Here's another interview for our readers - one of our staffroom mentors from the previous year, Münire Vecdi Özbilen, describes her experience as follows:
I was a staffroom mentor for 2 semesters and I witnessed that my experience did not always match with other mentors’ experience. I believe that every mentor’s experience differs based on the mentee(s) they mentor. Each mentee has their own dynamics, some of which are their work experience, personality, and students, and so the mentor has to be able to read into these so as to guide them in the best direction possible.
I believe that the mentoring system is pretty advantageous because the mentee benefits from it in ways that we couldn’t when we were being trained. The mentor is there with the mentee 7/11 trying to guide or help them in areas they may feel insecure, i.e., how to seat students in quizzes and midterms, how to mark quizzes and midterms, how to deal with class management issues on the spot, enlightening them with the department’s unwritten culture and ease their adaptation period, etc. I certainly didn’t have that during my training and thanks to other colleagues in the staffroom, we felt safer and more at ease.
With this being said, when the mentoring program was introduced, it suddenly all made sense to me. Having someone you can trust in the staffroom with you was what my colleagues were doing during my training. Now, it has become formal, structured and planned. I’m sure as time passes, more and more people and maybe even other institutions will see the benefits of this system and would want to adapt it.
More to come soon. Keep following us!
I was a staffroom mentor for 2 semesters and I witnessed that my experience did not always match with other mentors’ experience. I believe that every mentor’s experience differs based on the mentee(s) they mentor. Each mentee has their own dynamics, some of which are their work experience, personality, and students, and so the mentor has to be able to read into these so as to guide them in the best direction possible.
I believe that the mentoring system is pretty advantageous because the mentee benefits from it in ways that we couldn’t when we were being trained. The mentor is there with the mentee 7/11 trying to guide or help them in areas they may feel insecure, i.e., how to seat students in quizzes and midterms, how to mark quizzes and midterms, how to deal with class management issues on the spot, enlightening them with the department’s unwritten culture and ease their adaptation period, etc. I certainly didn’t have that during my training and thanks to other colleagues in the staffroom, we felt safer and more at ease.
With this being said, when the mentoring program was introduced, it suddenly all made sense to me. Having someone you can trust in the staffroom with you was what my colleagues were doing during my training. Now, it has become formal, structured and planned. I’m sure as time passes, more and more people and maybe even other institutions will see the benefits of this system and would want to adapt it.
More to come soon. Keep following us!
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