Philosophy:

The primary goal for the HS Mentor block is to continue to develop the relationships our Jr High teachers have developed with students. Teachers are the number one factor that impacts student learning. Hattie (2012), in his book Visible Learning, ranks “teacher-student relationships” as the 12th most influential factors on student achievement out of 150, ranking above things like student centred teaching or study skills instruction, or home environment. As educators and as humans, we know that what matters most in our lifetime development is the relationships we have with those around us. This block is based on the High School Redesign principle of Meaningful Relationships, with the idea that “no student feels anonymous”, that “students see students as mentors”, and that “students are supported in achieving high standards of excellence”. The implementation of this mentor block also allows teachers to fulfill our obligation of Fostering Effective Relationships outlined in the newly published Teaching Quality Standard document (Sept 2019 implementation), specifically by building “positive and productive relationships with students, parents/guardians, peers and others in the school and local community to support student learning.”

 

Structure:

• Students will be assigned to a mentor block and will remain with that group, and with that teacher, throughout their three years of High School.

• Students will be assigned in multi Grade level blocks of about 16 students Grades 10-12.

• The block will be 45 min long Monday to Thursday.

• Attendance will be mandatory for all High School students Grades 10-12.

• All of our announcements, both PA (on Mondays) and website will be done during that block.

• Mondays, students will stay with their mentor block for the whole time.

• Teachers will monitor academic performance, and attendance on a weekly basis (Mondays), unless significant other factors arise which may require other intervention.

• Students will spend the first 10 min. with their mentor teacher (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) for announcements and other business, after which they are allowed to work independently in that classroom, or will ask to connect to/visit with a subject teacher.

• Teachers can also request that students come to see them using the Mentor Block Google Sheet:https://goo.gl/njgjnM

• Mentor teachers will consult the Google Sheet and will enter and monitor attendance for the students in their mentor block.

 

Other considerations:

• Mentor teachers can be the first consultation when students are considering changing courses/future plans i.e. Academic counselling and Career Counselling could begin here.

• Assemblies will occur during this block of time.

• School Council challenges and contests will be organized to use this block (i.e. each each mentor block will determine one day that is their block’s dress up day . . . as a surprise to other Mentor groups)

• Info regarding myPAS, next year course requests, Accountability surveys, etc will also be done during this block.

• Informally, mentor block teachers will help students to identify who they would feel comfortable going to if they needed support? The Mentor teacher could then be their anchor, but also help connect them to their identified support.