Day 5: Mentoring.

What does a good mentor do?

     Traditionally a mentor is someone who imparts wisdom to and shares knowledge with a less experienced colleague. Throughout my career in education I have not really been mentored a lot, really just once, but I am keeping that for tomorrow's post, because that mentor had a great impact on my development.
     What does a good mentor do? A good mentor has to be available, honest and ready to share his own successful and less successful experiences. As a department head I have mentored (or tried to mentor) some of my younger colleagues and I can confirm that it's not easy to add this to an already busy schedule.
     Sharing is the easier one, but I feel I have let people down more than once when it comes to availability and honesty.  Within our department we generally share materials and expertise and everyone knows my door is always open, but I can't guarantee I am available at all times. As for honesty I am usually an honest person, but I lack in tactfulness and because I know this about myself, i often hold back, afraid to hurt feelings and discourage people.
     I believe that if you have a good school we all mentor each other. Mentoring should be part of school culture, both for teachers and students, and should not be considered as something extraordinary.