Mentoring Curriculum
Mentor: Teacher, Friend, Confidant, Supporter
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One way to give back to the interpreting community is to mentor the next generation. Let's send new interpreters out into the community with the confidence, skills, and sense of ethics necessary to serve the
deaf community well.
Fall Curriculum
This 60+ page flexible curriculum is perfect for Fall semester of an Interpreter Training Program (ITP). Or, if you are mentoring a novice interpreter, these activities are perfect for some purposeful practice. Let ASL Terp Prep take the stress and worry out of planning for you...shop our curriculum today and be ready to mentor tomorrow!
Spring Curriculum
The Spring Curriculum is currently being created! It will tie into the Fall curriculum and will offer different practice videos, different activities, and new ethical scenarios to discuss with your mentee.
What is a Mentor?
Some of you may feel ready to be a mentor, and some of you may feel like you have imposter syndrome and don’t know what you have to offer. Whatever you’re feeling is ok! Mentoring comes in all different shapes and forms, and in fact may look different every time you take on a new mentee. That’s because mentoring is a relationship—each situation is different and each person brings something unique to the relationship.
Before we dive into the curriculum, let’s take a moment to discuss what mentoring is, what it can look like, mentoring philosophies, and the benefits of mentoring.
WHAT IS IT?
We begin by asking the generic question of what mentoring is. A mentor is someone in a career field that shares their knowledge and experience with someone interested in learning more or improving their own skills. According to Google, a mentor “may share with a mentee (or I) information about his or her own career path, as well as provide guidance, motivation, emotional support, and role modeling. A mentor may help with exploring careers, setting goals, developing contacts, and identifying resources.”
Often, people assume that you have to be an expert in the field, a Master-level interpreter, to become a mentor. Every interpreter has skills, schema, and experience that can help another aspiring interpreter, or an interpreter seeking improvement or encouragement. Mentors need to understand how to interpret, yes, but they also need to understand how to reach the mentee and what their needs are.
CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE MENTOR:
-Supportive
-Willing
-Aware of their role
-Communicative
-A guide, not always a “teacher”
-Flexible
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-Excerpt from ASL Terp Prep, LLC Fall Mentoring Curriculum
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Why is a Mentor Valuable?
Whichever type of mentoring you decide to use, Type 1 (teacher-student) or Type 2 (peer mentoring) [or at times a combination of both], keep in mind that when the mentee drives the mentoring process, both participants will be excited and will gain from the experience.
Mentorships are different from the school experience because they are created with the mentee in mind; focusing on what the mentee would like to improve upon, and helping them achieve their specific goals is one of the perks of forming a mentorship. As long as you are keeping in mind what the mentee needs, are adapting to their goals as they change over time, and are aware of when they need a more direct, hands-on approach as opposed to a hands-off approach, you’re setting yourself and your mentee up for success!