Assess The Role Of A Mentor Essay

A principal serving as a mentor begins with the culture that the leader promotes and engages staff in. Mentoring and collaboration needs to be an established and important part of the school climate built from within, otherwise positive mentoring and leadership likely will not happen. Mentoring does not mean that the principal is telling teachers and staff what to do or dictating circumstances, rather, the mentor is assisting and providing support to those in need. The text compares the role of a mentor much like that of a coach for a team. The mentor can advise, give feedback, and perhaps even take some blame for mistakes that are made. Mentoring has changed over time, in the past mentoring could be defined as the transferring of knowledge from mentor to mentee, whereas now it is more of an exchange of ideas and skills. The mentor can serve as a “door opener” and help the mentee see different ways of doing things. The text also talks about co-mentoring, which is more of a collaborative building effort, than an individual mentor mentee relationship. Rather than one mentor, multiple people serve in the role of mentor which creates a very positive climate and culture. This can be established by the principal setting the tone and creating a mentoring atmosphere.

A great leader will support and develop great teachers under them, which also helps with retaining staff. The text supports the importance of the principal’s role in mentoring new staff with many examples of new teachers leaving the profession because of poor mentoring. New teachers need administrative support and guidance, which many leaders often fail to provide because they did not receive much administrative guidance when they first started. Another important aspect that a principal needs to consider is assigning a mentor to new staff, it is vital that a new staff member is able to work and learn from a good peer