Excellence in Mentoring
February 10, 2021
Seedling
Navigating Tough Conversations

Navigating Tough Conversations

Has your mentee ever asked you a question or brought up a topic you found difficult to discuss? How prepared are you to have difficult conversations with your mentee? Topics like sex, politics, drugs or religion can be hard to talk about, especially with children....

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How to Be An Ally – Training Recap

How to Be An Ally – Training Recap

As mentors, we are often matched with mentees who have different lived experiences than our own. By using empathy and youth-centered approaches to mentoring, we can build our allyship skills. To do this, we must first understand what it means to be an ally. It’s...

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Let’s Grow Together

Let’s Grow Together

Human development is a lifelong process of physical, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional growth and change.  As our mentee grows and learns new things each year, it is important for mentors to keep up!  Understanding our mentee’s current developmental stage is...

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The Seedling Mentor Portal

The Seedling Mentor Portal

Using the Mentor Portal is a requirement for mentoring with Seedling.  Your Mentor Director sent you a link when you had your first visit. If you no longer have the link, simply ask your Mentor Director to resend it to you; they’ll be happy to do so. You can sign in...

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Seedling Nurturing

Seedling Nurturing

I have a super handy app on my iphone, a life saver for any novice who enjoys growing plants. It is my go-to if my beloved flora is looking droopy or sad. All I have to do is pull up the app, snap a picture and presto, a specific Rx pops up to tell me how to care for...

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Managing Stress

Managing Stress

It seems like are constantly navigating extreme uncertainty.  The hyper vigilance of staying safe, piloting constant change, and the effects of isolation and loneliness all take a toll.  Fears and insecurity can create chronic stress which negatively impacts mental...

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It’s Important

It’s Important

Given the significant social, environmental, and political events of the past year, it may feel like it’s more important now than ever to spend time with your mentee simply talking about their feelings to process all of the changes we’re experiencing. We always...

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Ready, Set, Goals!

Ready, Set, Goals!

It is heartwarming to reconnect with our mentees each school year.  The feeling that bubbles up when we see their face appear for that first meeting of the school year is nothing short of delightful.   Seeing their face and hearing how they are doing feels like a long...

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Talking About Current Events

Talking About Current Events

We were all shaken by the acts of violence that took place January 6, 2021 in Washington D.C. and at several state capitals across the nation.  The violent actions left a significant impact on us as a nation and as individuals and may lead to continued conversations...

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Fighting Racism Through Mindfulness

Fighting Racism Through Mindfulness

Jill Suttie of Greater Good Magazine, interviews Law Professor Rhonda Magee on how mindfulness-based awareness and compassion is key to racial justice work.  For more than two decades Professor Rhonda Magee has worked to address issues of race, racism, and...

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Somatic Experiencing and Mentoring

Somatic Experiencing and Mentoring

“The super-power of human kind is our capacity to connect; it is regulating, rewarding, and the major route by which we can teach, coach, parent, heal, mentor and learn.” Dr. Bruce Perry At Seedling we often refer to our mentors as having “super powers.”  You have...

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Talking about Incarceration

Talking about Incarceration

Have you ever considered what it might be like for your mentee to have communication with their incarcerated or deported parent?  Maybe it is only through letters, an infrequent phone call, or on rare occasions talking on a phone while looking at one another...

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Mentoring and the Art of Validation

Mentoring and the Art of Validation

When little people are overwhelmed by big emotions, it is our job to share our calm, not join their chaos”  -L.R. Knost As Seedling mentors, our goal is to be a trusted friend, boost our mentee’s positive self-esteem and safeguard their opportunity to thrive!...

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Politics Anyone?

Politics Anyone?

Presidential elections always come with a bit of apprehension, but this year’s upcoming election carries significantly more heated rhetoric and tension. In recent years, psychologists and child experts have repeatedly documented how political discourse has had a...

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Talking With Your Mentee About Being Online

Talking With Your Mentee About Being Online

Mentoring provides you the unique opportunity to facilitate a conversation with your mentee about their online experiences. A conversation with your mentee doesn’t have to revolve exclusively around internet safety, but can also help them learn how to better navigate...

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Encouraging a Growth Mindset

Encouraging a Growth Mindset

Mindset describes the way people view ability and talent.  In her research and work on the mindset of psychological traits, Psychologist Carol S. Dweck identified 2 types of mindsets, fixed and growth. People with a fixed mindset believed their intelligence and...

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Mentoring & Social Justice

Mentoring & Social Justice

Seedling Mentoring is a journey that encourages persistence in acquiring new information and skills.  Learning to promote social justice, to understand institutional oppression, and how to dismantle implicit biases and racism prepares mentors to be an upstander for...

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Solidifying Mentor & Mentee Connections

Solidifying Mentor & Mentee Connections

In the midst of the holiday season, mentors might wonder how the health of their relationships with their mentees may fair over the time that they don’t meet. Mentoring expert Jean Rhodes (2017) says that “it’s important to consider [a child’s] capacity for...

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Attachment and Mentoring

Attachment and Mentoring

Attachment is described by psychologists as an “enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space.” Though attachment is a term used mostly in infancy, its presence and importance can be seen throughout the lifespan. For children who...

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How To Support Young People

How To Support Young People

We all need support in life. And supporting youth is especially important as they go through the ups and downs of growing up. Often young people turn to their parents and peers for support, but at other times they seek help from other adults in their life. So what’s...

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Growth Mindset Builds Resilience

Growth Mindset Builds Resilience

In order to promote Growth Mindset, parents, teachers, and mentors were advised to encourage effort instead of achievement. The part that often gets lost is that the effort that is encouraged should be the effort that includes two important points; exploration of...

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Relationships Build Resilience

Relationships Build Resilience

A primary goal of the Seedling mentor program is supporting students in building resilience. As mentors, sometimes we find ourselves asking if what we are doing has impact. Is it actually beneficial to our mentee? New research being conducted at Search Institute finds...

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Six Ways To Positively Respond To Youth

Six Ways To Positively Respond To Youth

March for Our Lives, on March 24, 2018, was one of the biggest youth protests since the Vietnam War. On June 30, 2018, more than 600 marches occurred throughout the country protesting the separation of immigrant families entering the U.S. We are seeing more and more...

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Qualities Of A Good Role Model

Qualities Of A Good Role Model

Youngsters usually benefit from having a relationship with someone older and wiser to mentor them. Although the mentor might be a teacher, family member or more experienced peer, not everyone is suitable to be an influential, positive role model. Effective role models...

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