Learn How Peer Mentoring Can Make Your School An Exciting Place To Work

One of the most vital issues that working professionals face in any sector is how they start finding work uninteresting after a period. This sense of detachment only surfaces when the work is monotonous and involves the same group of people.

Teaching, for example, is a profession that involves working in a similar environment and interacting with similar sets of people on a daily basis. This can naturally get boring for a few. Amidst the attention that the corporate sector gets regarding these issues, we have unfortunately left the teachers behind.

One of the essential ways of dealing with this kind of boredom and loneliness is interaction with peers, but the interaction that is non-specific only provides a sense of gratification for the short term. To really do something that is worth spending the time and will give educators a sense of achievement and pride is to mentor someone and bring him/her at par with yourself.

Take two colleagues for example, who might work at a similar designation and yet have vast differences in their knowledge and work experience. One individual might be an avid reader while the other is stuck with the amount of knowledge that he/she has gained during his/her academic journey. Now, as a senior, mentoring can be at different levels depending upon your capabilities and the need of the disciple.

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Below, we have shared some important ways in which you can initiate Peer Mentoring:

1. You can provide skill classes for useful online tools. If you are a tech-savvy educator, you can provide your comrades with updates on the latest technology trends.
2. You can share advice on maintaining discipline in the class and how to promote order if your disciple is a fresher.
3. You can share a different teaching methodology for a subject or a particular topic, for example, teaching history through visualization is much better than a simple narration of the event.
4. You can help a fellow subject teacher understand the matter deeply by providing extra research resources (books, surveys, websites, TED Talks, etc.)
5. And finally, you can always initiate retrospection in your disciple so he/she can bring out the best in them.

These are some interesting ways in which you can create a happy and learning environment for your peers/juniors You can even launch a practice that may inspire others to follow in your footsteps and create a positive learning environment in the teachers' group.

Now, let's talk about some advantages of Peer Mentoring in a school setting:

1. Makes new recruits comfortable: The issues new teachers face in adjusting with older members and their work culture can also be addressed positively through peer mentoring, where each experienced teacher can choose a new team member to mentor.
2. Promotes healthy human interaction: The advent of social media that provides an unnatural way to curb loneliness has taken over our lives. It is evident how people in an office might turn to their mobile phones during breaks rather than having a hearty conversation with each other. Peer mentoring/collaboration can truly change that.
3. Cure for loneliness: Loneliness at the workplace can also be addressed through active peer collaboration and learning as the involved educators will be continuously engaged in helping each other grow, leaving no room for someone to feel lonely.

The psychological effect of feeling isolated is a bane and can develop depressive tendencies. Being able to help someone and to know that your peers are ready to support you will automatically create a feeling of belonging. Discussing each other's setbacks without judgement at the lunch table will also develop a sense of trust among the colleagues.

ScooNews believes that it is beneficial to practice Peer Mentoring in schools so that it becomes a knowledge space not only for the students but also for the ones given the responsibility to impart knowledge in them.

Image Courtesy: sankalpsmartschool.com

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