Math Mentoring

EDUCATIONAL ENRICHMENT

Chairperson: June Bjercke

Initial Training Dates: October 16 (SOE) & October 24 (Community Conference)

Mentoring will be starting up in October. We will have a meeting to go over some basics about the mentoring program and some skills you can use with the students, and we’ll also choose grade levels/times.

All mentors must complete a criminal background check to volunteer at Scanlan Oaks.

This year, all volunteers who are mentoring within the school are required to attend  training.

A one-hour training session will take place at SOE at 9:00 am on Thursday, October 16. It would be better if you can attend without young children, but if you have to bring a child please try to provide some activity for them and do attend this training session.

In the event that this time does not work for you, you may attend the mentor training at the Community Conference on October 24.  This workshop is part of the Community Conference and is scheduled for the 11:15 - 12:15 time slot.  If you are interested in attending the rest of the Community Conference, there are sessions that will give you some practical skills for tutoring and mentoring.  There is a $10.00 fee to attend the conference, but the PTO will cover this for you if you are attending the mentoring workshop. This is an excellent chance to learn some new skills and to be able to attend three other sessions given by professionals in their field of expertise.

In addition we will be providing a Math-directed training session providing tips, skills, and strategies, that you can use with your students and your children at home to help them improve their math skills.This training will take place the first week of November and more details will be provided in the next few weeks.

What is math mentoring?  It’s an excellent opportunity for you to help a few students with their math skills and also to build a friendship with those students.  You will be assigned to help a few students with similar math needs two time per week.  Because students come to expect and rely on you, it’s important that you are willing to sign up for the whole year.  Students are very disappointed if their mentor doesn’t show up or decides to quit part way through the year.  In the past, teachers have asked that mentors come twice a week for 20 – 30 minutes each time.