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Overview

Our Mentoring Qualification Program (MQP) will teach you the strategies, tools and processes that form the foundations of effective mentoring and coaching. Using a practical, applied approach to learning, this program provides transformational skills to support  administrators, teachers, managers, supervisors, business and support staff  in an inclusive and collaborative learning environment.

Our MQP was developed by experienced elementary and secondary principals  from across the province to enhance leadership capacity throughout the system by combining the skills, strategies and processes of both mentoring and coaching. This Additional Qualification (AQ) program is aligned with the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) guideline for Mentoring, the Ontario Leadership Framework (2013) and the Ministry of Education resource, Mentoring for All.

A minimum of 125 hours of instructional contact time is included in the program through the practical application of learning and skills with a chosen mentee, a personalized project, digital tools, a choice of reading materials and personalized learning opportunities engaging candidates with trained facilitators and one another.

Module 1 – Introducing and Understanding Mentoring/Coaching 
  • Principles of adult learning
  • Research on mentoring and coaching (including a personalized reading choice)
  • The importance of equity in mentoring/coaching
  • Principles of anti-oppressive leadership
  • Supporting MentorCoaching through the Co-Active model and skills (based on the seminal text Co-Active Coaching  currently in its 4th edition)
  • Attributes, processes, tools and skills of MentorCoaching, including:
    • The MentorCoaching relationship (including trust, honesty, confidentiality, safety, non-judgement, and bias awareness)
    • Deep listening (also articulating, clarifying, meta-view, metaphor, and acknowledging)
    • Curiosity and asking powerful questions
Module 2 – Continued Skill Development
  • Models of mentoring and coaching
  • Mindsets (including the impact of unconscious bias, strategies to support a positive/growth MentorCoaching mindset, fostering culturally responsive mentoring practices, supporting equity and inclusion)
  • Leveraging our signature strengths
  • Values in MentorCoaching
  • Feedback vs. feedforward
  • The guiding principles, critical skills and processes of MentorCoaching continued:
    • Listening, curiosity and powerful questions, intuition, forwarding the action and deepening the learning (also focusing on the mentee’s agenda, goal setting and accountability), self-management (also recovery, asking permission, bottom-lining, championing, clearing, reframing, making distinctions)
Module 3 – Leading with MentorCoaching and Courageous Conversations
  • The role of MentorCoaching in 21st century learning and leadership
  • Responding to leadership challenges (including applying MentorCoaching to school improvement and student achievement)
  • Moving toward equitable leadership (including the creation of an anti-oppressive culture and responding to micro-aggressions)
  • Differentiating supports for novice and experienced leaders
  • Risk taking and the importance of learning from failure
  • Mentoring new teachers (including collaborative inquiry in building teacher efficacy)
  • Case study analysis, Ministry of Education and other mentoring resources
  • Courageous conversations (based on the text Having Hard Conversations and/or Hard Conversations Unpacked and/or Swimming in the Deep End)
Module 4 – Applications and Creating a Culture of MentorCoaching
  • Creating a culture of MentorCoaching
  • Issues of race and equity (including using MentorCoaching to build a safe, equitable and inclusive culture)
  • Using MentorCoaching to support sustainability, health and well-being
  • Multi-generational mentoring opportunities
  • MentorCoaching across districts and in other careers

Course Fee

$880.00 (covers all four modules, includes $50 non-refundable registration fee).

Greater Essex County DSB employees taking the MQP will receive a $500 subsidy upon completion of the course. 

Session Information

Modules 1 - 3 will be facilitated online in a synchronous model using Microsoft Teams. 

Module 4 will be completed online through Canvas, our learning management system (LMS). Deadlines are firm.

  • Module 1
    • Saturday April 30 - 8:30 am - 4:00 pm
    • Sunday May 01 - 8:30 am - 1:00 pm
  • Module 2
    • Saturday May 28 - 8:30 am - 4:00 pm
    • Sunday May 29 - 8:30 am - 1:00 pm
  • Module 3
    • Saturday June 10 - 8:30 am - 4:00 pm
    • Sunday June 11 - 8:30 am - 1:00 pm
  • Module 4
    • To be complete by July 9

Deadline to apply: April 16

Register

Required Reading

Candidates will be required to read 3 texts for the course.  Co-Active Coaching is the first required reading.  You may choose 1 text from the second section that includes a selection of Jennifer Abrams’ works.  Lastly, Wait, What is the third required reading. The Greater Essex County DSB will provide each board participant with a copy of Co-active Coaching (Required Reading # 1), one book by Jennifer Abrams (Required Reading #2), and Wait, What?  (Required Reading #3).

Required Reading #1
 

House, House, Sandahl and Whitworth.  2018.  Co-Active Coaching: The Proven

Framework for Transformative Conversations at Work and in Life. 4th Edition. Boston. London.Nicholas Brealey Publishing.   
Required Reading # 2 - Choose one of the following
 

Abrams, Jennifer. 2019. Swimming in the Deep End: Four Foundational Skills for Leading Successful School Initiatives.  CA, USA.  Corwin Press Inc

 

Abrams, Jennifer. 2016. Hard Conversations Unpacked: The Whos, the Whens and the What-Ifs. CA, USA. Corwin Press Inc.

 

Abrams, Jennifer. 2009. Having Hard Conversations. CA, USA.  Corwin Press Inc
Required Reading # 3 

Ryan, James E. (2017). Wait, What?: And Life's Other Essential Questions. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers 

 Terms and Conditions

 Refund Policy

A full refund is available if you cancel up to two weeks before the start date, less a $50.00 non-refundable registration fee.

 

A $250.00 refund is available if you cancel one week before the start date.

 

There is no refund for cancellations after the start date.

 

A full refund applies when a session is cancelled due to low enrollment. 
 Interpretation Services Terms and Conditions
 The Ontario Principal’s Council (OPC) is committed to accommodating the individual needs of our Members, in accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and the Ontario Human Rights Code.  Once a candidate has registered and paid the applicable registration fees for a course, the OPC will contract with an interpretation service of its choosing and will cover the fees and expenses related to interpretation services in accordance with its contract arrangements with the interpreter.  The candidate is welcome to provide a list of preferred interpreters for us to consider, but OPC retains the discretion to choose the provider of these services.

As the OPC is required to comply with the cancellation policy specific to each independent interpreter, it will communicate the cancellation policy to the course candidate in writing. A candidate seeking to cancel their participation in an OPC course must comply with the interpreter’s cancellation policy and be respectful of the associated timelines. Candidates will be held responsible for cancellation fees applied as a result of missing timelines for cancellation.

OPC’s standard refund policy will also apply to all cancellations.