Teacher Information
What is GrandAM?
GrandAM recruits, trains, and invites responsible, thoroughly screens adults to work with our kids. It’s about bridging the gap between the adult and child worlds, focusing on academics, relationships, goals, and student support.
What do mentors do with students?
- Homework
- Projects
- Reading
- Tutoring
- Activities
- Educational/challenging games
Mentors are encouraged to make relationship-building a high priority. This means they advise, share with, and talk to their mentees.
What is mentoring supposed to achieve?
Mentoring is supposed to make students feel supported and become better citizens. Empirical studies have found that effective mentoring makes students:
- 96% less likely to drop out of school
- 46% less likely to use drugs
- 52% less likely to skip school
- 37% less likely to skip class
- 33% less prone to violence: i.e. “less likely to use hitting to deal with problems”
Mentoring is about letting students feel more confident and cared for by building relationships with honest, creative, helpful adults. It’s about filling the gaps for the students who need it.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: A recent study has found that mentoring helps students have better relationships with their parents! This, in turn, helps students do better at school, take part in social activities, and get along with their teachers, peers, and other adults.
What should I include in a referral?
We like to know a little something about the student’s personality and ability, like:
- Attitude
- Demeanor
- Ability to communicate
- Do they have role-models in their lives already?
- Your opinion on whether they will be open to a new relationship with an adult
- Do they have parental support?
- Where do they struggle (academic subjects, social difficulty, friends, ESL, etc.)?
Also, please answer all the referral questions to the best of your ability and be as thorough as possible.
Where are the referral forms?
School secretaries can show you where the referral forms are. Usually they are located in the work/teacher room. Or click here for a PDF: STUDENT REFERRAL
When do students and mentors meet?
Because this is an in-school program, meetings must take place during the school day or adjacent to after-school activities. We ask that mentors and students meet once per week, for approximately one hour. At the Middle School, this will primarily take place during 7th period, the Elective period. At HMK ande Red Rock, teachers must collaborate with GrandAM and the mentor to figure out when each student can be taken out of class. Remember, it’s for less than an hour and might give one child the role model that they don’t have in their life. Just once a week!
I ask you to imagine growing up with few caring adults in your life. Then consider the value of spending one hour per week with an adult confidant, tutor, listener, friend whoreally cares. The total value of this one hour, I’m absolutely convinced, is far greater than the instruction that any student might miss in a fifty minute block.
Plus the mentors can help with classwork!
Can I send classwork/homework with the student to be done during the mentoring sessions?
Yes. BUT… don’t have expectations that it will all get done. It’s the relationship itself that produces results, not the amount of material the mentor can cram into the student’s head. Essentially, if you support the relationship, more work will get done. Both inside and outside of the relationship.
How long does the relationship last?
We ask that mentors and students commit to at least a year. Ideally the relationship lasts longer and will support the student through many years to come.
Do you train and prepare the students too?
Yes. Students are prepared to be mentored with a short orientation and training session. They are familiarized with the policies and procedures of GrandAM while also readied for and knowledgeable of what to expect during mentoring sessions or field trips.
Can I volunteer as a mentor or in some other way?
If you are going to be a mentor, we will need to figure out which after-school program you could participate in with your mentee, and at which school. It might also be possible to mentor at another school as part of their tutoring program.
Or you can help in other ways. Please see the list below:
- Encourage your friends to become a mentor. Or give us their name/number and we’ll flatter them by saying they’ve been recommended to us as a great potential mentor.
- Make a donation. Yes, we’re funded by a grant, but the funds are restricted. In other words, we can’t afford all the components of a successful program
Thank you for being part of the wonderful district team, and please contact us with any further comments or questions.