It’s crucial to approach your mentoring relationship with mindfulness to make the most of learning and growth opportunities that present themselves to you, both as an individual and as a mentoring match. One benefit of school-based mentoring is  a set schedule you can prepare for; every school year has a beginning, middle, and end, even if you are reconnecting with your same mentee. Whether it’s your first year mentoring or your tenth, Seedling’s schedule of regular communication with your Mentor Director (MD), as well as monthly trainings are designed to ensure that you are adequately supported throughout the entirety of your mentoring journey.

As your match progresses, check in with yourself to remember why you began mentoring in the first place. What was your motivation? How has that shifted, if at all? Think about how your relationship has progressed so far, and what you’d like to achieve. Now think about all you’ve learned since you began this mentoring relationship – from your trainings, from your mentee – and consider how you can use these bits of information and tools to foster a healthy middle phase.

Here are a few things you can do on your own to help nurture your match as it enters a more comfortable, intermediate stage – we kept it as easy as A, B, C!  

Aim
Check in with your mentee about what their current goals are – these may have changed since the two of you were first matched, and that’s okay! Growth is a good thing. Ask open-ended questions and help your mentee narrow down one or two SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound) goals to aim for and focus on together for the rest of the school year. Have regular check-ins and role model successful goal-setting.

Brush Up
Take advantage of the resources available to you via Seedling and your School Contact (SC) and brush up on your training. If you can’t make it to a training, make sure to read the recap in the Mentor Minute, or follow up with your Mentor Director for a more in-depth discussion on  how the topic can be applicable to your match.

Creativity Sparks Passion
Comfort can be a good thing, it’s reassuring when you’ve finally reached a cadence with your mentee and  you have a routine together. Remember to stay creative about your visits – use some of the games on site or ask your MD for different activity ideas to keep things exciting. New activities give you an opportunity to learn new things about each other and shake things up a bit!

Source:
https://mentoringcentral.net/blog/2024/11/26/tips-to-help-matches-thrive-at-the-mid-point-of-their-mentoring-relationships/?inf_contact_key=411cd5b4a461ee0db6350abd1c3e83fe