MENTORING MAKES A DIFFERENCE-Electronic Village Online: 10 Ways to Be a Good Mentor: A Challenge

After doing some research and reading the articles suggested by EVO The Mentoring Team, I realized that most of the characteristics a good mentor must have are almost the same ones that make an educator be effective, too.

http://mentorevo.blogspot.com.br/2014/01/mentoring-makes-difference-electronic.html

It is not easy to choose just two of all the attributes out of the ten, but I would like to say that the first one can be that a mentee needs her mentor to be a Role Model: a mentee can learn a lot just by watching her mentor manage different situations, that is to say to lead by example.

The second characteristic can be to Be Genuinely Interested in The Mentee as an individual, to really care about the mentee, who is eager to listen to the comments and hang on to the mentor´s guide or thoughts.

Most of us in the group agreed on the fact that mentoring goes both ways: we teach others and we learn from them as well. Two more features I would like to add, are Commitment and Patience. Mentees as well as students, need their mentor to be there  watching them grow, and understand that sometimes they may stumble and fall, but, like in any learning process, one must take into consideration that there are ups and downs, too.

I do believe educators are natural mentors if they are caring, real, compassionate, trustworthy, transparent, kind and thoughtful people, among other characteristics...

When a person should be mentored is an interesting question. Honestly, I think one of the possible answers could be, whenever that person needs it: when he/she is new to a job, like teaching or even when he/she wants to move forward in her career.

We were asked for some suggestions for new Mentors and Mentees. Here is some addition to the rich bibliography given by the Mentoring Group: a compendium of the most relevant characteristics of a mentor, provided by the NEA Creating a Teacher Mentor Program: