THE MENTORS APP INVENTORY (LEVERAGE)
LEVERAGE IN GENERAL
The sheer number of obstacles that Aurelio encounters in this story is all too commonplace. The sheer volume of coordinated resources that Aurelio receives in this story, on the other hand, is unfortunately all too rare. This dichotomy is intended, for Aurelio’s story, so constructed, serves as a vivid context for the mentor’s “Diagnostic and Planning Toolkit,” a companion piece that can help the mentor in two major ways. First, the diagnostic component of the toolkit is a guide book to uncovering any number of debilitating “hidden injuries of class”—the social and emotional dynamics that low-income youth routinely encounter. Second, the planning component of the toolkit presents the mentor with a list of innovative and even unexpected ways to support students like Aurelio. After all, even one or two resources, well-placed and skillfully executed, can serve as a major tipping point in any young person’s development.
One of the major responsibilities of the mentor-as-changemaker is to equip young people like Aurelio with the right foul weather gear and a navigational app like “WAZE” to assist in making the right decisions in real time on which of the most promising surface streets and freeways to take when. This is where the mentor can enlist a variety of approaches in evolving beyond the old-fashioned and traditional role of a “stand-alone” presence and to one of playing a variety of roles at once, chief among them as a tutor, a connector, a group leader, an expert in social and emotional learning and as an advocate. Thus, we have created a complete toolkit.
Build in timing — between levels of schooling — when students start to slide… .
School-based mentoring
One cohort specializes in one-on-one relationships, while another specializes in the leadership of study groups. Both cohorts need to invest two to three hours a week for direct student contact and another five hours a month for collaboration with colleagues and ongoing training.
Through a combination of exploring their inner lives in the context of challenging situations and and the social awareness errors they tend to make.
Now that we’ve attended fully to the forces that resist positive change—the restraining forces, the mentor is well positioned to succeed in developing a formal plan, executing it and measuring its results. However permanent and entrenched these inclement weather patterns may have appeared to Aurelio and his family, the weather can change. There is potential—including Aurelio’s potential—within the system that is waiting to be released. It just requires the right nudge at the right place at the right time and along the right cause-and-effect pathways.
The Mentor’s Dilemma—in Schools (as psychological environment and complexity) . In college he benefitted from the authentic interest his statistics professor took in him, not to mention the opportunity to develop a relationship with her and her family. But most importantly, his statistics professor was a natural at performing what Geoff Cohen calls the “mentor’s dilemma.” That is, she was able to hold out very high expectations for Aurelio while at the same time offering him unconditioned belief in his ability to meet these expectations.
The sheer number of obstacles that Aurelio encounters in this story is all too commonplace. The sheer volume of coordinated resources that Aurelio receives in this story, on the other hand, is unfortunately all too rare. This dichotomy is intended, for Aurelio’s story, so constructed, serves as a vivid context for the mentor’s “Diagnostic and Planning Toolkit,” a companion piece that can help the mentor in two major ways. First, the diagnostic component of the toolkit is a guide book to uncovering any number of debilitating “hidden injuries of class”—the social and emotional dynamics that low-income youth routinely encounter. Second, the planning component of the toolkit presents the mentor with a list of innovative and even unexpected ways to support students like Aurelio. After all, even one or two resources, well-placed and skillfully executed, can serve as a major tipping point in any young person’s development.
One of the major responsibilities of the mentor-as-changemaker is to equip young people like Aurelio with the right foul weather gear and a navigational app like “WAZE” to assist in making the right decisions in real time on which of the most promising surface streets and freeways to take when. This is where the mentor can enlist a variety of approaches in evolving beyond the old-fashioned and traditional role of a “stand-alone” presence and to one of playing a variety of roles at once, chief among them as a tutor, a connector, a group leader, an expert in social and emotional learning and as an advocate. Thus, we have created a complete toolkit.
Build in timing — between levels of schooling — when students start to slide… .
School-based mentoring
One cohort specializes in one-on-one relationships, while another specializes in the leadership of study groups. Both cohorts need to invest two to three hours a week for direct student contact and another five hours a month for collaboration with colleagues and ongoing training.
Through a combination of exploring their inner lives in the context of challenging situations and and the social awareness errors they tend to make.
Now that we’ve attended fully to the forces that resist positive change—the restraining forces, the mentor is well positioned to succeed in developing a formal plan, executing it and measuring its results. However permanent and entrenched these inclement weather patterns may have appeared to Aurelio and his family, the weather can change. There is potential—including Aurelio’s potential—within the system that is waiting to be released. It just requires the right nudge at the right place at the right time and along the right cause-and-effect pathways.
The Mentor’s Dilemma—in Schools (as psychological environment and complexity) . In college he benefitted from the authentic interest his statistics professor took in him, not to mention the opportunity to develop a relationship with her and her family. But most importantly, his statistics professor was a natural at performing what Geoff Cohen calls the “mentor’s dilemma.” That is, she was able to hold out very high expectations for Aurelio while at the same time offering him unconditioned belief in his ability to meet these expectations.