Who is a Mentor?
Pick up your pen and paper, because it is time for another brainstorming
session! Time yourself for three minutes, and make a list of everyone you
can think of who could be a mentor.
How many people did you come up with in those three minutes? Paraeducators
tend to be good at this brainstorming activity, because they see so many
opportunities where good mentors are useful and make their jobs easier.
Who did you include in your list? Did you include teachers? Administrators?
Students? Other paraeducators? Did you include yourself? We hope so, because
if you are a veteran paraeducator, or if you are a paraeducator just starting
out, you are mentor material!
If you did not include yourself in your list, add that now. If you did include
yourself as a person who could be a mentor, put a star next to it, because
you are the most important mentor of all!
At the beginning of this module, we saw the characteristics of mentors.
In the previous section, we talked about why mentoring is important. In
this section we saw that you, as a paraeducator, are also a mentor. So,
this means that it is important that you, as a paraeducator, have the characteristics
that you put on your first brainstorming list! When you think of yourself,
do those characteristics come to mind? Maybe some do, and maybe some don’t,
but there are ways of making sure that you can develop into a good mentor.
For those paraeducators who have been in the field for a long time, you
have the benefit of lots of experience. For those paraeducators who are
newer to the field, you have the benefit of growing as a mentor along with
growing in experience. All paraeducators have the opportunity to gain some
experience in professionalism.
Go to the next section entitled, “Good Mentors,” to take a look
at some of the characteristics of good mentors.
IPSP
Module Series