Practitioner’s Corner: Mentoring Makes a Difference

By Sherry Watts Principal, January/February 2012 How can we reduce discipline problems and raise achievement? How can we give our students the emotional support they need for academic success? These were glaring questions for Minneola Elementary. The students who visited our offices for discipline over and over needed more than a warning or a suspension. They needed us. They needed to talk and to be heard. They needed to feel valued. To tackle these issues, we developed a mentoring program.