Patty Turley (Oregon) and I led a session on Mentoring at a Distance (DM on the chart) using a Jeporady game approach. These were our categories. Before the session I went to iTunes and downloaded the Jeporady theme music to play to get us in the spirit.

A few tips from the session:

• Face-to-face contact is important initially to develop a rapport that will help make distance mentoring work.
• If they are facing an immediate issue, mentees may call right then to discuss the situation — an advantage over waiting until the next time the mentor is visiting the school.
• Even though the mentor can provide great support and advice, part of the role of the mentor is to help the mentee to cultivate other sources of support in the school setting. Teachers don’t have to be journalism teachers to be interested in student expression, for example. An in-the-building supportive colleague is important. A publication advisory board also can be a source of counsel and support for the new teacher.