Secondary Mentoring Program
The secondary mentoring program is based on Paul’s three types
of friends: Barnabas who was his mentor, Silas who was his peer, and Timothy
who was his mentee. Having these three types of friendships helped shape Paul
into the person he became. The purpose/goal of the Student Mentor program is to
sharpen and strengthen each student in all areas of life, while promoting a
community of supportive and encouraging individuals at FCA. Students are
encouraged to find times throughout the week to reach out to the person they
are matched with. Teachers are encouraged to check in with these students periodically and
ask how their mentor/mentee is doing, or pair the students up as partners in class
when possible.
Additional Biblical Foundations for Mentoring Program:
Introducing the Program: Prior to introducing the program, I set up boxes on each of the tables at lunch time. Students answered the question "What is a mentor?" and put their answers into the box on the table. (Their answers are in the picture below.) I introduced the program as their Chapel lesson, discussing the importance of having different "levels" of friends as mentioned above. I matched the 7th-9th grade students up with 10th-12th graders, based on their personalities and by the input of the teachers. I made sure to keep boys with boys and girls with girls, so there were a few groups of three to ensure this happened.
Activity 1: Blind Walk. Before Chapel that morning, I had a few "mentors" help me hide pieces of candy though out the room- out of sight enough so that students wouldn't see them as they were coming in. They also wrote on an index card the SPECIFIC location of each candy stash. For example, "in the far left windowsill behind the stack of books." After pairing up the mentor matches, the mentees blindfolded themselves. I gave each mentor an index card with the location of one stash of candy. Mentors were then instructed to lead the mentees to the location on their card WITHOUT touching them or any other objects in the room. Everyone successfully found their candy, and we discussed how the activity is like a mentoring relationship.
Activity 2: Similarities. Even though most of the kids know each other really well, they do not know people who are not in their grades as well as their classmates. For the second activity, I challenged the pairs to see which group could come up with the most similarities between them. I was impressed with how many things they came up with!
The mentoring program is an ongoing program that I'd really like to see blossom. I smile when I hear kids shouting down the hall to greet their Mentee or Mentor. It will take some pushing to get it going since it is out of most kid's comfort zone, but I do see a tremendous amount of potential with this program.
(I also created a mentoring program for younger students- you can check that one out at my other blog)
Additional Biblical Foundations for Mentoring Program:
- Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. - 1 Thessalonians 5:11
- Iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. - Proverbs 27:17
- Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. - 1 Corinthians 11:1
Introducing the Program: Prior to introducing the program, I set up boxes on each of the tables at lunch time. Students answered the question "What is a mentor?" and put their answers into the box on the table. (Their answers are in the picture below.) I introduced the program as their Chapel lesson, discussing the importance of having different "levels" of friends as mentioned above. I matched the 7th-9th grade students up with 10th-12th graders, based on their personalities and by the input of the teachers. I made sure to keep boys with boys and girls with girls, so there were a few groups of three to ensure this happened.
Activity 1: Blind Walk. Before Chapel that morning, I had a few "mentors" help me hide pieces of candy though out the room- out of sight enough so that students wouldn't see them as they were coming in. They also wrote on an index card the SPECIFIC location of each candy stash. For example, "in the far left windowsill behind the stack of books." After pairing up the mentor matches, the mentees blindfolded themselves. I gave each mentor an index card with the location of one stash of candy. Mentors were then instructed to lead the mentees to the location on their card WITHOUT touching them or any other objects in the room. Everyone successfully found their candy, and we discussed how the activity is like a mentoring relationship.
Activity 2: Similarities. Even though most of the kids know each other really well, they do not know people who are not in their grades as well as their classmates. For the second activity, I challenged the pairs to see which group could come up with the most similarities between them. I was impressed with how many things they came up with!
The mentoring program is an ongoing program that I'd really like to see blossom. I smile when I hear kids shouting down the hall to greet their Mentee or Mentor. It will take some pushing to get it going since it is out of most kid's comfort zone, but I do see a tremendous amount of potential with this program.
(I also created a mentoring program for younger students- you can check that one out at my other blog)