Mentor on a Stick
Building authentic mentorship connections in the classroom
Classroom Champions provides many ways for our virtual Olympian, Paralympian, pro, and college athlete mentors to connect with classrooms around social and emotional learning (SEL) topics. These volunteer athletes strive to build and demonstrate social and emotional wellness on a daily basis in both their personal and professional lives — great role models for kids of all ages! Our K-8 curriculum highlights the mentors and their mindsets in the weekly lesson plans, throughout the hundreds of videos, and via classroom connections like virtual updates and video “Live Chats” during the school year. Our teachers talk about their mentors as their teaching partners and, quite endearingly, their students refer to them as their friends.
However, we are always amazed at the creative ways our classrooms further invite their mentors into their daily teaching and learning. During a recent focus group, kindergarten teacher Annette Bacon from Portland, OR, recently shared that her class had bonded further with their mentor — Emily Infeld, a long-distance runner competing for Team USA — due to their beloved “mentor on a stick.” What’s that you ask?
How to make one
A mentor on a stick is a concrete way to help kids visualize their virtual mentor’s presence in their classroom. Annette began by printing out two images of Emily. She cut out the headshots and then sandwiched them back to back with a ruler (or craft stick) in between as the stick to hold, and voila … mentor on a stick!
Annette shared that Emily’s personalized mentor on a stick was yet another way for her kindergarteners “to interact” with Emily. She wanted to underscore how her classroom’s mentor was another adult, another person, in the kids’ lives whom they can continue to lean on and learn from.
Annette described how this year she put a twist on her mentor on stick idea by having one side show a smiling Emily and the other side depicting a more serious photo. Annette grinned as she said she often floats around the room “with Emily.” She shared that she uses the smiling side to praise and encourage kids, and the more stoic side as a reminder of “Hey, I’m watching you,” or a teasing “Are you serious?”
“It’s a way for me to show the kids, ‘Hey, she’s here with you.’” — Annette Bacon, kindergarten teacher
While she depends on Emily’s mentor on a stick as her own teaching buddy, she does imagine that students could make their own mentor on a stick and use it during some role play or pretend play activities to build even more connections.
The role of mentors
And Annette didn’t even realize how timely her shared idea is! Established in 2002, January is National Mentoring Month (read President Biden’s proclamation):
- January 7 — I am a Mentor Day
- January 17 — International Mentoring Day
- January 21 — Thank Your Mentor Day
While The International Mentoring Association wasn’t formed until 1988, mentoring goes back to the Ancient Greeks, with Homer mentioning the role of a mentor as a character in The Odyssey. According to Mentoring.com:
- Students who meet regularly with their mentors are 52% less likely than their peers to skip a day of school and 37% less likely to skip a class. (Public/Private Ventures Study of Big Brothers Big Sisters)
- Young adults who face an opportunity gap but have a mentor are 55% more likely to be enrolled in college than those who did not have a mentor. (The Mentoring Effect, 2014)
- In addition to better school attendance and a better chance of going on to higher education, mentored youth maintain better attitudes toward school. (The Role of Risk, 2013)
Take a moment to reflect and think about who has served as a mentor for you personally or professionally throughout your life. We know that you, our teachers, serve as mentors daily, but the more mentors, the better! Consider ways to introduce your students to other mentors who can serve as inspiring role models for our youngest dreamers. Consider signing up for a free trial of Classroom Champions today.
