Mentoring Philosophy and Document Analysis

As leaders and mentors in early childhood education it is important to plan for mentoring activities and documenting expectations, progress, and outcomes. By planning and documenting the mentor can review what worked and what did not work in a specific situation. Additionally, mentors can reflect on what skills they have, and what competencies they need more professional development in to grow and learn in their role. Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read the required text chapters to incorporate concepts and ideas into your submission. In your two-part submission, you will craft your mentoring philosophy and analyze how you might document and evaluate a relationship-based coaching process.

Part 1: Your mentoring philosophy is a statement that explains the way you approach professional relationships with early childhood teachers and staff as you support their professional development goals. Write a reflective mentoring philosophy of at least 300 words, including rationale supporting your statement with at least one scholarly resource or reference to the course text. Keep in mind the following ideas while crafting your philosophy:

• Identifying adult learners’ motivators, goals, and communication style.
• Evaluating adult learners’ strengths and building on them.
• Creating an interactive inquiry environment.
• Creating a safe environment for growth and change.
• Encouraging growth through challenges.

Part 2: Over the next few weeks you will be locating, reviewing, and revising forms while discussing the importance of tailoring them to meet your specific needs. These forms can be used to create a mentoring portfolio for your own professional work in current or future mentoring relationships. To practice revising or adapting effecting mentoring forms, review the form below and respond to the questions. Be sure to use the course text to support your response. You are encouraged to save this form for your own mentoring portfolio.

• Would you find this form useful during and/or after each visit with a teacher?
• Discuss a minimum of two revisions you would make to the form.
  • Provide rationale for each suggested revision.

Coaching Process Notes to Record for Each Visit

Teacher: __________________________ Coach: ___________________________

Date:  _____________________________

Describe the general needs, interests, or goals of the teacher, or an identified problem.

Short term:

Long term:

How will the teacher know when a goal is accomplished?

Was the goal negotiated, suggested by the teacher or the coach, or was another process used?

Today’s focus of inquiry, discussion, or other strategies used were:

Coach linked teacher to research based concepts from:

Today’s coaching strategies were (circle all that apply and/or describe):

ü  Observing teacher–child interactions

ü  Information gathering

ü  Giving feedback on observed teaching

(instructive, positive, reflective)

ü  Promoting reflection through open-ended questions and probing conversations

ü  Demonstrating a relevant strategy

ü  Co-planning

ü  Problem solving

ü  Other (describe)

Strengths and resources of the teacher include:

Resources still needed are:

Resources given, facilitated, or discussed:

Conclude (brief ideas for next steps):

Timeline:

The Mentoring Philosophy and Document Analysis (Parts 1 and 2)

• Must be a minimum of three double-spaced pages in length (excluding title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.).
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of Paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• Must use at least one outside source in addition to the course text.
• Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.