Texas Rising Star Mentor Newsletter: November Edition

A Message From Your Facilitators

Greetings Mentors,

We are excited for another month of PLCs and continued professional development! Feel free to explore this month's issue for updates, helpful resources and reminders that will guide your work as we continue to work together towards quality.

Please be sure to visit our PLC Norms for participation expectations. Our team encourages mentors to attend their assigned PLC group and submit a video submission monthly. Due to our team's availability and capacity, we will now provide one day at the end of the month to accommodate any rescheduling requests. We thank you in advance for your cooperation at this time.

Please reach out to our team at TRSMentoring@uth.tmc.edu if you have any clarifying questions or concerns.

See you next issue!

Ashley, Sheri, Ebone’, and Kiara

The Texas Rising Star Mentor Team

Announcements

Our team has come together to set a personal goal for statewide participants of the Texas Rising Star Mentor Program to collectively obtain a total of 50 Micro-credential Badges by the end of July 2024. Each month we will be using our Badge Meter to track our program’s progress towards our goal. Since October 1, 2 Micro-credential Badges have been earned.

Texas Rising Star Mentor Program Goal:

50 Micro-credential Badges

Total:

5 Micro-credential Badges

Listed below are those two mentors we would like to recognize for obtaining a Micro-credential Badge:

Miesha Burks (Gulf Coast)

Coach Core Competency Area 6 Supporting Continuous Improvement

Julie Johnson (Heart of Texas)

Coach Core Competency Area 1 Characteristics of Effective Specialists

Lastly, we want to give a special shout out to recognize Julie Johnson- Heart of Texas (pictured) for her hard work and perseverance as she earned the last Micro-credential Badge she needed to obtain the Coach Credential.

Way to go, mentors! Keep up the great work!

News to Note

PLC Norms

The focus of PLCs in December will be the Demonstration & Cues coaching behaviors you can demonstrate to support and join a practitioner's implementation of a new practice. Our team is prepared to offer options for mentors to choose the best date and time for their schedule. Sign-up sheet coming soon!

As a reminder, active participation in the Coach Micro-credential Program and in PLCs, as well as a monthly video submission, are expectations from the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). Our team is more than happy to support your success in our program!

Please keep in mind our attendance and submission policies:

Facilitator will conclude the PLC if mentors do not attend within 10 minutes of start time.
We will not be able to award mentors credit for attending if they are more than 20 minutes late to their PLC.
One video submission on CLI Engage is due no later than three days before the next scheduled PLC to receive credit.

Resource Spotlight

Introducing our Resource Spotlight! Our team would like to highlight the Digital Resource Collection (DRC) and/or a specific resource each month to provide mentors with guidance on how to utilize resources when supporting their practitioners in meeting their goals.

The DRC houses professional learning resources, examples of Texas Rising Star measures, classroom implementation tools, and more! Mentors can find the DRC on the Texas Rising Star website or on their CLI Engage Dashboard. As an introduction to the DRC, we have a Digital Resource Collection Scavenger Hunt for mentors to complete to practice navigating the new DRC as well as become familiar with its resources.

Feel free to email us at TRSMentoring@uth.tmc.edu to check your answers to see if you found the treasure!

Competency Corner

Are you Looking to Obtain the Coach Credential?

Achieving the Coach Credential provides the acknowledgement for the competencies developed during a mentor's career. As we work together to achieve our program's goal, let's visit some key terms that relate to your active participation in the Coach Micro-credential Program.

Submission Course-portal where participants submit artifacts, videos, or documents of their mentoring practice for review.
Exam Course-portal where participants complete quizzes and reflection questions. After receiving a passing grade, competencies will be approved and linked action badges will be issued.
Action Badge-issued for every demonstrated coaching competency.
Micro-credential Badge-issued once all action badges under a Core Competency Area are issued (also referred to as a Core Competency Area Micro-credential Badge).

Reminders

Be sure your video submission meets the following criteria:

Up to 20 minutes in length
Audio and visual of you and the practitioner

Mentors are encouraged to label their video submissions and to use the online text box to indicate the competency they are demonstrating in the video submitted.

Questions

Please complete a help ticket if you have questions about your status within the Coach Micro-credential Program or if you need support with uploading videos.

Click here to submit a MC Help Ticket.

Training and Events

The New Mentor Academy

Two down and two more sessions to go for The New Mentor Academy training series! The purpose is to provide professional development for new Texas Rising Star mentors-mentors who have been hired within the last 12 months. To register for November training sessions, click on the buttons below.

Part 3- Mentoring Strategies

Tuesday, November 14, 11:00am-12:00pm

Part 4- Creating Quality Continuous Improvement Plans (CQIPs)

Tuesday, November 28, 11:00am-12:00pm

We encourage mentors with more than 12 months experience to attend Mentor Office Hours. Office Hours are optional and held every Monday from 11:00 am - 12:00 pm (CST) on Zoom.

Mentor Resource Toolkit

The Mentor Resource Toolkit folder houses additional resources, checklists, and guidance to support those currently participating in the Texas Rising Star Mentor PLCs.

Engage Support:

Texas Rising Star Mentor Training Program Onboarding Flyer

This flyer includes information on steps and tasks new mentors will complete upon being hired to be trained and fully onboarded then added to a monthly PLC.

My Progress Guide

This guide will show mentors how to navigate the My Progress page in CLI Engage.

Coach Micro-credential Program Walkthrough Video

This video is a resource available with detailed steps on how to navigate the Micro-credential Program on CLI Engage.

Ongoing Support:

Coach Micro-credential Progress Checklist

This checklist allows mentors to track the badges earned participating in the Coach Micro-credential Program.

Texas Rising Star Mentor Office Hours

Office Hours are available every Monday on Zoom at 11:00 am- 12:00 pm (CST) for mentors to receive support related to their scope of work.

Reminders:

All mentors are required to attend one PLC every month. PLCs are held on Zoom using the link in the calendar invite.

Mentors are required to submit one video of a mentoring visit every month. Video should be submitted to the Coach Micro-credential Program on CLI Engage two weeks, but no later than three days, prior to the next scheduled PLC. If your previous video still needs to be coded, please follow the steps indicated in the New submission when video has not been coded resource.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TRSmentoring@uth.tmc.edu

For more professional resources, please visit texasrisingstar.org

Delivered to Texas Rising Star mentors on behalf of the Texas Rising Star Mentor Team at The Children's Learning Institute

7000 Fannin Street, Suite 2300, Houston, Texas 77030

childrenslearninginstitute.org