Supporting students in a virtual environment goes by many names. Coaching mentoring or shepherding are all programs that have been instituted to provide the virtual student with that one key person within the virtual program that can offer them support and guidance. I often liken the mentor, as it is called in my program, to a guidance counselor as it is a person that can see a student's whole schedule and has regular contact with the student and the parents to communicate important information about the virtual program and to answer any questions that the student has.
The mentor also communicates with the teachers when a student has an issue such as an extended illness that might impact their ability to work in their classes. Without a mentor, a student can get lost or overlooked in a program. Teachers may know a student is struggling in their class but may not realize that they're not working in any classes or may miss key information about that student's personal life.
On the other hand, when a parent feels like they need to communicate with more than a handful of people during a stressful time such as a death in the family, they can quickly feel discouraged and overwhelmed. This is where the mentor comes in. The mentor can be in contact with that family and a supporting and positive way. They can celebrate with the student on anything that's going on in their life from birthdays to great test scores to a gymnastics meet outside of school. They may even attend the student's extracurriculars or occasionally meet the student face to face in order to build a relationship.
You may have guessed that building a relationship is key for the mentoring process to work. Ineffective mentor programs are those in which the communication sounds scripted and generic. Emails that don't include the student's preferred name or emails that are unnecessarily long because they include information that does not apply to that student can negatively impact the relationship because the student feels like the mentor isn't really getting to know them. In this case, the student is less likely to reach out to the mentor when they have questions. to make communication more personal mentors can use a variety of technology tools to personalize communication with a student. They should also learn the student and the family's preferred method of communication and use that whenever allowable. The use of personal but appropriate pictures and calls and text messages can enhance a mentor's relationship with a student. Sending a picture of a family outing from the mentor to the students can emphasize that that mentor is a real person and wants to support that student and get to know them. Having a way for a group of mentees to share with one another is also an idea of her building rapport in relationships. Having a padlet where students could share a picture of their pet for instance is a way for students to see that there is someone on the other side of the computer screen.
Mentors can handle a caseload of students from a dozen to more than 30 depending on the mentor's capabilities and their other duties as assigned. It is key that a mentor not feel overwhelmed or overburdened by the job because student relationships will suffer. It is also advisable for a mentor to keep the same cohort of students as long as those students are in the program and that assignment is appropriate. Starting from scratch every fall is an inefficient means of supporting a student within a program. If a parent knows that a single person is the point of contact in a program for each of their children when a family emergency arises that parent will feel supported by the program rather than burdened by the requirements.
Mentoring students can be a full-time job. Most programs will want to go a step further and document how often the mentoring occurs. This can cause the mentoring position to be tedious for the staff member performing it. Careful use of technology can minimize the inconvenience of tracking and allow more time for the teacher to concentrate on building relationships with students and supporting them as needed. Shared documents and spreadsheets are one place to start but can easily become unwieldy when student numbers grow beyond 100. Using communication within an LMS or an SIS system can streamline the process of tracking mentor communication. Moreover, a more global system such as that described above allows the administration to get a more accurate and up-to-the-minute picture of how a student's communication with all staff members is going before reaching out to a family with a concern.
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