focus_contributor.
E D U C AT I O N
UPDATE with NICK JOHNSTONE
FROM BISHOP DRUITT COLLEGE
Grow in 2022 with a mentor
M
entors come in many forms throughout an individual’s life, and you’re never too young to find someone to connect with on key decisions and choices in school, work and life. When I started teaching in 1993, I learned by accident over the first five years that mentors are important for my own career development, and as a leader, to capitalise on the greatest organisational resource, being the ‘human’ resource. Equally important is the role mentoring plays for students as they’re making milestone choices about the person that they are becoming, the path they’re taking, and the choices they’re making. In this article, I thought I would share some key learnings I have gathered from my mentors over the years, and perhaps inspire you to seek a mentor for yourself, or your child, in 2022 and beyond. Believe and invest in yourself Short courses, conferences and degree courses are all fantastic and in the age of Zoom they are so accessible. I have thoughtfully invested in my academic professional career over the years, with one of my mentors expressing to me that it was essential that I invest in myself. What I didn’t realise until recently was that this also meant investing more time with my family and on my health. In the age of social media, my professional learning network has also developed to include building my learnings through
So how do you find the right mentor for LinkedIn and Twitter. Just don’t get lost in these platforms. you? It is also essential to become a reader. I What I have learned is that as your needs try to digest one book per month, mostly grow and evolve, you will need more than professional texts and biographies, but one mentor. Don’t go looking for “the one” studies show it is essential to continue to but instead glean from a host of different read some fiction. people’s attitudes and actions and find a set Look after the small things, and the big of professional mentors that can support you things look after themselves as a critical friend. One of my first mentors shared this piece Firstly, you need of wisdom with to have values that me. I was teaching align with your in a conservative In the age of mentor’s values. If they independent school social media, don’t align then the in Queensland at the my professional relationship is doomed time. He explained that
learning network from the start. The if staff address the little has also developed values I seek relate to things such as how to include building you speak with your mutual respect, trust, my learnings student or focus on compassion, professional through LinkedIn minor uniform issues work ethic and integrity and behavioural issues and Twitter. Just of decision making. then bigger issues don’t get lost in I should also note wouldn’t develop. these platforms. here that your mentor While this address isn’t doesn’t necessarily have strictly true, it did hold to be in the same field true for me in my first or even city as you. decade as a classroom teacher. Secondly, they need to have a desire to Pay it forward help others, an ability to commit to the As you become a leader in whatever relationship, and a willingness to share their profession you desire, I encourage you to also own personal failures and experiences. pay it forward and become a mentor as well. A mentoring relationship is a ‘joint This might be through your workplace, within venture’ that requires both the mentor your wider family unit, through community sport or at your local school. The world is crying out for positive role models to balance the blur from youth platforms such as TikTok.
and mentee to create a meaningful and beneficial relationship, and it takes time and commitment, but it is well worth the effort. COFFS COAST
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