Mentoring Matters: A Toolkit for Organizing and Operating Student Advisory Programs

by Mark D. Benigni, Sheryll Petrosky

Overview

As schools are trying to connect with their students and assure that every student has an adult mentor in the building, the need for school-based mentoring programs could not be greater. When creating our school district's mentoring programs, we could not find age-appropriate, current, user-friendly mentoring lessons. With limited financial and human resources, schools are searching for a practical, innovative, and trial-tested resource. Here it is!
Mentoring Matters is the action plan with all the resources necessary to launch a school-based mentoring program. The forty-five thirty-minute lessons will serve as the foundation of your mentoring program. From Facebook to bullying to teenage stressors, we cover it all. We live it with you everyday! We have eliminated all the hurdles and obstacles and created a handbook for mentoring success.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607099390
Publisher:	R&L Education
Publication date:	01/16/2011
Pages:	110
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Mark D. Benigni, Ed.D, is the superintendent of the Meriden Public School System and a former four term mayor of Meriden, Connecticut. He was presented with one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans Awards by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce in 2008.
Sheryll Petrosky is a thirty-two year veteran math teacher and mentor program director of the Cromwell Public School System in Cromwell, Connecticut. She is a graduate of Central Connecticut State University with a Bachelors of Mathematics and a Masters in Curriculum, Supervision and Administration.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Acknowledgements
Chapter 2 Preface
Chapter 3 Introduction
Part 4 Activities
Chapter 5 I'd like to get to know you
Chapter 6 Hello, my name is ...
Chapter 7 Mastering our mission
Chapter 8 Where am I going? How will I get there?
Chapter 9 Letís get better acquainted
Chapter 10 Getting to know me
Chapter 11 Do you hear me?
Chapter 12 Are you still listening?
Chapter 13 Talk this way
Chapter 14 Shhh...
Chapter 15 Make the right choice
Chapter 16 Letís see if what I thought I was doing matches up with what I did
Chapter 17 Get SMART
Chapter 18 What is important to me?
Chapter 19 Pay it forward #1
Chapter 20 Pay it forward #2
Chapter 21 Celebrating our similarities
Chapter 22 A leader please!
Chapter 23 Here today, gone tomorrow
Chapter 24 Rules are rules ... or are they?
Chapter 25 Can we both be right?
Chapter 26 I see it ... I hear it ... I feel it ...
Chapter 27 Follow the leader ... good or bad?
Chapter 28 What makes me like you?
Chapter 29 Iíve got the spirit.
Chapter 30 Do you see it my way?
Chapter 31 Beating the bully
Chapter 32 Friend request
Chapter 33 Think before you speak
Chapter 34 We are family
Chapter 35 R E S P E C T
Chapter 36 Man in the mirror
Chapter 37 Houston, we have a problem
Chapter 38 Embrace change
Chapter 39 On your mark, get set, GO!
Chapter 40 I'm just teasing
Chapter 41 I'm ready to explode
Chapter 42 I am still stressing
Chapter 43 You're in charge
Chapter 44 Hey, thanks
Chapter 45 See the glass half full
Chapter 46 If you can dream it, you can achieve it
Chapter 47 Am I heading in the right direction?
Chapter 48 Who am I?
Chapter 49 I can get you to say anything

Editorial Reviews

Providing our students time for mentoring was easy, however, providing our students and teachers with lesson plans was difficult. We have researched mentoring lesson plans to no avail. High school administrators and advisory mentors have been looking for simple, easy-to-implement lessons that provide students with topics of interest. This book will be a valuable tool for all high schools that have mentoring programs.

Donna Adduci Mik

Mark Benigni and Sheryll Petrosky get to the heart of what it takes to improve school climate in Mentoring Matters. This book is a great "How To" manual for implementing a program to personalize the high school experience for all students by building real connections among students and staff through a carefully crafted set of experiences.

Jerald P. Fine

Mentoring Matters is a practical guide for teachers that I would highly recommend. I have found myself using the easy-to-use lessons to initiate conversationswith students about a variety of topics. By providing students with an opportunity to meet in small mentoring groups they have developed meaningful relationships that are impacting their grades and willingness to seek support when needed. This is a tool that every teacher in every school should be using!

Maureen Moylan

As a Board president, I believe that Mentoring Matters is a must-have resource for any school system committed to providing their students the skills of school-based mentoring. As a high school social worker, I believe that every student needs to establish a strong connection to a positive adult role model. This book provides the actual lessons required to prepare staff to be that mentor while establishing methods that personalize the learning environment to ensure the fostering of positive relationships between students and staff.

Mark A. Hughes

Mentoring Matters is an excellent addition to the growing body of hands-on resources for student mentoring and student advisory programs. The ready-to-use lessons will help any school get their advisory program off the ground with meaningful and engaging activities in the first year, providing the school with time to flesh out their programming for ensuing years. The activities and scenarios are easy to execute and spot-on: respect, community-building, leadership skills, communicating, goal-setting, decision-making, adapting to change. Any school that wants to help its students negotiate the garmented and impersonal structure known as high school and help kids make meaning out of their school experience will find this book to be a valuable start-up tool.

Scott Brown

What is remarkable about this handbook is that it is so easy to use in creating an efficacious and meaningful mentoring program. The policy impacts of school-based mentoring are all positive when implementation is facilitated through tools like Mentoring Matters. This handbook will help guarantee eager buy-in from all educators.

Thomas P. Gaffey