow themselves to be mentored – i.e. willing to listen to advice (and I mean listen) rather than be told off :-)

So many teachers don’t actually want to be told about a new activity or a different approach to what they’re doing: they simply want to be told how great they are… can be a wee bit tiring that!!

But like you, Paula, when it works, it’s payment enough!

Karenne

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