Introduction

other terms: guide, supporter, advisor, teacher specialist, teacher coach, consultant, helping teacher, peer teacher, support teacher, encourager, and befriender.

Our group will be examining the concept of mentoring as it pertains to implementing the much ballyhooed, but not yet realized concept of partnership, by examining existing mentoring programs and creating a a resource of mentoring programs for K12 schools world wide. Mentors are retired teachers, senior citizens, professionals on line and professionals interested in education. They are community members interested in the youth of their communities. Mentoring projects are partnerships between corporations and schools, between different levels of schools, and between organizations and schools. We are interested in finding mentoring programs and pointing them out and determining what it takes to have a successful mentoring program in your school or community.

We are assuming that mentoring is pedagogically valuable:

A. it expands the notion of what education is, and who educators are
B. it provides the student with guidance/instruction from people who are not classroom teachers, thus offering:

1. multiple perspectives on what the student is doing/has done
2. a critical view from a source outside the classroom and thus more related to the real world; it is more authentic.

This site will guide you through information important for you if you plan to participate in a mentoring program.