JET Holds Mid-Year Check-In Meetings In Partner School Districts
In January, JET staff worked with district liaisons to organize and hold mid-year check-ins with JET participants and their mentors. The January meeting is one of three touch points where all participants and mentors come together in each partner district during the program year. The aim is to share successes and challenges in a group setting and get helpful feedback from peers and mentors and JET staff. It is a true learning experience for all of us. It was also a cross learning experience for JET staff this year as we traveled to our 5 new partner districts as well as Boston during the month.
Each meeting followed a similar format where JET staff, paraprofessional participants, mentors, district partners, and university partners were present to both check-in and share new information with the paras. The meetings began with an opportunity for JET staff to hear from the participants how they are doing and feeling after having completed their first semester and just before heading into second semester. This time also provided a chance for the paras to bring up any questions they may have or challenges or issues they are dealing with. With many of the involved parties present at the meetings, this proved to be an excellent time to troubleshoot issues or guide paras to the appropriate places or people to help.
The next portion of the meeting JET staff presented some findings from our first ever baseline survey completed by new JET participants at the August 2019 orientation. The intention of the baseline survey was to get a sense of paras’ motivations for returning to school, knowledgeability on admissions and financial aid processes, support systems, and more. JET staff led a presentation to each group on the survey data collected for each particular district, in comparison with the total data combined from each cohort. Time was allotted at the end of this segment for additional input from the group on things they did not see in the results that they thought was missing or could have been included. One example of this that came up in every meeting was that JET mentors were not on the list of adults who are supportive to participants. Another example of a response we heard from paras when discussing their reasoning for returning to school was “I do it for the kids!”
Following the baseline survey presentation, the meetings went in slightly different directions. In Worcester, the meeting attendees heard from Superintendent Binienda, Associate Dean of Education, Ray Lewis, who announced a special section of an education course for JET participants, and a library representative from Worcester State University who described the resources available to students on campus and online and how to access them. In Boston, we focused a portion of our time on the JET mentor program, led by Casel Walker, our coordinator for Professional Learning and JET Mentor Program in Boston. In Brockton Kathy Moran, the Executive Director of Human Resources hosted the meeting in the Superintendent’s conference room where we had lively and informative discussions particularly on mentoring. All participants and mentors spoke enthusiastically about their relationships and how they were benefitting the progress of the JET participants. In New Bedford and Fall River we heard from Heather Emsley, Executive Director of Human Capital Services, our district liaison in New Bedford and the Dean of Continuing Studies at Bridgewater State University who spoke to our paras about programs and courses available to them as nontraditional students. In Springfield, JET conducted a virtual meeting via Zoom with the JET participant and his mentor. They too confirmed the benefits of mentoring and how important it was to the participant to have an experienced educator close by for both problem solving and encouragement. It was inspiring to hear from so many different institutions and individuals, all with the same goal of supporting our JET participants!
After an action-packed agenda, the remaining 15 minutes of the sessions were reserved for all meeting attendees to fill out a feedback form, and for JET participants to fill out an academic update form. The academic update form provides JET staff with the latest information on the participants’ academic progress and any issues where JET staff and mentors can help guide and support them.
It was great, as always, to get together with our participants and our many, many partners! We appreciate all of the hard work and dedication shown by all. Good luck to our participants as they are beginning their Spring semesters! We look forward to seeing everyone again in June!