Effective communication is the foundational skill of effective mentoring. It lies at the heart of all we do as mentors: accurately discerning our paraeducator’s needs and goals, collaborating to identify and resolve challenges, supporting growth in our para’s (and our own!) practice – all of these activities require effective communication skills to be completed successfully.
Have you ever felt that you and your team were “dancing around” a problem? Or even spending hours “admiring the problem?” Have you sat through hours of meetings with little accomplished? Have you ever offered (or received) advice and discovered later it was not on target? Unit 4 is all about exploring ways to improve our skills in order to become more effective communicators.
Outcomes for Communication Unit:
- discuss the importance of effective communication as the foundation for developing the mentor skills of relationship building and teamwork;
- describe the characteristics and use of the 3 modes of communication in the I-C-F model;
- explore the structure and use the Framework for Reflective Questioning (4A) Framework to support more effective mentoring meetings ; and
- explore the benefits of the use of a collaborative conversation log to conduct more effective meetings