My Leadership Role As A Mentor Tutor

This portfolio seeks to critically reflect on my engagement with the Teach First Leadership Development Program (TFLDP) and how the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) offered as part of the program has influenced my current and future classroom practice. The TFLDP is the official title given to the training program that all Teach First participants are expected to complete. The program is two years in duration, throughout which, participants are offered various forms CPD, all of which falls under three broad headings; Leading Self, Leading People and Leading Learning. In this assignment, I will focus on how, in conjunction with Teach First support staff and CPD opportunities, I have addressed two of the three key strands; Leading Learning and Leading people. The first strand I will focus on is Leading Learning. I will describe how I worked with my Leadership Development Officer and Educational Consultant to engage passive learners by introducing cooperative learning into the classroom, I will critically reflect on the progress we made towards the vision I created. Secondly, I will focus on how a session forced me to address the wider issues facing my students outside of the classroom and the work that I have done with the East Midlands Action Network (EMAN) to make progress towards providing Socio-economically disadvantaged children with enriching experiences.

My passion towards working with students every day has led me to the decision of pursuing a doctoral degree in Student Affairs in Higher Education at Miami University. I have chosen this program to prepare myself for a future role as a professor or a senior level college administrator. This program will allow me to become more proficient within the students’ educational experience and therefore better engage students in active learning.

Shenitta Niles is on her third semester at Roxbury Community College. She got her high school diploma back in 2011 from Charles Town high school. She originally started out at Bunker Hill Community College, but later transferred to Roxbury Community College due to the low cost, convenience and transportation. Although she is a mother of a young child, she attends the college full time pursuing a major in early childhood education. Constantly being around her daughter and other young children has inspired her to pursue that career. She isn’t sure on the type of field she hopes to work at once she finishes her associate’s degree, but she will continue on to a four year college pursuing this path. Nevertheless, a long term goal of hers is to

Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders. This quote by Tom Peters best summarizes my philosophy of teacher leadership. As a teacher leader, it is up to me to inspire, direct, and encourage others so that stronger teacher, administrative, and student leaders may be born from the process. Teacher leadership involves collaboration between teachers, administrators, and teacher leaders with the goal of positively impacting the student learning environment. With student learning as the ultimate objective, teacher leadership “becomes an indispensable avenue for school improvement” (Coggins & McGovern, 2014, p. 21). So how do I as a teacher leader begin this process? I believe that teacher leadership can be achieved through three means: modeling, mentoring, and collaborating.

As a student at the University of Southern California (USC) Rossier, my contribution to the professional and academic community is to increase critical thinking, develop knowledge and build curiosity and questions among my peers in an impactful manner. I can refine my skills as I perform in a challenging field that I am enthusiastic about. The USC Rossier educational program will guide me towards a fulfilling career that is enticing to my goal of providing a service that improves society and build upon other skills and abilities to create creative and innovative ideas in the field of education.

One thing I believe is a necessity in growing up is having a mentor. Having a mentor is, not only, beneficial for the mentee but also the mentor. Being a mentor is a learning experience for everyone participating, it helps people grow as a person and friendships are created when a bond if formed. Some people might think it's a waste of time for a child or that it'll never work out for a troubled delinquent but based on the research I've done, I have proven them wrong. Through-out this paper I will provide the pros and cons of mentoring and how they affect both mentor and mentee. To back up my proposal that mentoring is supporting, I will supply examples to answer the question: Is mentoring really important?

Most of my education at West Chester University has been in a college classroom setting. I hope to learn how to apply the theories, techniques, and ideas into practice. I also hope to learn and participate in how to maintain a relationship between schools, families, and the community. I feel that the year-long placement will be more intimate field experiences than I have experienced before, and I am excited for the educational experiences it holds for me.

I want to obtain my master’s degree in higher education, so I can turn my goal into a reality. The reality of being an influential part of a students’ journey to not only obtain their education but to obtain their career brings about a certain satisfaction that only an educator can truly appreciate. As I became consciously aware of my passion for teaching, I inquired with my program

Solutions to coaching and mentoring a large UK-based customer facing organisation over a two year period and beyond

Collaborations are present in learning communities and first year experience programs, but school leaders have to move beyond the norms and work seemingly together to create an environment of success for the students. First year experience programs are prominent on many university campuses but are optional on others. However, these departments utilize career placement counselors, academic advisors, testing coordinators, mentoring options, and academic success centers to increase the likelihood of students progressing from freshman year through graduation.

My work in student affairs provides significant opportunity to contemplate, implement and assess initiatives related to student success and retention. My current research is connected to peer education and the 1st year experience and I have active and growing experience in the needs assessment and

Mentorship is very important in the workplace especially in the area of training and development. The mentor-protégé relationship is a much needed relationship that begins in the early career stage and this relationship involves the current or new employees and the supervisor or other colleagues that provide work-related guidance. The relationship itself is comprehensive and involves “educational, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual development” (Greenhaus,, Callanan, & Godshalk, 2010, p 211). One of the initial task of the early career the establishment of the career field which involves the gaining of the workplace competence, learn what is needed to excel in the organization, and to gain acceptance in the workplace to be recognized as the valued employee. There are many ways of achieving the above mentioned advantages in the workplace which one main method is through the use of the mentorship program.

As part of my introduction, I would like to mention that my research project is about mentoring where I have chosen ‘questioning’ as my strategy. In this report, I will discuss in detail about my ‘Mentoring through Questioning’, which is a key for my research project report. Here, I will cover the project’s context in which it was set, my aims and focus of the project, my justification on why I have chosen mentoring through questioning and the types of questions being used during this project, in support of the relevant literature. And then eventually, I will mention about the interactive sessions between a mentor and mentee, the reflection or the perspectives, specifying the self-analysis as well as the required feedback from mentee as part of the research strategy. Later, I will conclude this report by mentioning about the effectiveness of mentoring sessions and the future actions planned for my skills development.

When you’re a teenager, you need someone to look up to, you need a mentor. You need an inspiration. This person can be anyone. It could be a teacher, a friend, a sibling, a parent, an aunt or uncle, a grandparent, anyone. For me, this person is my dance teacher Erica Ireland. Webster 's Dictionary defines a mentor as “someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person.” Erica fits into that definition. Not only is she my mentor, but she is also my inspiration. Webster’s Dictionary defines an inspiration as “something that makes someone want to do something or that gives someone an idea about what to do or create”, or “a force or influence that inspires someone”, as well as “a person, place,

Effective school leadership today must combine the traditional school leadership duties such as teacher evaluation, budgeting, scheduling, and facilities maintenance with a deep involvement with specific aspects of teaching and learning. Effective instructional leaders are intensely involved in curricular and instructional issues that directly affect student achievement (Cotton, 2003). The writer of this paper acknowledges that school principals should play the role of instructional leaders, not just a school manager. The reality is that are many demands on a principals time and management skills making it difficult for most of them to spend time in classrooms, when performing teacher evaluation. Principals often make sure that teachers