Back-to-School Mentoring Activity Guide for Stronger Relationships
Posted by eporter on August 26, 2024
Back-to-School Mentoring Activity Guide for Stronger Relationships
Though mentors are often not directly involved in their mentees’ schooling, they can play an impactful role behind the scenes to help their mentee feel connected at school, attend class regularly, and boost their grades.
Mentors can promote positive academic outcomes in their mentee by strategically suggesting activities to do together that support their mentee’s academic goals. To maximize the academic benefits of mentoring for mentees, matches should choose a blend of activities to do together that emphasize promoting a growth mindset (i.e., a mentee’s belief that they can grow and learn), goal setting and planning, and school engagement.
Below, we have provided tips and activity suggestions to help matches make the most of the upcoming school year.
Tips for activity planning
- Make sure the mentee is involved. Mentees may feel valued, more engaged, and trust their mentor more when they play an active part in planning match activities. Mentors should ask their mentee if they have ideas for activities to do together and consider their mentees’ opinions during the planning process.
- Consider the match’s goals. Many matches establish goals for themselves early in the mentoring relationship, and match activities are a great opportunity to support these goals. We suggest brainstorming and choosing activities that support the mentee’s individual goals, such as goals to learn a new language or make more friends, and/or the match’s goals, such as establishing more trust in the relationship.
- Explore the mentee’s interests. Asking a mentee about their interests not only helps mentors show their mentees that they care about their values and interests, but it can also make the process of planning activities easier. Mentors should ask their mentee about their interests, what they like to do in their free time, and what activities or hobbies they are interested in trying. Shared interests provide opportunities for connection and conversation for matches, while differing interests give matches opportunities to teach one another new information or skills.
Activities for the start of the year
If a mentor and mentee do not know each other well at the beginning of a new school year, it is important to take time to learn about one another. Whether a match is well acquainted yet or not, the beginning of the school year is a time to help mentees set clear goals for themselves, so they choose practical steps to work towards those goals throughout the year.
- Make an “All About Us” collage. Mentors and mentees can each bring photos that represent their own interests and backgrounds to create one cohesive collage that displays both their individual attributes as well as their match’s togetherness. Collages may be a great way to get to know one another or to catch each other up on their summer activities after time spent apart between school years.
- Write a “bucket list” for the upcoming school year. Matches can list specific activities and events that they hope to experience during the coming school year to build hope, motivation, and excitement for the future.
- Encourage mentees to teach mentors activities they are skilled at. When mentors ask mentees to teach them an activity that the mentee enjoys and/or are good at doing, mentors can get to know their mentee better, while also showing that they value their mentee’s interests and skills.
- Create a vision board together. A vision board is a great way to visualize the important goals and aspirations that the match has for the school year. Mentors and mentees can attach photos and inspirational quotes to their board to motivate themselves.
Activities to do at any point in the school year
Once a match has set their goals for the year, mentors should continue to plan activities that support their mentee’s individual goals as well as their match’s goals for mentoring. When planning match activities to do, mentors should aim to motivate, support, and listen to their mentee for better outcomes.
- Draw a map of the mentee’s school. Having a mentee draw a map of their school, and point out their favorite and least favorite parts of the school may help mentors keep up with what their mentee may be struggling with at school and where they are thriving. For example, a mentee may point out that they love their music classroom or the gymnasium, but they do not enjoy their math class or socializing in the lunchroom.
- Write a card or create a gift together for teachers. Writing notes or making gifts for a teacher or staff member at school may help mentees show gratitude for their learning and the help they have received.
- Role play situations at school. If a mentee finds it difficult to get along with someone at school or struggles to make friends, mentors and mentees can act out conversations and situations together that may help the mentee feel confident and understand what to do in tough situations.
- Read class books together. Mentors can read the same books that their mentee has been assigned to read. Then, they can discuss their thoughts and feelings about the book.
- Attend a school-hosted event. Mentees may feel more engaged and connected at school when attending school events with a mentor. For example, matches may go to school sports games together dressed in school colors, attend a class play, or attend a band concert.
To access more activity suggestions and tips custom designed for developing each phase of the mentoring relationship, learn more about Building Assets Together: A Guide for Youth Mentors by clicking here. To train mentors in goal setting, growth mindset, and school engagement strategies to promote mentees’ academic and personal achievement, learn more about the Promoting Enhanced Resilience & Learning (PERL) course by clicking here.
