The Main Role as a Mentor - Personal Statement Example

Professional appraisal Professional identity and role I work in tuition centre where we provide educational support for from year to A Level. I as the head of the Maths department work as well as Maths mentor for high school and primary student. I am not a qualified teacher but I have enough experience and passions to teach maths. My role in both positions is about taking responsibility and overseeing how smooth everything is working. I also make sure that all the lessons follow the curriculum and that the staff follows the policies such as not being judgmental toward student regardless of their educational level or behaviour and attitude. The workers need to show empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard with everyone. This is similar to what Roger (1951) said in his work about therapeutic alliance that the therapists need to show congruence, empathy and unconditional positive regard toward their client’s in order to have affective alliance. Likewise, as educational mentors we need to show those aspects toward our student, as not showing them can affect student’s learning outcome. For example, if we don’t provide the same quality support for student due to the difference of their behaviour or educational level, then the outcome of their education or behaviour towards others will be affected. My main role as a mentor is to teach student in groups and teach separately for those who can’t follow the rest of the class having troubles with understanding. As mentors we coach them but not teach them, as they already have a teacher 5 days a week. Also, as the head of the department I am there to support my colleagues and encourage them when they are experiencing challenges from the students. So, if there is any problem with either student or members of the staff, I am the one who makes the decisions in case when the issue is not something big enough to discuss it with the head of the tuition. Professional duties and responsibility My duties and responsibility as the head of maths department are to oversee the ways things are running in the department such as holding monthly meeting, ensuring that every mentor has prepared their lessons, DIL (deal I have learn) test and exams and mark both the DIL test and exams on time. One of my responsibilities as the head of the maths department is to make sure that every mentor has prepared their curriculum before the term is started. Then I have meeting with the mentors and discuss the ways in which we are going to meet the needs of the student with the curriculum we prepare for them, following our code of conduct, policies and boundaries. For example, I arrange a monthly meeting with my follow colleagues where we discuss the progress of the student and their behaviour and attitude toward study as well as any problem we have between each other. As the majority of our staff are student themselves it is my duty to make sure that mentors, including me, are building bonds with each other as well as with students. Also I attend meetings with other head departments and the head of our tuition centre in every 7 weeks where we discuss the outcome of the past 7 weeks and the progress of each department. For example, what went well during the past 7 weeks, what needed to be changed, and we also discuss in a group the issues that each department needs to deal with or the issues which are out of our authorities, as these decisions must be made by the head of tuition. My duty and responsibility as a mentor is to make sure that all students understood their lessons. For example, there are times when all students don’t understand the subject, as their abilities are different. So I have to arrange another individual time for those who don’t understand information. I also prepare the DIL test which we take every month to check the progress of the student and mark it before we have our monthly meeting. Bordin (1979) described the working alliance relationship between a client and a therapist as a collaboration relationship where both of them agreed to form a bond, carry a task and achieve a goal. Similarly, as a mentor I form those bonds, tasks and goals with my colleagues and students. I have those agreements with my students in every term, as every new term there are tasks we agree to finish and goals we need to achieve. For example, at the beginning we agree to study certain chapters of the book and we definitely finish them successfully by the end of the term. During that time we form bonds, which are based on trust and honesty. There is a secure bond between us as sometimes I play a role of counsellor. Every student has their own problems and present issues which they need to tell to someone they can trust. As sometimes I am that figure who they can talk to. They said this helps them to relieve their anxiety and have the confidence to solve their problems. For example, there is one student who I regularly have section with, she said her mother had worked and didn’t have time to speak with her, so she speaks with me. She said it made her relieved from her worries and anxiety. As a member of the staff I have the duty to make sure that all the students’ personal data is confidential and everything we discuss between us is kept in secret. Breaking this confidentiality means break a core of conduct and can have serious consequences. For example, if I break any policies in our organisation, I will get warn first but after the next time I will lose my job. Strengths and weakness As I have being told by my colleagues my strength is being a good team worker. For example, they say I support and encourage my colleagues as their supervisor, listen to their problems and issues and I work hard to make sure that I do my best as the head of the department. And this makes their job easy as well as forms a bond between the team. The consequences of not carrying out my duties as the head of the team will affect the strength of the team, as any team cannot have positive out if leader is not collaborating with the rest of the team. This links to the Bordin’s (1979) working alliance theory which says that the relationships between therapist and client are based on teamwork, as they both contribute their time and hard work to form a bond, carry on task and achieve goals throughout the counselling sections. In the same way as a team we apply those aspects in our working relationships. One of my strongest points is that I am good at the subject I teach. I believe so because my supervisor and student has told me that I’m good at the subject as I have skills which make the subject enjoyable and use methods which make the lessons easy for them to understand. My weakest point (as I was being told by the head of the tuition) is that although I have good relationship with my colleagues I have bad communication skills as I do not replay emails on time or check them on time which effects our communication. Reference Bordin E. S., (1979). The generalizability of the psychoanalytic concept of the working alliance. Psychotherapy (Chic.) 16, 252–260 Read More