Mark Benigni and Sheryll Petrosky get to the heart of what it takes to improve school climate in Mentoring Matters. This book is a great "How To" manual for implementing a program to personalize the high school experience for all students by building real connections among students and staff through a carefully crafted set of experiences.
Jerald P. Fine, district-wide positive behavior intervention support coach Providing our students time for mentoring was easy, however, providing our students and teachers with lesson plans was difficult. We have researched mentoring lesson plans to no avail. High school administrators and advisory mentors have been looking for simple, easy-to-implement lessons that provide students with topics of interest. This book will be a valuable tool for all high schools that have mentoring programs.
Donna Adduci Mik, High School Principal What is remarkable about this handbook is that it is so easy to use in creating an efficacious and meaningful mentoring program. The policy impacts of school-based mentoring are all positive when implementation is facilitated through tools like Mentoring Matters. This handbook will help guarantee eager buy-in from all educators.
Thomas P. Gaffey, Connecticut state senator and senate chairman of the education committee Mentoring Matters is an excellent addition to the growing body of hands-on resources for student mentoring and student advisory programs. The ready-to-use lessons will help any school get their advisory program off the ground with meaningful and engaging activities in the first year, providing the school with time to flesh out their programming for ensuing years. The activities and scenarios are easy to execute and spot-on: respect, community-building, leadership skills, communicating, goal-setting, decision-making, adapting to change. Any school that wants to help its students negotiate the garmented and impersonal structure known as high school and help kids make meaning out of their school experience will find this book to be a valuable start-up tool.
Scott Brown, Ph.D, secondary school consultant As a Board president, I believe that Mentoring Matters is a must-have resource for any school system committed to providing their students the skills of school-based mentoring. As a high school social worker, I believe that every student needs to establish a strong connection to a positive adult role model. This book provides the actual lessons required to prepare staff to be that mentor while establishing methods that personalize the learning environment to ensure the fostering of positive relationships between students and staff.
Mark A. Hughes, MSW, board of education president and high school social worker Mentoring Matters is a practical guide for teachers that I would highly recommend. I have found myself using the easy-to-use lessons to initiate conversations with students about a variety of topics. By providing students with an opportunity to meet in small mentoring groups they have developed meaningful relationships that are impacting their grades and willingness to seek support when needed. This is a tool that every teacher in every school should be using!
Maureen Moylan, nontraditional educational training program director