Course Syllabus

OSPI: Online Mentor Roundtable, 2016-2017

Instructor: Kjell Stroomer-Rowe; NBCT, OSPI BEST Mentor Faculty, PhD       

Email: kstroomer@hotmail.com                               

Overview

This online Mentor Roundtable provides a foundation in the work of mentoring in educational settings. We will explore mentoring, largely defined by Lipton & Wellman in Mentoring Matters, as we look at what we do through offering support, creating challenge, facilitating professional vision and how we do it through the mentoring stances of coach, collaborate, consult. Through readings and interactive discussion forums, participants will engage with literature on coaching and mentoring. Participants will discuss and practice a variety of specific mentoring strategies and skills – including establishing new mentoring relationships, goal setting, conducting classroom observations, and engaging in reflective conversations.

Mentor Roundtable Objectives

Through this Mentor Roundtable, participants will be able to:

• articulate basic knowledge about adult professional learning;
• examine different coaching roles (offering support, creating challenge, facilitating professional vision) and mentoring stances (coach, consult, collaborate) and articulate rationale and benefits for each one;
• plan and implement cycles for reflective practice and observations for mentoring individual teachers;
• develop and practice mentoring strategies (e.g. ways to form mentoring relationships, setting agreements for mentoring, observing and responding to instruction, designing appropriate goals and strategies)

All readings available on Canvas and/or in Mentoring Matters by Laura Lipton & Bruce Wellman.  You must have a copy of Mentoring Matters in order to participate in this online Mentor Roundtable. 

About this Remote Mentor Roundtable

This Roundtable consists of 8 “meetings,” designed to be completed within a month-long span. You can earn up to 16 clock hours (2 clock hours per session) for full participation.  You may work at your own pace throughout each month, though Discussion Forum postings are due at certain times. You should complete the required readings before posting on the Discussion Forum.

Each Roundtable culminates with a required Discussion Forum. You must contribute one original post by Thursday, 11 p.m. PST, and at least two comments on peers’ posts by no later than the following Thursday, 11 p.m. PST (see discussion board schedule for details on specific dates). The Discussion Forum will be closed to new posts after the deadline, though you will still be able to read your peers’ responses throughout the course.

Format of this Mentor Roundtable

For each of the 8 online sessions, the format (which you will see on the Discussion Boards for each month) is as follows: 1) Essential questions frame the topic.  2) Depending on the session, you'll learn by: reading text, watching a video, or reading a scenario.  3) Write a response to selected questions on the Discussion forum.  4) Respond to 2 peers' responses on the Discussion forum. 

Discussion Forums—more information!

Regular, timely participation in the Discussion Forums is a vital component of this online class. In a traditional in-person Mentor Roundtable, students have the opportunity to interact directly with each other, sharing ideas, opinions and information relating to the course materials. The online Discussion Forums serve a similar purpose. They are a way for you to connect with other mentors while at the same time expressing your thoughts about mentoring that do not necessarily have "right" or "wrong" answers. Writing often helps to clarify one’s thinking, too. So, that’s another goal of the Discussion Forums. For each Discussion Forum, specific prompts and guidelines for length will be provided. Here are a few more guidelines:

• I recommend drafting your response offline, as you may otherwise lose your writing due to connectivity issues. Save an offline copy of your post.
• Double-check your spelling and grammar before posting – but keep in mind that discussion forum entries are meant to be part of a conversation, not formal written assignments.
• Please try to stick to the suggested length for each post! Remember that your peers will be reading what you’ve written, and time is short.
• Please use “netiquette” when responding to your peers. Be collegial and supportive.
• Please keep in mind that posts are due by a certain time every two weeks; after the deadline on Thursday evening at 11 p.m., that forum will no longer be open for posting. However, you may still read through your peers’ posts at any point in the course.

To contribute your Original Post for each lesson, you should respond to the instructor’s post (rather than creating your own). This will allow all of your Original Posts to show up neatly, in the same “thread”. I have found that this is the most organized way to proceed on a forum!

When returning to the Forum before Thursday night to respond to your peers, simply click “Reply” to their specific post.

For Discussion Forum posts, please:

1. follow guidelines for prompts and length of posts
2. contribute by the stated deadlines
3. use “Netiquette”

Technology Requirements

This course uses some streaming media. It is helpful to have easy access to a computer with strong internet capabilities and a high-speed internet connection, since you will be expected to stream video from online sources.

Software/Hardware

The standard software to use during this course is:

• Microsoft OFFICE 2007 or higher (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Adobe Reader 9 or higher

Clock Hours

Up to 16 clock hours are available for full participation in all on-line discussions, readings, and exercises.