Mentoring Adventures! Grand Area Mentoring is a school-based program, and most activities happen on four Moab campuses. Mentors and students may also leave school grounds in small groups for pre-approved field trips. These off-campus mentoring outings provide opportunities to broaden mentee horizons, practice skills, and strengthen the mentoring bond over enjoyable activities.
November 3, 2:00-3:00, HMK: Suicide Prevention Training. Please join us for this opportunity to learn how you can possibly save a life.
Please read your October mentor newsletter for: • Several new and exciting training opportunities (thank you to Nan Marquardt, WabiSabi, and The Synergy Company!) • Pics of mentors and students in action • And an improved idea of the month for Halloween!
Mentoring Idea #2: Foretell the future! Tap into the magic of positive predicting! Using the art materials in the mentor room, draw a picture of a crystal ball. Decorate it and make it your own, but leave plenty of empty space inside the ball and around it. Then, guess what the year ahead will hold! Draw and write your predictions! What will you like about school this year? What will you do in mentoring? What do you hope to learn this year? Add at least one goal. Who will you help this year? Why? What are you excited about? Are you nervous or uncertain about something? Come May, how will you celebrate a great year at school? Tuck this crystal ball into your mentor’s log so you can review it at the end of the year and see how much you got right!
How to Help Your Mentee Through the Summer June, July, and August represent a wonderful opportunity to recharge your batteries and break away from the weekly mentoring routine. Volunteers and students often return in September with new verve and closeness. However, some students balk at summer break. They often miss their mentors! You have 2 options to help your mentee: 1) Summer lunch at HMK Meet with your mentee to eat school lunch ($4) or bring your own. Students eat FREE! This is a great way to catch up and plan all that you’re going to do together in the coming year. Discussing the future like this can give kids a lot of hope. Summer lunch schedule: June 5 through June 30 (no lunch in July this year) Monday through Friday, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM HMK Elementary School Cafeteria (505 N. MiVida Dr.) Please complete a log entry (with date, time, and activities) if you choose to meet your mentee for lunch. Submit it in September. 2) Send updates the old fashioned way – via mail! Who doesn’t love to get a letter or an unexpected package in the mail? Opening up a surprise envelope, especially one emblazoned with the return address of a caring friend, is the best. Even a postcard can remind your mentee that you’re thinking about him or her. To take advantage, call or email us before June 10th. We can provide your mentee’s mailing address. grandareamentoring@gmail.com Dan: 435-260-9646 Mail a card, photos, a word search, a postcard, or a standard letter once or twice during your summer, from wherever you happen to be. Your mentee will feel special, it will help your bond grow during this break, and it will kindle optimism to see you again.
The Clock’s Ticking! As this school year nears its end, mentors and students should make every minute of their mentoring sessions count! How do you do this? • Talk about the year’s successes. Plan more for next year, if appropriate. • Do some of your favorite activities before summer arrives. Document them with photos! • Exchange address information so you can stay in touch over the summer. • Mentors should complete a mentor survey, which can be found at each mentoring site (or on your email). • Attend the end-of-year celebration on May 16th, 4:30-5:30. Grand Area Mentoring will thank you for participating by offering an ice cream party! Join us! • Check out this May’s idea of the month on the reverse: Mindful Games. It’s fun and invigorating to learn more deeply how our minds work! It can be done in just a few minutes, but don’t rush these enjoyable mind journeys.
Six Ways of Mentoring Grand Area Mentoring volunteers help children in southeastern Utah earn better grades, attend school more regularly, and get along better with others. How do they do it? What is the magic of mentoring? It’s not magic. It’s founded on the tenets of basic human development. Search Institute’s research suggests that a handful of ideas “nurture a young person’s sense of purpose and plans for becoming his or her best self.” Moab’s excellent mentors employ six key strategies to help promising youth: They connect. Through building trust in the relationship, the mentor encourages the youth to open up about his or her dreams and aspirations. Recently, a mentor fostered connection by attending his mentee’s soccer games to demonstrate his commitment. They describe. Mentors regularly explain how the world works, from maintaining friendships to working toward goals. A mentor recently described to her mentee how saving money and earning interest works, then created a job for the child to win a reward by earning play money (and interest) over several weeks. They reveal. Mentors talk about their own professions, hobbies, and passions. They help mentees understand what matters to them and why. This spring, a mentor inspired her mentee by delving into an exciting hobby – off-road vehicles! They notice. Mentors pay attention to find out about their mentee’s interests. They leverage these topics to help the student grow by encouraging essential skills like planning, study, and perseverance. A mentor recently noticed his mentee’s interest in video production. They put together a wonderful short film where they interviewed each other. They coach. When a mentee identifies a goal, mentors help them work toward it by cooperatively identifying important steps. A student recently talked about wanting to learn how to juggle a soccer ball. His mentor demonstrated different techniques, set incremental goals, and offered a reward for success. They highlight. Mentors use examples of people from their own lives and from the community to show how successful individuals use knowledge and skill to reach goals. Over the past two months, a mentor has helped her mentee learn how to solve a Rubik’s Cube by introducing him to a practiced puzzler. Well-trained mentors create opportunities for youth to reach their potential. This is how we bring the inborn talent and interests of youth to their full expression in the future.
Dark Skies Event for Mentors & Students! Moab Dark Skies members have volunteered to take Grand Area Mentoring and BEACON participants to Bar M for a sky gazing extravaganza. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about: • what makes our skies in southeastern Utah so special • our universe and fascinating solar system • interesting phenomena visible with the naked eye and with the help of telescopes. A meteor shower is expected on April 20th too, so don’t miss this chance to wish upon a star! Mentors must make arrangements with parents for pickup and drop-off at HMK (505 N. MiVida Dr). We will gather at 7:45pm for departure via bus by 8:00pm. At Bar M, we will be guided through activities starting at 8:30 and ending by 10. Parents can expect children to be ready for pickup at HMK at 10:30pm. The BLM, volunteer rangers, and the Friends of Arches and Canyonlands Parks are providing this special event. Thank you to all! IMPORTANT: We have space for a total of fourteen Grand Area Mentoring participants. The deadline for registration is end of the day on April 6th. Email grandareamentoring@gmail.com to register. First come, first served. To register, you must already have parent permission (verbal okay) and commitment for transport.
New Mentoring Resource! Mentoring is simple. You spend time with a youth, act as a positive role model, and support his/her strengths. Sure, mentoring is simple, but all kinds of challenges and issues might crop up over the course of your relationship. Grand Area Mentoring staff members are here to help you navigate the journey. As always, give us a call or email if you need assistance. Grand Area Mentoring also just released a new mentor handbook for volunteers. This handbook delves into program policies, mentoring theory and best practices, information about youth today, and other helpful tips. Please find the handbook here. This handbook is a work in progress. We welcome suggestions. Your feedback will help us make this better for you and your future mentoring colleagues. Email comments and suggestions to grandareamentoring@gmail.com
Flight through Failure Failing is part of life, and it’s a critical part of learning. Keep these points in mind as you coach your mentee through the trials and tribulations of childhood and adolescence: • We should fail every day. Only when you operate at the edge of your ability will you find real progress. • Failure is not in falling down. It’s in staying down. • Gemologists identify fake emeralds by finding the stones that look perfect. Real ones have weaknesses and imperfections. Nobody’s perfect. • Worrying about mistakes is a good way to achieve them. • Failure is part of growing. If you don’t fail, you’re probably not challenging yourself enough. • Be bold. Risk failure. Mistakes are part of winning. • The human brain only grows when we reach, fall short, and reach again.