From Teachers to Leaders
At the heart of our teacher-led movement are our Expert Modern Classroom Mentors.
Not only do these 100 or so outstanding educators train peers worldwide through our Virtual Mentorship Program, but they also create much of the content in our courses; contribute to articles, podcasts, and webinars; and push our entire team to offer the best teacher PD on the planet. Their commitment is ultimately what makes the rest of our work possible.
What makes our mentors most effective, however, is that they are full-time educators like you. This means that, when you work with a Modern Classroom mentor to learn our model, you work with someone who implements that model effectively, day in and day out, in their very own school community. We pay them $40-$50 per hour, but for the educators they work with, that kind of expertise is priceless.
You might wonder, therefore: How does an educator become an Expert Modern Classroom Mentor in the first place?
Here's what it takes to become an Expert Mentor:
Implement our model. Each of our mentors has implemented our blended, self-paced, mastery-based approach, either with their students or in training their colleagues. Some have completed our Mentorship Program themselves, but many have not.
Become a Distinguished Modern Classroom Educator (DMCE). Each mentor then demonstrates their ability to implement our model effectively, by becoming a DMCE. For becoming DMCEs, mentors receive (all for free) graduate credit, premium edtech subscriptions, limited-edition swag, and more. Again, educators can become DMCEs without ever taking our course! And educators who are unsuccessful the first time around receive constructive feedback as well as the opportunity to reapply.
Complete a brief Mentor Application. As soon as they become DMCEs, educators can apply to become mentors. The application takes 1-2 hours, and asks educators to provide sample feedback on a real instructional video created by one of our mentees.
Enroll in Mentor Academy. We've developed a comprehensive online course - which is blended, self-paced, and mastery-based, of course - that trains aspiring mentors in best practices for delivering effective coaching and feedback. To qualify as a mentor, each educator in Mentor Academy must pass four separate mastery checks, and receives detailed feedback on each.
First mentees. After completing Mentor Academy, our mentors are ready to begin training their first educators. We supervise these beginning mentors closely to ensure that their mentees receive prompt and high-quality support.
Mentor Learning Groups. Early in their mentoring careers, all mentors participate in PLCs with other new mentors. These are led by our most experienced mentors and help new mentors refine their practice. Each Mentor Learning Group meets for a total of 5 hours.
Ongoing Support. At this point, our mentors-in-training become full-fledged Expert Mentors. We continue to support these mentors with regular community meetings and curated leadership opportunities. After all, these educators are at the heart of our movement!
There are no minimum requirements to become a mentor -- anyone who implements our model effectively, and completes our rigorous training process, can serve.
Interested in becoming an Expert Mentor? If you're already implementing our model, you can begin your journey with our DMCE application.
Apply Today
And if you haven't started implementing yet, that's okay! We aren't going anywhere -- and we'll hope to work with you someday soon!