JET Zooms End-of-Year District Meetings In Boston, Brockton, Fall River, New Bedford, Springfield, Worcester

In June, JET held its first ever virtual end of year/welcome new cohort meetings in each of its six partner districts. While it took some adjustments and we missed the in-person experience, JET participants, mentors, district liaisons and staff were still able to come together, reconnect, catch up and form new connections. The meetings marked the ending of what became an academic year filled with unprecedented challenges and steep learning curves. Therefore,it was especially important for all of us to take the time to celebrate our participants’ accomplishments - namely rapidly moving to providing classroom instruction online AND successfully completing their college courses online, some for the first time. Moreover, we celebrated two JET participants in Boston who completed their Bachelor’s degrees and graduated in May. 

Our 2020 Boston graduates Patricia Felix and Treena Hogan

All six district meetings followed the same agenda: Icebreaker Activity, JET Mentor/Mentee Dialogue, Current JET Participant Panel, Next Steps for 2020-2021 Program Year.

Kicking off with one of two icebreakers got everyone talking and sharing:

Animal icebreaker - what kind of animal do you identify with and why?  Many chose a bird for feeling caged in and wanting to fly free.

Rose, Bud, Thorn - share something positive, something to look forward to, and something negative.  From a New Bedford participant we heard ‘something positive was getting to know students’ families through the online classroom teaching and learning.  From Fall River, we heard ‘something promising’ was working towards a college degree and becoming a teacher so that they can give back to the community.  From across the districts the ‘something negative’ was not being able to say goodbye in person to their students at the end of the school year.

The icebreaker proved to be a great way to catch up with existing connections, and form new ones.

The Mentor/Mentee Dialogue highlighted a key component of JET, the JET Mentorship Program where all first year participants are paired with experienced educators in their districts.  A mentor and mentee shared their experiences on what it takes to establish a mentoring relationship and their main takeaways from this mentoring relationship over the past school/academic year.  The discussion provided an excellent chance for incoming JET participants to hear first-hand the benefits of having a mentor. From our pairs in Worcester and Brockton, we learned that establishing trust is key to a mentoring relationship. The Springfield pair said they were able to keep in touch regularly by phone, text and email, and the mentor introduced his mentee to a professional educators group that continued to meet online in the spring and provide support to one another. Our Boston pair shared their mutual learning. The mentor helped the mentee stay on track to complete a demanding semester with 4 spring college courses.  The mentee earned a spot on the Dean’s list.  The mentor said her mentee was ‘the light,’  the hope for the future.