Summer Ideas
Just because school is out for the summer doesn't mean you need to lose contact with your mentee. You just need to plan ahead and be intentional.
Use your imagination or pull from some of the following ideas.
For example, one mentor gives her mentees stamped postcards before the end of school. She puts her work address on the cards and the students put on their return address. When they send her a postcard, she sends one back. "It really keeps us in touch!" she says.
Remember, if you decide to meet or take your mentee somewhere, all the paperwork and rules still apply. Meeting Outside of School form is needed if you're interacting with the student out of school, etc. Call if you have questions.
Suggestions: --Encourage your mentee to document their summer fun in any art form they want and share it with you when school resumes.
--At the last meeting of the school year, make cards to send to each other during the summer.
--Agree on topics for journaling over the summer for both of you. Ideas may include One Thing I Learned Today (add to it every day), How I Showed Random Acts of Kindness This Week (add to it daily or weekly).
Mark the calendar when you will get back together to share your journals.
--Challenge them (and they you) to set up a goal, a personal best, to work on over the summer.
--Send an encouraging email; agree on times to text each other; talk on the phone once a week.
--If your mentee attends one of the week-long Abbott camps, arrange to meet him/her for lunch at Abbott.
Your turn! What else can you think of or have done to stay in touch during the summer? We'd like to hear from you. Email us and we'll post it here! Send to teammates@lps.org.
