World Vision CONNECT

Mentoring Guide

What is Mentoring?
Mentoring is an ancient practice. In Homers The Odyssey, Odysseus goes off to the Trojan War
and leaves his son Telemachus in the charge of his friend, Mentor. The goddess Athena later
disguises herself as Mentor, encouraging Telemachus to search for his father and teaching him
how to protect his mother. Socrates mentored Plato, who mentored Aristotle, who in turn
mentored Alexander the Great. Using investigative questioning to draw insights from his pupils,
Socrates described himself as more mid-wife than teacher, birthing knowledge in them with
divine assistance: So of myself I have no sort of wisdom the many admirable truths they bring
to birth have been discovered by themselves from within. But the delivery is heaven's work and
mine.
Mentors are found in literally every field from academia to sports, business, politics,
entertainment and literature. Mahatma Ghandi mentored Martin Luther King, Jr. Barack Obama
married his law firm mentor, Michelle Robinson. Actress Audrey Hepburn mentored Elizabeth
Taylor. Fidel Castro mentored Hugo Chavez. Helen Keller was mentored by her teacher, Annie
Sullivan. Pierre Elliott Trudeau called Canada the mentor to the world. Then there are the
famous mentor/protg pairings of fiction: Gandalf and Frodo in Lord of the Rings; Batman and
the Boy Wonder; Morpheus and Neo in The Matrix and innovative teacher Miss Stacey to Anne
Shirley in Anne of Avonlea.
Among the many roles of the modern mentor are those of trusted friend, counselor, teacher,
advisor, coach, facilitator and experienced guide. Mentors help less experienced individuals
pursue career paths, enhance academic work, build networks and reach goals. Many schools offer
formal mentoring programs between older and younger students or teaching staff and students.

CONNECT Mentors
In the CONNECT program a teacher mentor takes on a more informal role than traditionally held
in the classroom, although your relationship with students throughout the CONNECT experience
is no less influential.

World Vision CONNECT Mentoring Guide

You may be asked by a student group to facilitate a social justice program as an extracurricular
school activity, or the idea to start a group might originate with you. You may also wish to use
CONNECT to enhance student involvement in a World Vision 30 Hour Famine event or support
student project work in global issues classes. Either way, as mentor and coach you will facilitate a
process more student-driven than teacher-driven, but with crucial teacher support and input at
every stage of the program.
CONNECT teacher mentors support students by:

Identifying student leaders and recognizing leadership potential.

Providing the time, space and opportunities for groups to meet and mobilize.
Identifying student interests and passions, encouraging ideas and tracking projects.
Ensuring each student in the group is valued and has a role to play.
Facilitating deeper discussions on the issues.
Linking groups with material, human and logistical resources.
Acting as official liaison with school administration.
Monitoring group dynamics, advising and troubleshooting.
Role modeling good citizenship values, perspectives and behaviours.
Providing continuity from year to year with new CONNECT school groups.

CONNECT Step-by-Step
Below is a suggested five stage plan for starting and mentoring a social justice group in your
school. Strategies for implementing these steps can be found in current and future CONNECT
teacher and student resources, or you can draw on effective strategies and tools you have used in
your teaching practice. Note that the process, while initially teacher-driven, increasingly shifts
control and responsibility to the students, with the teacher mentor in a background facilitation
role. The teacher mentor comes back in at the end of the experience when the group is wrapping
up, in order to provide continuity and support the transition to the next school years CONNECT
group.
Step One: Getting Started (teacher-driven)

Communicate initial meeting times and locations

Recruit a diverse student membership (age, gender, academic tracks, backgrounds)
Identify and choose student leaders with group input
Establish meeting and communication schedules and tools for communication and
interaction
Introduce group to CONNECT program, calendar and web resources

Step Two: Building the Team (teacher and student-driven)

Team building exercises and events

World Vision CONNECT Mentoring Guide

Identify and explore issues of interest that CONNECT focuses on, such as child hunger,
child protection, disaster relief, access to safe water and peacebuilding.
Establish roles and responsibilities in group and solidify core group membership

Step Three: Goal Setting and Action Planning (student-driven with teacher mentor
support)

Begin with quick win activities to maintain group membership and interest levels (see
the CONNECT website for ideas)
Create school year calendar for group actions and events
Set realistic and achievable advocacy, awareness and/or fundraising goals for the group:
short term, mid-term and long-term
Develop an implementation plan to achieve goals, with assigned responsibilities and
timelines
Identify human and material resources needed to implement action plans and achieve
goals

Step Four: Going Deeper and Working Towards Goals (student-driven)

Use CONNECT program and site resources and tools to go deeper on identified issues of
interest
Organize and implement projects and actions decided on in Goal Setting and Action
Planning
Monitor and support group progress and dynamics (teacher mentor)
Periodically reflect on goals and adjust or change if necessary
Communicate ongoing group actions through the World Vision CONNECT Facebook
community

Step Five: Wrapping Up and Planning for the Future (teacher and student-driven)

Reflect on and evaluate achievements

Report group achievements on the World Vision CONNECT Facebook site
Celebrate and recognize student work and achievements both within group and broader
school community
Discuss and plan for future CONNECT groups by choosing new leaders and passing on
records, materials and learnings

World Vision CONNECT Mentoring Guide

Tips for Teacher Mentors

Much of good mentoring derives from common sense and intuition, but your experience working
with youth and professional skills as an educator also influence the successful partnering of
teacher mentors and students. Here are some tips to consider:
1.

2.

3.

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7.

Set the Tone: Choose a meeting space other than your own classroom, a more casual
and neutral site such as the library, gym, cafeteria or school theatre. If school
administration is agreeable, an offsite meeting space such as a caf or community centre
sets the tone for a different kind of interaction, where you are no longer teacher and
students are free to play stronger decision-making and leadership roles.
Team Build: Encourage or facilitate team building exercises or outings that grow
positive relationships within the group, build empathy and tolerance, and help students
appreciate the diverse skills and abilities of each group member. The CONNECT
experience, while having serious goals, should be fun too, and the close relationships
growing out of it are what students will remember and treasure. A trusting and respectful
team also works more cooperatively and achieves stronger results from their planned
actions.
Pay Attention: This includes practicing effective and active listening and
communication skills (listening before speaking, paraphrasing and reflecting ideas,
attending to verbal and non-verbal cues, suggesting rather than teaching, providing
positive feedback) and making sure you show up for meetings. Being present and fully
involved sends the message that this group matters to you. Students will pick up on a
distracted or half-attentive attitude.
Role Model: Behave the way you want the group and its leaders to behave. Acknowledge
input from all group members, be positive and receptive to ideas, practice active listening
and display professional integrity. Show you genuinely care about the issues the students
are interested in and the projects and actions they take on. You are the authority figure
they consciously or unconsciously look to for role modeling good citizenship values and
behaviours.
Give up the Reins: The purpose of this group is not to carry out the teacher mentors
well-made plans. Teachers are conditioned to drive the process, but as a mentor you are
guiding it, enabling self-discovery and shifting the control and decision-making from you
to the group and its chosen student leaders. Also, resist the temptation to step in and
solve problems. Allow the group and its leaders to focus on agreed upon outcomes and
the steps they need to take to get there.
Share Your Wisdom: While you want the group to be student-driven, you can also
share and demonstrate effective strategies for group facilitation, democratic decisionmaking, team motivation and conflict resolution.
Share the Load: Ask trustworthy colleagues to partner with you and take on some of
the responsibilities for supporting the group. This will provide back-up in situations
where you cannot be present for a meeting or event, and creates a professional support
network for the mentors to reflect on group dynamics, brainstorm ideas or troubleshoot
problems.

World Vision CONNECT Mentoring Guide

8. Make it Mutual: The experience of mentoring a CONNECT group should be beneficial

for both the teacher mentor and the mentored students. This is a learning experience for
you as well, a chance to know students in a more informal way, and an opportunity for
them to see you as a person outside of your traditional teacher role.

What Students value in a Teacher Mentor

Students spend a lot of their time in school and see, record and analyze everything teachers do.
They will have expectations for a teacher mentor that may or may not be expressed, many of them
soft skills and behaviours that make for a good classroom teacher as well:

Sense of humour
Patient
Reliable
Genuine
Approachable
Open-door policy
Creates a feeling of safety and security in the group
An attitude of service
Respectful of diverse student backgrounds and abilities
Professional behaviour and interactions
Passionate about the issues
Offers ideas, knowledge and insights but allows for student decision-making and choice

World Vision CONNECT Mentoring Guide