Hillsborough Education Foundation                                                                February 2012 

Mentee Graduating 

 

Mentor

 UPDATE 
Leap Year Edition
   
Dear Valued Mentors,
Welcome to the "Leap Year" Edition of the Mentor Update! So what's new, you ask? For starters, the students are not the only ones who have an advocate these days! That's right, William Dailey, the new Mentor Coordinator, is going to be your advocate on all things mentor. You can access his contact information by clicking his name and following the link. Enjoy your Leap Year!

Important Announcements

Important dates to consider for school visits:

  • Workshop for Juniors: March 8 and 9
  • FCAT Writing Exam: February 28-March 1 

Mentor Self-Reporting 

The Hillsborough Education Foundation is requesting that all mentors report their volunteer hours at the beginning of each month. Collecting this information will ensure the mentoring program remains organizationally and financially strong, as well as to better understand the impact of mentoring on Hillsborough County students. We have had a great response in January and we hope to continue that success into February, so THANK YOU to everyone who participated.

Suggested Activity for February  

Valentine's Day provides the perfect platform through which mentees can release their inner poet. Below are some suggested styles of poems you and your mentee can try. Once finished, you can take it a step further and make the poem into a Valentine's Day card for someone. Take a piece of construction paper, fold it in half, and cut out a half of a heart shape. Open the finished product to make the full heart and a thoughtful card.

 

Acrostic

In Acrostic poems, the first letters of each line are aligned vertically to form a word. The word often is the subject of the poem.

 

Cinquain  

Cinquains have five lines.

  • Line 1: Title (noun) - 1 word
  • Line 2: Description - 2 words
  • Line 3: Action - 3 words
  • Line 4: Feeling (phrase) - 4 words
  • Line 5: Title (synonym for the title) - 1 word  

Haiku

Haiku is Japanese poetry that reflects on nature and feelings. You use your observation skills to write what you see in a new or different way. There are three lines with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second, and five syllables in the third.

 

Limerick

A limerick has five lines. The last words of lines one, two, and five rhyme. The last words of lines three and four rhyme. A limerick has to have a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.
KnowHow2Go Corner

Winning Billboard on Display

If you drive along Channelside Drive near the Tampa Bay Times Forum, be on the lookout for the winning billboard from Kaitlyn Bryce, a student at Plant City High. Kaitlyn's design earned her first-place honors in KnowHow2Go's Billboard Contest, promoting college readiness. Second- and third-place designers were Ciara Demontegnac of Wharton High and Caitlyn Carty of Plant City High. Congratulations to all our winners!
 

 

In This Issue
Suggested Activity
KnowHow2Go Corner
Leap Year Facts
Tough Questions
From the Page to the Silver Screen
Mentors Needed
Have friends or colleagues who would make an amazing mentor? Send their information to William Dailey and he will contact them! 
Contact
Mentor Coordinator
 
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

  

Whether you have been a mentor for many years or just joined the program, we are excited to have you as part of our mentoring team.  

The Foundation and your students are more than grateful for your dedication and the honor you bring to the title "MENTOR." 

 

HEF Small logo 
Leap Year Facts
History
The ancient Egyptians discovered the concept of leap year when they noticed subtle irregularities in their calendars. However, Julius Caesar is credited as the "Father of Leap Year." Caesar decided to simplify things and added days to different months of the year to create the 365 day calendar, the actual calculation were made by Caesar's astronomer, Sosigenes. Every fourth year following the 28th day of Februarius (February 29th) one day was to be added, making every fourth year a leap year.


Fun Fact
The "year" or time it takes for the Earth to orbit once around the Sun is actually 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds.

Tough Questions

My mentee asked me about a boy from her class. She says he has asked her to be his valentine. She has asked me for advice on what she should do.

 

While it is never encouraged for a mentor to involve oneself in a mentee's romantic life, you should not avoid a brief answer if asked a question directly. Tell your mentee she should seek her parents' permission before agreeing to it. Next, she should establish that she would be valentines with the classmate as only friends. Given the nature of the day, you should stress to your mentee that she must do this before agreeing to anything. Also be sure the mentee knows she is empowered to leave anytime she may feel uncomfortable and that communication is key in these types of situations. 
From the Page to the Silver Screen
Books to Watch for in Theaters:Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (released January 20, 2012, Rated PG-13)

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a 2005 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. The main narrator of the story is a 9-year-old boy, Oskar Schell, an intellectually curious and sensitive child of Manhattan progressives whose father died two years earlier on 9/11. He is a pacifist, a vegan, musician (he plays the tambourine), academically-inclined, and above all, earnest. Oskar wanders New York, searching for the meaning of a strange key he finds inside a blue vase in his father's closet. Two additional narrators, Oskar's paternal grandparents, tell the story of their childhood, courtship, marriage, and separation before the birth of Oskar's father; much of their story is presented as a series of letters addressed to Oskar or his father.
Sincerely,
The Mentoring Support Team
Hillsborough Education Foundation