1. The Mentor As Growth Agent: Developing Learning-Focused Relationships1
AWARENESS
The Mentor As Growth Agent: Developing Learning-Focused Relationships
This session provides an awareness of the mentor’s role as growth agent. Growth agents develop and sustain learning-focused relationships that balance three functions: offering support, creating challenge, and facilitating a professional vision.
Copyright 2006 MiraVia, LLC

2. Mentoring Matters Key Concepts

3. Goals
To consider a mentor’s roles, responsibilities and intentions as a growth agent.
To define a learning-focused relationship as the balance of three functions: offering support, creating challenge and facilitating professional vision.
An essential component of a learning-focused relationship is a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of both the growth agent and the beginning teacher.
A necessary first step in mentoring is framing the growth agent as one who builds capacity while decreasing dependency.

4. Learning-Focused Mentoring
Benefits of
Learning-Focused Mentoring
Beginning teachers benefiting from skilled mentoring are more likely to:
• Increase their efficacy as skilled problem-solvers and decision makers
• Engage in professional exchanges regarding improving practice
• Remain in the teaching profession

5. Visual Synectics because …………. Mentoring is like . . .
Each group chooses a recorder. Groups brainstorm comparisons between the topic (mentoring) and the image based on the prompt.
Share out.
because ………….

6. Mentor as a Growth Agent
Three Functions
• Offering Support
• Creating Challenge
• Facilitating Professional Vision
Directions page 3 & 4 in Module 1 – Awareness
Learning focused relationships are built on a balance of three functions.
The three functions can operate independently in specific situations, but in the greater context of the relationship, they must be connected and balanced.

7. Read & Example Everyone Reads Offering Support p.2
Creating Challenge p.3
Facilitating Professional Vision p.4
A’s Verbally Summarize
Trios: Craft 3-4 Examples
B’s Verbally Summarize
C’s Verbally Summarize

8. Balancing the Mentor Role
• Support alone will provide comfort but may encourage complacency.
• Challenge without support may increase anxiety and fear of failure.
• Support and challenge without vision may leave us wandering on a journey looking only at the ground beneath us but not the road ahead.
Skillful mentors balance the three functions of offering support, creating challenge and facilitating a professional vision. Mentors seek to balance these functions in the moment and over time.

9. Think - Pair - Share • One goal for me as a growth agent . . .
• As a growth agent, one new idea for me . . .
• One thing I will add to my learning- focused relationships . . .
Reflecting on the three roles of a mentor, complete these sentence starters.

10. Self-Assessment
• Collect notes and artifacts resulting from your implementation of the three functions: offering support, creating challenge and facilitating professional vision.
Bring your notes and artifacts to our next session.
• What goals did you set for yourself in learning- focused conversations and what were the outcomes from those conversations?
SKIP

11. Phases of First Year Teaching Jigsaw
1. Count-off 1-5
2. Regroup with number-alike colleagues
3. Individually read your assigned pages
4. Table group discussion; complete worksheet
5. Create chart

12. Phases of First Year Teaching Jigsaw
READING….everyone reads page 5
Anticipation -- p 6
Survival -- p 7
Disillusionment -- p 8-9
Rejuvenation -- p 9
Reflection -- p 10-11

13. Group Chart Task PHASE:______________ Key identifiers: Strategies
Indicators of Effectiveness
Support
Challenge
Vision

14. Reflective Prompts
• What are some things you might do to balance support/challenge/vision in your work?
• What are some patterns you are aware of in your own practice?

15. A Continuum of Learning-Focused Interaction2
AWARENESS
A Continuum of Learning-Focused Interaction
In there learning process, beginning teachers need direct information. They are building the ability to work with others and can benefit from Inquiry-driven conversations that produce effective planning and reflection. Skillful growth agents have the capacity to shift their interactive stance to meet these varied purposes. The continuum introduced next builds this capacity and provides and enhances the growth agent’s repertoire for each stance – consulting, collaborating, and coaching.
Copyright 2006 MiraVia, LLC

16. Mentoring Matters Key Concepts
The continuum is located in the center of the Key Concepts.

17. Goals To introduce a continuum of learning-focused interaction.
To explore specific strategies connected to each of the three stances: consulting, collaborating and coaching.
The growth agent’s actions are tailored to the situation and professional needs of the Beginning Educator. The more flexible you are as a mentor and the wider repertoire of strategies, the more effective you will be as a mentor.
It is critical for mentors to have a variety of “tools” or strategies available to them. Abraham Maslow said, “If your only tool is hammer, you will see everything as a nail.”
In mentoring, as in teaching, it is important to be able to select from a number of strategies as appropriate to the learner’s need.
Skilled mentors navigate across a continuum of interaction to enhance the learning for their BE.

18. Learning–Focused Interaction: Three Stances
Table group members construct a definition of the following:
Table 1’s: Consult
Table 2’s: Collaborate
Table 3’s: Coach
Table groups number off.
As a table group participants construct a definition for their assigned word.
Participants read the definition of their assigned word – MM p. 21
Compare the table definition to the one given.
Reporter shares out the similarities and differences.

19. Define and Compare
• Read the definition of your assigned stance in Mentoring Matters p.21.
• Compare your table group’s definition to the one in Mentoring Matters.
• Select a reporter to share out the similarities and differences.
Table groups number off.
As a table group participants construct a definition for their assigned word.
Participants read the definition of their assigned word – MM p. 21
Compare the table definition to the one given.
Reporter shares out the similarities and differences.

20. A Continuum of Learning-Focused Interaction
CONSULT
COLLABORATE
COACH
Information and
analysis
As a skilled mentor, you will navigate across a continuum of interaction to support learning for your BE employing a combination of stances.

21. Say Something
• Partners read about the consulting stance; Mentoring Matters p. 22.
• When each partner is ready, they turn and “say something” about what they have just read (e.g., an example, a main idea, a connection to their own work).
• Repeat the pattern for the collaborating stance; Mentoring Matters p. 24 and the coaching stance; Mentoring Matters p. 25.

22. Video Processing Questions
• What were some of the things you noticed about each stance and who was producing the bulk of the information at that point?
• What were some of the things you noticed about the transitions between stances?
The video clip demonstrates how skillful learning-focused conversations starts with a coaching stance. The conversations in each example in this video clip began from a coaching stance. The clip enters after there has been a shift in stance.
Pay careful attention to the mentor’s actions within each stance and record your observations.
After – share observations with table groups and answer the following questions.

23. A Continuum of Learning-Focused Interaction
Read the strategies for each stance in Mentoring Matters pp
Determine a mentoring strategy that would be appropriate for a teacher during each stance.
Record your ideas in the spaces provided on your worksheet (PM p.5).
Once completed, conduct a brief full group discussion about the differences between the three stances.

24. A Continuum of Learning-Focused Interaction
Consulting
Collaborating
Coaching
Example:
Provide a demonstration lesson in the beginning teacher’s classroom.
Create a lesson or unit of study with the beginning teacher.
Ask about success within a beginning teacher’s lesson.

25. Independent Follow-Up/ Self-Assessment
Applying the Stances:
• On your worksheet record 3 strategies (one for each stance) that you might use with your beginning teacher.
• When describing your strategies include how they will be applied in your learning-focused relationships.

26. Mentor as a Growth Agent
Journey to Excellence 2015

27. 2 A Continuum of Learning-Focused Interaction SKILL DEVELOPMENT
Continue to familiarize ourselves with the continuum and the three stances – consulting, collaboration, and coaching.
Copyright 2006 MiraVia, LLC

28. Mentoring Matters Key Concepts

29. Goals
To develop fluency in navigating across a continuum of learning-focused interactions including: consulting, collaborating and coaching.
To mediate a beginning teacher’s thinking by establishing a focus, or third point, during learning-focused conversations.
We will also introduce you to the concept of establishing a focus – or third point – during the learning focused conversation.
Your skillful application of the continuum helps your new teacher produce and analyze information.
Mentors mediate thinking by establishing a focus, or third point, during learning focused conversations.
The third point focuses the conversation, and can be used effectively in each stance.

30. The Third Point Mentor Third Point Beginning Teacher
A primary intention of a learning focused mentor is mediating another’s thinking. Skillful mentors intentionally use a third point as a mediative tool in learning focused conversations.
The third point can be external and observable or internal and referential. For example an external focus point might include a work product, such as a lesson plan or teacher observation data. The third point can be internal such as a description of a problem or perception of a student’s behavior.
Physically referencing the third point in a space off to the side between the parties provides a psychologically safe place for information, concerns, and problems.
The third point can be used within any of the three stances.

31. ! = This is really important or interesting.
Focused Reading
√ = Got it. I know and/or understand this.
! = This is really important or interesting.
? = I don’t understand this or I would like to know more.
Participants read p annotating the text using the following system.
After a designated amount of time, participants turn to a neighbor and share their comments or insight from the reading.

32. Third Point Examples Internal External A recollection or description
A personal observation
A statement of concern
A perception of a problem
A statement of value or belief
A judgment
External
Samples of student work
Rubric defining excellence
A lesson plan
A curriculum guide
Standards descriptions
Test results
Individualized Education Plan(s)
Annual Reviews
Letters, written communications
Table groups share some examples of their own external and internal examples.
Record on chart paper.

33. Third Point Exercise
• With a partner, use the student work sample (PM p. 5) to determine language you might use to mediate thinking from each stance:
consulting, collaborating, coaching
• Use PM p. 6 to record your language choices.

34. Video Observation
Record indicators for each stance (PM p. 7). Look/listen for language, physical positioning, and intonation.
• Consulting
• Collaborating
• Coaching
This video clip is a segment of a longer conversation. Like all skillful learning focused conversations it began from a coaching stance. Pay careful attention to the mentoring moves within each stance and the transitions between each stance. Identify the third points and record indicators of consulting, collaborating, and coaching as you observe the conversation.

35. Discussion Prompt
Given my present mentoring practice, what are some strengths and what are some stretches for me?
Partners discuss their won patterns of use and identify potential growth areas and opportunities.

36. Maximizing Time and Attention by Attending Fully3
AWARENESS
Maximizing Time and Attention by Attending Fully
Given the time constraints of our work, we can maximize our time together by eliminating distractions and focusing our full attention on the beginning teacher. Listening to understand another’s perspective and perception is fundamental to a productive learning-focused relationship.
Copyright 2006 MiraVia, LLC

37. Mentoring Matters Key Concepts
Attending fully is applicable across the continuum and within the different types of conversations.

38. Goals
To focus on attending fully as the foundation for the learning-focused toolkit.
To explore the influence of non-verbal cues in conducting effective learning-focused conversations.
The next learning session is designed to increase your awareness of non-verbal patterns, your own and others’ as well as to build skills in non-verbal communication. We will explore strategies and suggestions for developing skills In attending fully.

39. Round the Room and Back Again
What is one example of a non-verbal cue that indicates full attention and facilitates thinking?
1. Write your response on a sticky note.
Think about a time when you felt another person was really listening to you. Think about the question - What is one example of a non-verbal cue that indicates full attention and facilitates thinking?
Record your answer on a sticky note.

40. Round the Room and Back Again
2. Without taking notes, move round the room, share your response with others and mentally catalogue their responses.
3. Return to home-base and write down the ideas you can recall on additional sticky notes.
4. Pool your examples and extend your lists with additional sticky notes.
Leaving all your materials, move around the room sharing your example and listening to the examples of Others. The challenge is to rely only on auditory memory. 2 minutes – return to seats.
Share out

41. Alignment Categories Physical Vocal Breathing
Muscle Tension, Posture, Gesture
Vocal
Intonation, Pace, Word Choice
Breathing
Depth, Duration, Rate
Humans are highly attuned to the non-verbal signals of others, making moment-to-moment assessments of the degree of physical and psychological safety.
Skillful mentors pay attention to the physical and vocal cues that they are receiving and sending.
We fully join the conversation and the relationship by aligning our body with that of another.

42. Be Intentional When/If:
You anticipate tension or anxiety
Tension or anxiety emerges
You are having difficulty understanding another person
You are distracted
Alignment is especially important when the other person is ill at east or when we are having difficulty understanding what is being said.

43. Round the Room and Back Again
5. Read “Attending Fully” MM pp
6. Categorize your sticky notes based on the alignment categories you just read about.

44. Blocks to Understanding “I” Listening
Personal Referencing
“me too” or “I would never”
Personal Curiosity
Questions driven by our own personal need to know or understand more
Personal Certainty
“have you tried. . . ”? or
“have you thought about ”?

45. Strengths and Stretches
Strengths Stretches
Read Blocks to Understanding MM pp
Complete the Strengths and Stretches T-Chart PM p. 5.
Partners share and compare T-Charts and select some thoughts to share with the full group.

46. Think-Write-Share
As you think about your work as a mentor, what are some ways that attending fully might enhance your work and increase your effectiveness?
Use PM p. 6 to record your response.

47. Think-Write-Share Share your ideas at table groups.
As a table group, select one idea to share with the full group.

48. Independent Follow-Up/ Self Assessment
Monitoring the Media
View one or more TV talk shows, paying close attention to the degree to which the interviewer and interviewee are matching posture, voice tone, etc. Use PM p. 7 to record your observations.
As you reflect, consider:
“What are some new things you are aware of?”
“What goals are you setting for your own skill development?”