The first mentor training for Aktobe teachers took place on 24-28 March 2010 in school-lyceum #23. 23 English teachers from secondary schools met together to learn about new approaches to mentoring. The training team worked principally from one main aim: to prepare course participants to mentor and provide peer-support especially, but not exclusively, within the context of the ETTE project (English for Teaching: Teaching for English) which aims at improving teachers’ professional level.
Mentor trainers Natalya Penner, Galiya Sadyrbayeva and Galina Chaganova come from different places - Aktobe, Shymkent and Kyrgyzstan. They have been trained by the UK and Romanian trainers in Romania (November 2008) and Nepal (August 2009) and gained experience mentoring young and inexperienced teachers at schools.
Training was organised with active support of school administration, regional administration, In-service Teacher Training Institute, Department of Education and Aktobe Pedagogical Institute. On 25 March Lena Milosevic, Director of British Council Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan visited Aktobe to see ETTE implementation in Aktobe region. She was cordially greeted by partners and had very substantial talks with representatives of educational institutions, teachers and students on mutual cooperation in the field of the English language development which is a part of Presidential tri-lingual policy.
Participants were equipped with all necessary materials and developed action plans for future mentorials with their mentees. Newly trained mentors will be paired with young teachers who will get training on ‘Classroom Language’ in April conducted by Aktobe trainer Natalya Penner. Soon after that they will start mentoring their young colleagues until winter. Both mentors and mentees will practice their knowledge gained during the sessions. In winter mentors and mentees will meet together for follow up training to share their experiences and lessons learnt from their mentor work.
Participants of Aktobe mentor training not confident at the beginning became stronger and motivated at the end. Their comments included:
- "I am enjoying sessions more and more. The knowledge and experience I get from this training will help me not only in my job but in everyday life…"
- "At last I’ve understood the role of mentor through role plays which were practically useful…"
- "I won’t look back anymore because I need to move forward..."
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