1. What is Mentoring?
Mentoring is a sustained, dynamic relationship that allows effective practitioners to share their professional and personal expertise and experiences.
This reflection with colleagues benefits both parties. The aim of mentoring is to accelerate the learning process for colleagues while not depriving them of their independence or responsibility.
It can be especially relevant in periods of career transition.

2. Principles of an Effective Mentoring Program
Effective mentoring involves:
• an ongoing substantive conversation
• a thoughtful and confidential relationship
• a learning agreement with established boundaries
• building professional values and ethics
• combining with fellow professional learners in a two way process
• building trust, respect and openness
• developing professional autonomy
• setting challenging goals
• experimenting and observing
• using resources effectively

3. What do Mentors do?
Mentors are effective and experienced colleagues who support the professional learning of a person being mentored (a mentee) through:
• creating a suitable environment for learning and growth
• establishing a climate that supports new ways of thinking and acting
• designing shared learning experiences
• examining beliefs and values
• explaining how the organisation works
• providing work specific information and guidance as appropriate
• helping identify and understand policies and procedures
• providing support to clarify learning goals
• identifying options to achieve goals asking powerful questions
• listening effectively
• raising awareness of practice through a wide range of strategies

4. What do Mentors do - continued?
• providing relevant feedback
• providing access to a range of networks and professional learning opportunities
• assisting structured reflection
• helping maintain morale and a positive attitude
• providing access to their extensive professional toolkit
• inspiring and motivating people to be the best that they can be.

5. What mentoring is not. Mentoring in a professional environment is not:
• a strategy that suits everyone
• a quick fix
• an alternative to therapy or counselling
• a strategy that you can mandate or impose
• a casual ad hoc arrangement
• finding someone who will do your work or make hard decisions for you
• the same as supervision.
A professional mentor does not:
• do your work
• act on your behalf
• make your decisions for you
• have to be on call all the time
• impose the agenda.

6. Benefits of Mentoring. The benefits for mentors include:
• the opportunity to give back to the profession and to have an impact on future leadership
• the opportunity to view work in a different light
• recognition of the high level skills we have to share
• lasting professional and personal relationships
• new skills to support the learning of staff in your own school
• the strengthening of professional networks

7. The benefits for Mentees include:
• empowerment
• opportunities to build skills and competencies more quickly
• the development of a supportive environment where successes and areas fro development can be evaluated
• the opportunity to gain insight into the organisational culture
• development of professional confidence
• increased potential for career mobility and promotion
• networking opportunities that reduce isolation.

8. Could you be an effective mentor?
Mentors need to have certain attributes and personal characteristics. Are you:
• an experienced practitioner
• respected by your professional colleagues
• keen to share your enthusiasm, skills and knowledge
• aware of how adults learn and supportive of the principles of mentoring
• a good listener and communicator who can give meaningful feedback
• a leader with a good understanding of the frameworks that shape your work
• able to relate theory and practice?

9. The good mentor is committed to the role of mentoring and is highly committed to the task of helping teachers find success and gratification in their work.
Committed mentors show up for, and stay on, the job. Committed mentors understand that persistence is as important in mentoring as it is in classroom teaching. Such commitment flows naturally from a resolute belief that mentors are capable of making a significant and positive impact on the life of another. This belief is not grounded in naive conceptions of what it means to be a mentor. Rather, it is anchored in the knowledge that mentoring can be a challenging endeavor requiring significant investments of time and energy.
Good mentoring programs require mentors to maintain simple logs or journals that document conferences and other professional development activities involving the mentor and mentee. But such record-keeping devices should keep paperwork to a minimum and protect the confidentiality of the mentor-mentee relationship.

10. The good mentor is accepting of the teacher.
At the foundation of any effective helping relationship is empathy. As Carl Rogers (1958) pointed out, empathy means accepting another person without making judgments. It means setting aside, at least temporarily, personal beliefs and values. The good mentor teacher recognizes the power of accepting the teacher as a developing person and professional. Accepting mentors do not judge or reject mentees as being poorly prepared, overconfident, naive, or defensive. Rather, should teachers exhibit such characteristics, good mentors simply view these traits as challenges to overcome in their efforts to deliver meaningful support.
The good mentor is skilled at providing instructional support. Good mentors are willing to coach teachers to improve their performance wherever their skill level. Although this seems obvious, many mentor teachers stop short of providing quality instructional advice.

11. The good mentor is effective in different interpersonal contexts.
All teachers are not created equal, nor are all mentors. This simple fact, when overlooked or ignored by a mentor, often leads to relationship difficulties and diminished support for the teacher.
Good mentor teachers recognize that each mentoring relationship occurs in a unique, interpersonal context. Teachers can display widely different attitudes toward the help offered by a mentor. One year, a mentor may work with a teacher hungry for advice and the next year be assigned a teacher who reacts defensively to thoughtfully offered suggestions. Just as good teachers adjust their teaching behaviors and communications to meet the needs of individual students, good mentors adjust their mentoring communications to meet the needs of individual mentees.
To make such adjustments, good mentors must possess deep understanding of their own communication styles and a willingness to objectively observe the behavior of the mentee.

12. The good mentor is a model of a continuous learner.
Teachers rarely appreciate mentors who have right answers to every question and best solutions for every problem. Good mentors are transparent about their own search for better answers and more effective solutions to their own problems. They model this commitment by their openness to learn from colleagues, including teachers, and by their willingness to pursue professional growth through a variety of means. They lead and attend workshops.
The good mentor communicates hope and optimism.
In "Mentors: They Simply Believe," Lasley (1996) argues that the crucial characteristic of mentors is the ability to communicate their belief that a person is capable of transcending present challenges and of accomplishing great things in the future. For mentor teachers working in school-based programs, such a quality is no less important. Good mentor teachers capitalize on opportunities to affirm the human potential of their mentees. They do so in private conversations and in public settings. Good mentors share their own struggles and frustrations and how they overcame them. And always, they do so in a genuine and caring way that engenders trust.

13. References:
Guide to Mentoring, Professional Learning and Leadership Development | DET 2006.
The Good Mentor May 1999 | Volume 56 | Number 8 Supporting New Teachers Pages James B. Rowley
Filling in the Blanks May 2009 | Pro Quest Education Journals |pg |
Lois J Zachary
READING
Leadership for Learning: Tips for Effective Mentoring and Coaching | K. Brian Dorval, Scott G. Isaken & Ruth B. Noller in Mentoring for Talent Development, 2001