The power of role modelling goes beyond mere instruction.
The Instructional Mentors, or IM's, of Uplift Cares were faced with the noble but daunting task of engaging the students of their ALS classes. ALS, or Alternative Learning System, caters to drop outs from the standard high school program. Most of these students discontinued their education due to challenging personal circumstances, such as financial lack, bullying, self-worth issues, or even outright vices. And it was up to the IM's to help them past these challenges towards completing their education as foundation for a better future.
Our part in this endeavor was to help the IM's with the tools to use as a scaffolding for their students' personality development. The solution was to introduce principles of socio-emotional intelligence as applied to self-presentation and manner. This would be an effective approach to enrich the social capital and bring about confidence in the ALS students, as well as in the IM's themselves, as skills and values are best learned when experienced from mentors, rather than just taught.
This project was something really close to our hearts, as we were also previously partners with the Uplift Cares organization as an ALS provider.
“Socio-emotional intelligence is the foundation of personality development. When one is aware of how one is doing something, then one can know how to change for the better, ” shared Coach Noreen during the workshop.
We concluded the session with the IM's feeling encouraged and motivated to pass on their newfound learning to their students - to where this training was most needed. Truly, it is challenging enough to lead as an educator when the students are already empowered and socially adept. But it is the genuinely gifted and inspiring mentor that would go even beyond the academics to uplift the broken and disadvantaged.
We salute the ALS Instructional Mentors! More power to Team Uplift!
Comments