After ensuring you have the context that will best allow you to engage in a conversation with your mentee, here are some tips & reminders about how to go about providing the right kind of support & guidance.

Learning with Your Mentee

• The Urgent Need for Anti-Racist Education from Education Week

• Resources for Talking About Race, Racism, Racialized Violence with Kids from the Center for Racial Justice in Education

• Teaching About Race, Racism, and Police Violence from Teaching Tolerance

• Educators Tackle Tough Conversations about Race and Violence - This Time Virtually from Chalkbeat

• Student Mental Health:

  • Coping Skills Checklist 

  • Calming Strategy Cards 

  • Forty-nine Phrases to Calm an Anxious Child 

  • BrainPOP 

• The Coretta Scott King Book Award Winners - Award winning books by African-American authors and illustrators that demonstrate appreciation for African-American culture and universal human values.

Best Practices for Supporting Mentee Processing

Tips & Reminders:

• Affirm the relationship. Authentically. Affirm your support and care of your students and make it authentic. Whether you’ve known your students for over two years or three weeks, start by acknowledging your relationships:

  • If you have just met your student, you could say, “I know that we have recently met, but I am looking forward to building our relationship over the next X amount of years and I care about what you think and feel.”

  • If you have known your student longer you could say, “I really care about you. “I’m here for you.”

• Focus on your Student. All emotions are valid and free of judgment. Ask your mentee if they want to discuss what happened. If they do not want to talk about it, respect their wishes and move on to a different topic. (You can say, “I hear that you would rather not discuss this now, if at any point today you would like to share, please know that you can.”)

• Supporting Each Other

  • Ask your student: Is there anything that I can do for you? Is there anything that you need from me?

  • Have the students ask you (the mentor): Is there anything that I can do for you? Is there anything that you need from me?

Questions:

It’s normal to have a variety of reactions to everything that is going on. I know I have. How have you been feeling about the recent events?

While I won’t have the answers, are there questions that you have about what’s been going on?

What are you doing these days to take care of yourself? What things do you do to take care of your mental health? Some things I do are…

I know different people need different things during challenging times like this. What do you find is helpful for you? Do you like talking, writing, reading? Would you like to have a quick check-in tomorrow to follow up?