This site contains useful tips for having a difficult conversation. We recommend that if you’re worried about someone, you try talking to them. It’s okay if you’re not an expert – just listening can help someone work through what’s on their mind. SHUSH tips
This week, we’ve discussed possible reactions to challenging mentoring situations. These are three statements our mentors are often confronted with – and their suggestions on how to react:
In our mentor sessions we talked a lot about teamwork… Here is a software – CATME – that helps students to ‘function effectively in teams’ and ‘support facultys as they manage their students team experiences’. That’s what the firm says about their product: CATME SMARTER Teamwork is a system of secure, web-based tools that enable instructors to […]
Yesterday, I came across this blog post – and it reminded me on how much we all rely on positive feedback – and encouragement by others. See: http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/positive-post-it-day/ So… Why not leave some positive notes for your mentees – or encourage them to write something positive for each other? It only takes a stack of post-it […]
As part of their peer mentoring programme, mentors have engaged with digital media and online learning tools – together with their mentees and also on their own. Here is an example by one mentor who has produced fictive online profiles of students. Anna: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=10803747&height=267&width=200 MO: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=10804007&height=267&width=200 Jessie: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=10803887&height=267&width=200 Rashid: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=10803714&height=267&width=200 Sebastian: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=10804087&height=267&width=200 Jasmine: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=10804053&height=267&width=200 Emily: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=10804113&height=267&width=200 A nice way of reflecting on […]
This video is a nice teaser to start a conversation with your mentees about their dreams, visions and hopes – and fears – when studying at university – and life in general:
Supporting mentees does also mean providing constructive feedback. Last week, mentors attended mentees’ presentations where mentees presented their findings on formal and informal learning spaces across the University. Below some visual impressions of those presentations. Effective feedback is (London 2014): Clear Specific Frequent Immediate Relevant Dynamic It is constructive when is offers concrete information that can be […]
When mentoring, it is important to develop a relationship with mentees – and also to exchange information. One way of doing this is over email. One group of mentors has managed to this particularly well. They send emails to their mentees on a regular basis – both to prepare them for the mentoring session as […]
A key communication element (and tool) when mentoring is ‘active listening’. Carlo Rogers, Psychologist and ‘inventor’ of the person-centred (or humanistic) approach, has written extensively on the topic. Below you find a summary of the ‘basics of active listening’ – taken from his article ‘Active Listening’, written together with Richard E. Farson. Rogers and Farson (1987) […]
peermentoring inpractice 