Mentoring+Tutoring+by+Karla+Renae+Harris

= **__Mentoring__** = = = =Mentoring Overview: = = =

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A mentor is considered a wise, influential trusted counselor or teacher who, in most cases, gives support and acts as a sponsor for businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and even students within the school walls. Mentors are not limited to counselors or teachers but they can be anybody within the community, religious organizations, school operated, volunteers, or a mentoring organization. Students need direction not only in school but when it comes to their goals outside of education as well as personal guidance. In order to better achieve their goals, students have to create and reach their educational goals. Achieving the educational goals is a lesson in itself that assists students with understanding how to move forward with their goals in mind. Mentors are essential in this process because they are able to provide students with that extra push of support. When establishing educational goals, some students need to know what a goal is and how to create one. Mentors can play an important role because when discussing goals and what they are, it can become understandable to students that there are more than just educational goals but that their educational goals are a part of their life goals. Not only can mentors be available for the needs of their students but they can create different ways for parents to become involved by creating activities in which both parents and students cooperate together as a team. This approach to help build strong relationships between parents and their children reflects not only on the students’ educational goals but can reflect on their personal goals as well.=====

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Education is vital in a world that is based on new and advanced upcoming technology because one must have the necessary skills to be able to excel and learn new material. ** However, how can our students learn how to interact with people if they don’t know how to have a decent conversation with friends and family or an intellectual one with teachers? **Just as technology is important in this world so is learning how to develop positive relationships. We can have mentoring programs within the school that will help with job success by teaching students how to build a resume and how to complete a job application, but many students don’t know how to converse with the interviewer when they have an interview. They don’t know what questions to ask or how to ask a question when concerned about their future in relation to college or how to relay that they need help with their school work to a teacher without showing blatant frustration. This shows a lack of social skills because some students do not know how to express themselves without showing violent behavior and using profanity. It is important to know what students lack but more important to know what they need. The situation is similar to a cause and effect. There is a reason or cause why some of our students lack good interpersonal skills and it starts at home. As a mentoring program, we strive to reconnect families because what happens between students and their families affects how the students interact and react in the real world. They can communicate with people but some may not understand the concept of interacting with different people depending on the situation i.e. hanging with their friends, talking with a boss, talking with their parents, and conversing with teachers. This program will establish the difference between situational conversations in the process of developing long-lasting relationships with our students and communicating with people in their community. In addition to partaking in good interpersonal skills, students will have the opportunity to address issues during sessions such as dealing with negative attitudes, violence in relationships, substance abuse, and personal hygiene to name a few. It is imperative that sessions are kept confidential amongst those involved within the program, in other words, no one should tell anyone's business to another individual. This not only builds trust but shows students a positive and trustworthy friendship. =====

=Trend or Issue? = = =

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 * //“When schools, families, and community groups work together to support learning, children tend to do better in school, stay in school longer, and like school more.”// - Southwest Educational Development Laboratory Data from the 2000 administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)**=====

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Mentoring organizations have become a trend due to certain societal issues that students may face on a daily basis such as drug and alcohol use, dropping out of school, little or no parental support, and poverty. However, mentoring organizations are not limited to assisting those who actually face these issues on a daily basis nor to those students who have become a statistic from any of these issues. Mentoring organizations and programs alike are trying to become more affiliated with the school system and the students. In the National Network of Partnership Schools, parent involvement is a big issue in the educational system in that parents are not coming out to parent- teacher conferences or being supportive of their children when school work is involved. One way Partnership said parents could get involved is for the school to “coordinate with businesses and agencies to provide resources and services for families, students, and the community” (Epstein, 2001). A part of those resources are mentoring programs. According to findings from the Commonwealth Fund, mentoring has helped students cope with negative feelings about themselves, poor relationships with family and friends, running away from home, eating disorders, getting into trouble in and outside of school, sexual activity, poor grades, hanging with the wrong crowd, and skipping school to name a few. This quick fact sheet, which is listed in the annotated bibliography, also shows the percentages of how effective mentors were when exposing students to cultural, social, and entertainment outings that students normally would not be able to experience due to the fact that these kinds of outings are not available to some of them. This is a part of guidance and social skills. Mentors have even exposed the type of work they do to students and other professions which give students a chance to participate in a job internship, if available, or shadow someone of a career in which the student is interested. This kind of exposure to young minds helps shape existing careers because these students will definitely be able to bring some new and innovative ideas to the workforce while working with mentors in the process. ===== = In My Opinion..... =

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I am a product of an in-school mentoring program called, [|Demoiselle 2 Femme] located in Chicago, IL, which helped shape me into the woman I am today. We met once a week for 2 hours and focused on self-esteem, relationships, personal hygiene, being positive role models, cultural outings, and college-based projects. These items were only a fraction of what I gained through this program. I was able to get a job my senior year of high school through this organization and I continued to come to every session after I completed the program. They continued to stay in contact with me throughout my college career and afterwards, I began to work for them and mentor other young girls. There was also a mentoring program for young males called, B.R.O.T.H.A.S., Basing Relationships on Truth, Honesty, and Strength. I am proof that in-school mentoring programs can and do make a difference in the lives of students. ** Be sure to follow the Demoiselle 2 Femme link to see what other innovative aspirations await not just the youth of Chicago but could also await the youth in your community. **====== = = == = =

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Proposal addressing this issue: [[file:Harris_KR_EDCI6158_proposal.pdf]]
=**Annotated Bibliography: **=


 * =====**ECS Education Policy Issue Site: Student Supports - Mentoring/Tutoring**=====

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In addressing the need for parental involvement in students' lives, this article also expresses the need for mentoring groups inside the schools. It also includes data from the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) on statistics showing how 90 percent of 4th graders were in school where the parents were actively involved and participated in parent-teacher conferences whereas only 57 percent of 8th graders remained in school whose parents participated in parent-teacher conferences. This data expresses the significance in those numbers of students remaining in school insinuating that after-school mentoring programs could help increase that number where 8th graders are concerned.=====


 * =====**[|www.findyouthinfo.gov/maps/map-my-community]**=====

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This website is full of topics that addresses issues affecting today's youth such as bullying, homelessness, violence and victimization, substance abuse, and HIV/AIDS prevention. This site also addresses the needs of students by helping locate mentoring programs and centers in the area in which you live.=====


 * =====**Education Week**=====

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This article states the issue of the lack of parental involvement and how much it can positively affect the students if more parents were involved with their kids and the teachers. The National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) explains their six types of parent involvement that schools can use, one of the types being the involvement of mentoring programs.=====


 * =====**Epstein, J.L. (2001). //School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools.// Boulder, CO: Westview Press.**=====

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Joyce Epstein expresses her ideas of stating the need of community involvement with students while also discussing the issue of parental involvement. She further elaborates on how using mentoring programs can help some parents become involved with their children in school.=====


 * =====**Southwest Educational Development Laboratory**=====

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This summary includes a study of after-school projects that were funded by the After-School Corporation (TASC). These projects were established to provide an array of new learning opportunities such as music, dance and sports, skill building, and intentional relationship building.=====

These are reports from //Mentoring Makes A Difference: Findings from the Commonwealth Fund 1998 Survey of Adults Mentoring Young People.// There are statistics for reports on incident problems that some youth have experienced and how having a mentor made an impact on those youth. Some of the problems consisted of negative feelings about oneself, poor relationships with family, poor grades, hanging with the wrong crowd, substance abuse, sexual activity, physical and sexual abuse, and eating disorders to name a few. This information also shows the impact of mentoring youth in different activities to help build good social skills, guidance, and networking.
 * **Quick Facts Mentoring**
 * [|www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/28/55/2855.htm]**