The Professor's Apprentice

#mentors #mentoring

Everybody needs:

1. A mentor about the same age as you
2. A mentor two to four years older than you
3. A mentor much more senior than you

What I know for sure is that all of the best mentors in my life have shown up unexpectedly. They each came into my life at the perfect time. In the beginning I was never aware of how badly I needed these dear guardians to show me my way. Now I understand what a gift their presence in my life has been. 

Some of my mentors have shown up as old friends, people with whom I share common interests, similar pathways, and a bit of history. These mentors validate my experience, they provide me with friendship, understanding, and compassion. They tell me I am not alone on my journey. Most importantly they remind me of who I have been in the past and who I am today.

Others walk a few steps in front of me. They are the ones who say “I’ve been there, and I’ve lived to tell about it”. As they blaze new trails in hot pursuit of their passions, they lead me into blazing new pathways of my own. They understand my plight, my responsibility, and my fear, and they promise me I will make it to the other side of the rainbow. Most days I believe them.

And then there are a very special few who have become my most sacred and cherished guardians. These magical people have the power to accompany me each day, in mind, body, and spirit as I navigate myself through the world. These mentors have reached my core and have validated all that they see as being a part of me.

My purpose.

My connection.

My light. 

These mentors have rocked my world. They have given me special access, gotten me into top secret circles, and proven the impossible, possible. They have introduced, networked, and broke all the rules. Most inspiring of all they have risked, they have followed the white rabbit down the proverbial hole… twice. My greatest teachers. My allies. My Elders. My wise counsel. Each day they show me courage, love, kindness, and the stillness of patience. 

- Lindy Garneau, The Professor’s Apprentice 

Who are your best mentors?

livingintotransformation:

HAPPY is an award-winning, feature-length documentary that takes us on a journey from the swamps of Louisiana to the slums of Kolkata in search of what really makes people happy. Combining real life stories of people from around the world and powerful interviews with the leading scientists in happiness research, HAPPY brings to life the science and application of the film’s themes.

The field of psychology’s preoccupation with dysfunction produced approximately 40,000 labels identifying what is wrong with people (dysfunction) and only 4,000 labels addressing what is right about individuals. In an examination of 100 years of literature published in psychology, there are 8,000 articles on anger, 58,000 on anxiety, 71,000 on depression and only 850 articles on joy, 3,000 on happiness, and 5,700 on life satisfaction (The Gallup Organization, 2010).

http://www.thehappymovie.com/educational/

I have a picture of a quote from Rita Schiano that reads “Talking about our problems is our greatest addiction. Break the habit. Talk about your joys”. Positive psychology is about understanding our greatest joys and happiness. I believe in focusing on the things in life that make us the happiest, that bring out the best in us, and that make us feel grateful. To me, this is the best way to approach life. However, as we can see from the above note our society tends to focus more time and resources on the areas of life that deal with dysfunction rather than on areas of well-being.

Imagine what could happen if educators were to create their courses based on the teachings and values of positive psychology? Imagine what could happen if students had a better understanding of what they are really good at and what brings them joy in their lives? How could shifting the way we teach  impact the learning journey’s of the students we interact with everyday? How could this shift impact our lives, both inside and outside the classroom?

Positive psychology is the exploration of possibility and the understanding of the power of YES! in your life. It opens doors and creates transformational learning environments. Check out this movie. Check out the education guideline. Be aware that the word education, means to draw out.

How can positive psychology and the principles of coaching support you in truly educating students? 

- Living into Transformation

livingintotransformation:

Academic coaching is slowly gaining popularity in colleges and universities both in Canada and in the United States. However, permanent funding for this student service is rare. Most academic coaching programs are pilot-project based and operate out of already established student services departments such as counselling and access centres. Much like admissions and recruitment offices focus on recruiting additional students to the institution, academic coaching focuses on the retention of students.

Working with an academic coach provides students with the tools to explore their goals, wishes, and dreams as they relate to their academic journey and career interests. Students are coached through the obstacles that get in the way of living their best post-secondary experience. Students are coached through fear, doubt, and uncertainly and into a place of empowerment and confidence. This process can have a huge positive impact on the overall student experience.

Academic coaching still has a long way to go in terms of securing funding and establishing itself as a stand-alone essential student service. Until this can be done I encourage students to enquire about the possibility of working with an academic coach at their Office of Student Services.

Alternatively, students can hire their own academic coach. I suggest checking out Living into Transformation: Professional & Academic Coaching Services ;)

- Living into Transformation

I could have used a guide like this two years ago. I was researching student engagement in a PSE program I had been helping to co-build. For about a 6 week period my research colleague and I met with students over lunch and asked them about their first year experience. I took notes on our conversations and created lists of the main factors that kept coming up in each conversation. My colleague and I discussed and analysed these notes. From the analysis a report was written. The report helped us to better understand the students we serve, however the knowledge gained never went beyond us and the work we did together. Having a guide to follow as part of teaching and learning practices would have made a difference to our research project and the way it was performed and reported.

Going forward, I’m glad we now have a guide to help inform good research.

- Lindy Garneau, The Professor’s Apprentice

Research Teaching and Student Outcomes in Postsecondary Education: A Guide is a new resource produced by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) in collaboration with McMaster University’s Centre for Leadership in Learning and the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, and is endorsed by the Canadian Association of College and University Student Services (CACUSS). The free, 40-page online guide serves as an introduction to research methods and techniques that foster innovation and evaluation of practices to improve student success. Created to provide an entry point for people interested in engaging as researchers and evaluators of PSE outcomes, the guide will be of particular interest to college and university professors and educational developers seeking innovative approaches to enhanced learning, program administrators, student service providers, and others interested in effective teaching and learning and student success.

livingintotransformation:

It is simply impossible to become a great leader without being a great communicator. I hope you noticed the previous sentence didn’t refer to being a great talker – big difference. 

- Mike Myatt, Contributor at Forbes Magazine

To be a great educator or to be a great coach one must also be a great communicator. This means listening more then you speak and truly understanding the emotions and feelings of the people around you. When you do speak, your words hold the dreams, wishes, and aspirations of others and only than do your ideas resonate and take hold of people, because you are communicating to them what they already know to be true. This is the mark of great leadership. 

- Living into Transformation  

This fall Nipissing University is providing all first-year business students with an iPad. Also getting an iPad are students enrolled in the Criminal Justice program and the Nursing program as part of a new pilot project.

Why is this seriously cool?

Using iPads opens up a range of new opportunities, including reading electronic textbooks, taking electronic lecture notes, and completing tests electronically, which reduces the cost of books and supplies for students and significantly reduces paper usage, helping the environment. In addition, the School of Business has been working with Nipissing’s Centre for Flexible Teaching and Learning, and University Technology Services to identify teaching strategies and applications (apps) that will yield measurable benefits for students and instructors. One useful app that was identified is Evernote, which allows students to create notebooks from a variety of online sources including text, photos, videos and audio recordings. The DocAs app, which allows for more advanced note taking, like PDF annotation and audio, as well as wireless printing is another promising app for the iLearn project.

- News Room, Nipissing U

I can’t help but wonder how having an iPad back when I was completing my undergrad would have impacted me. Back then most people didn’t even have cell phones. Today technology rules the world, and apparently now, the classroom too. 

It kind of makes me want to go out and buy an iPad 3. No - I will wait till the iPad 4 comes out.

- Lindy Garneau, The Professor’s Apprentice

#education #teaching #learning #highereducation #academia

RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student — pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher — pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: Be self-disciplined — this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

RULE EIGHT: Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: “We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” (John Cage)

HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything — it might come in handy later.

Here are some of the highlights:

1. Take a deep breath, rise to the challenge, and know that every college student has been just as terrified during that first week. 

2. Make notes about questions the material prompts. If you don’t have any questions, you haven’t read carefully enough. Your teacher is striving to make himself understood, but it’s rare that everyone in the class understands their new teacher’s words through and through.

3. Right from the start, try to see your teacher as an ally in your work, not an adversary.

4. Make sure to get a syllabus for each course that fully details course expectations and grading policies. Also, make certain you thoroughly read every syllabus and ask professors to clarify any part of the syllabus/class requirements you do not understand. Keep each syllabus in a safe/easy to reach place.

5. Do not miss any of the classes the first week.

In the future the most successful people will not be found in the established business companies of today. Technology is changing so fast that within five years the top jobs of today will be obsolete. Upstart, a company that in exchange for a percentage of future profits will financially-back the entrepreneurial projects of university graduates, recognizes this shift in the world of work and is helping to create opportunities for graduates to build their own companies. Upstart is an example of how society is moving towards creativity and innovation as the new standard in the business world of the future over the cookie cutter jobs of yesterday. By making entrepreneurship a real financial possibility for graduates Upstart has the ability to transform the way graduates look for work post-graduation, from job hunting into business creating.  

- Lindy Garneau, The Professor’s Apprentice   

A dream of mine is to create a university based on creativity and self-discovery. Timothy Cook, a 27 year old man has already established his own post-secondary institution for students coming from low income families who do not wish to pursue post-secondary education through the traditional route. His vision is supported by academics across the country. All he needs now is accreditation. The goal is for this institution to be granting 4 year degrees by 2014. I read about Timothy’s story and I think - big dreams do come true.  

- Lindy Garneau, The Professor’s Apprentice