This term, I had the opportunity to work with a teacher-in-training at Concordia University, David Nguyen. I began the experience with an open mind. I had been through teacher training myself, and I remembered what it was like to be new at teaching. In fact, when I began teaching, I viewed it as a job that I could do to make money, using my existing education and skills. I didn't think at that time that I would ever be a teacher mentor; so, it's something that I ended up falling into.
I remembered my teacher trainers are people who were open to ideas, who wanted to guide toward being an autonomous individual in my profession. I also remember them giving me a lot of specific tasks that I had to do in order to reach that goal.
Throughout this experience, I got to see how I would act in that role. One of the greatest challenges for me throughout this process (although it sounds kind of funny) was to not talk too much. I've become quite passionate about teaching and about sharing ideas, but it can result in me over-sharing ideas without listening to the other person. I had to learn to maintain
a balance between giving David my own ideas and fostering the ideas that he had. I had the chance to further develop my own skills of listening, asking catalytic questions, and engaging in collaborative feedback sessions. I also realized some things about myself in the way that I react to other people and deal with difficult situations.
Overall, we might be tempted to view mentorship as the mentor "helping" the mentee. Although the nature of the role is that the mentee is working toward developing their practice, and the mentor is a facilitator in that process, I cannot stress enough that both parties gain equally from engaging in the process. While the individual skills that are worked on might be different, both the mentor and the mentee work toward self-realization and actualization, in a mutually collaborative dynamic.