Guide to Documentation of Mentoring Services

Intent to Mentor Policies and Procedures

1. It is the responsibility of the NBCT to locate teachers and/or NB candidates to mentor or provide professional development. The exception will be for those NBCTS selected as mentor/coaches through the NBRC Candidate Mentor/Coach training.
2. The May 12, 2023 deadline to enter mentor hours is a firm deadline, and no one will be allowed to enter additional hours after the deadline passes for any reason. Because of this, we do not recommend waiting until the last minute to enter your hours. We also strongly recommend a system to keep track of the hours you’ve submitted.
3. The way the Mentor Hours Documentation Form is designed, you cannot enter all your mentor hours by submitting one form. You must submit each mentoring session individually. For example, if you mentored September 20, 5:00 – 8:00PM, October 8 from 5:00 – 8:30PM, October 25 from 4:30 – 6:30PM, and November 11 from 7:00 – 9:00PM, then you would submit the form four separate times with the appropriate dates, times, descriptions, and mentees for each individual session.
4. It is suggested that you maintain the following information for each person you mentor: full name; IEIN number; email address; date, time, and location of mentoring.
5. It is the responsibility of the NBCT to locate teachers and/or NB candidates to mentor or provide professional development. The exception will be for those NBCTs selected a mentor/coach through NBRC coach training.
6. Please add nbrc@ilstu.edu to your contact or trusted senders list to ensure you receive important Intent to Mentor emails.
7. If you submit hours for mentoring sessions that occur outside the program start/end dates listed in your Intent to Mentor approval email, they will not count toward your total.

Descriptions of Mentoring Activies

The purpose of this message is to provide you with information to guide how you describe the Intent to Mentor mentoring activities. The activities that you enter for mentoring are extremely important and must be clear, concise and detailed. Mentoring is the ‘action’ completed as tied to the mentoring activity that will result in improving teaching and student learning. WHAT was the mentoring activity? Be specific and provide a detailed description of the activity. You should relate the description of the mentoring activity to the Illinois State Standards and/or your NBPTS Standards. If you are providing feedback to a candidate, please describe the nature of the comments/feedback.

PLEASE NOTE that mentoring descriptions should be different/individualized for each session. Do not give the exact same description for each mentoring session you submit.

Mentoring is not planning, preparation, developing, editing, copying, emailing, etc. A list of samples of language to avoid is included in the table below. Take time to review this list.

Remember, hours logged do not include work that you are already being paid for or work within your contracted school hours—in other words, NO double dipping. Hours logged for time already being paid for will be rejected.

You will be contacted if your mentoring submission does not explain your mentoring activity or is not relevant to mentoring. You will be requested to resubmit the mentoring hours using the correct language which will be inserted over your original submission.

Unfortunately, we can no longer approve mentoring hours unless the explanation of your mentoring activity is descriptive, detailed and focused on the mentoring activity as it relates to the standards and the goal of the activity.  

Call the director of the NBRC directly if you have questions or require guidance on writing your mentoring activity description. We are here to support you and the work you do (309-438-1833).

Examples of language to AVOID when describing mentoring activities
Due to the individual nature of the mentoring activities provided by NBCTs, the NBRC is not permitted to provide examples of actual mentoring activities for reasons of authenticity.
Helped candidates.	I am a facilitator for NBCT candidates.	I met and reviewed topics with other NBCTs.
Prepared for upcoming candidate support session.  Made copies, organized materials, secured meeting location, etc.	Planning for a professional development presentation at my school.	Presented cohort session with the 9 candidates.  Lead the sessions, discussions and assisted in writing.
Read for a candidate.	Participated in a webinar.	Completed sessions with candidates.
Read and responded to component.	Prepped (scanned paper, set up google,	Discussion and answering questions.
Helped a teacher with technical issues during lunch.	Emailed a candidate about missing meeting, what was missed, what to do for next time.	The meeting with the candidate went well. We talked about our students.
Read and commented on components, videos, draft, and writing about planning.	Technology - developing and editing lessons.	This provides me 3 mentoring hours for all my sessions I have completed so far in working with NBCT candidates.
The candidate felt worried.	I am a facilitator for a candidate cohort.	Today we split the cohort.  Some worked on Component 4 under my guidance and others were introduced to Component 2.  We went through directions, asked questions for clarity and discussed a game plan.
Talked to new teachers during break.	Sent a reminder for candidates to send me drafts by deadline.	Provide guidance and support based on the candidate's needs.
Conference call.	For two hours, I prepped Session One.	Component 4 Session 1 District Cohort.
Debrief after candidate meeting and plan for next meeting.	Emailed candidates.	Orientation to renewal process and requirements.
Session with candidates meeting after school.	Presented information during a staff meeting and shared what I learned at a conference.	Feedback for components.
Met with candidates.	Mentoring.