A teacher can be many figures inside one, we all know that today is required to be multi-sectorial, transversal and super skilled. But at the base, the vocation to be a teacher coincides with the vocation to be a mentor. What is the difference is to be a "professional mentor" or just a person taking specific care to some difficult situation of some students and overcoming the border of "just teaching at school". 

On the other hand, Coaching is similar but at the same time, a different approach 

Nowadays being a teacher doesn’t only mean to teach but it also means helping, being an active listener and being a guide for students and colleagues. And that’s the reason why it is very important to be prepared to face any kind of situation that can arise in school environments. Schools are the mirror of society, sometimes of the small and the big context where the school is based, sometimes of the wider framework.

Most of the time a teacher replaces the figure of a coach or has to be more mentor than an expert in the subject, they enter in students’ lives and constitute the biggest support together with families. 

This course has the purpose to give the basic tools to help teachers to understand better their role - apart from being subject teachers - and gain key competences to play a more active role in helping and motivate students. 

The course starts making clear what the differences are between these two figures (the coach and the mentor) and also to understand which one can better fit a teacher. A coach can help a student to set goals, and give them the tools to achieve them only by using their own capabilities. A mentor is also a guide or a model that can last for a longer time. 

This course helps you find ways to hand the issues back to the person and encourage them to find the solutions for themselves. We aren’t aiming to teach you how to become a fully accredited coach or mentor, we are aiming to provide you with some highly effective coaching skills you will be able to put into practice in your life and daily work. It's very important to contextualise always and each person can be a different kind of mentor depending on each specific situation. 

In some contexts coaching and mentoring are used almost as interchangeable terms. Without a doubt, they are both valuable processes. It is true that the boundary between them is somewhat permeable and that often the same individuals in schools carry out or participate in both processes.

The aim of this course is to recognise the differences between these two learning interventions that most of the time are confused and  to use one or the other depending on the person we want to help. Learning how to take care, guide and how to build a relationship of trust. 

Pushing or pulling the other person towards their goals are different ways to help them to find their own solutions. Active listening and asking questions is at the base of these two learning interventions, that is why the teacher will get to know how to ask questions and the grow model to enhance this behaviour.

Target group

Usually, teachers who have a good English level, with a leadership role in their school, school managers or project coordinators. 
In general, teachers who feel to have the vocation to be mentors. 

Like all our programs, the present one is flexible and adaptable to special requests, depending on the subject taught or on the starting level of the participant. 

Furthermore, in line with the JUMP Academy method, our courses are based on a strategic balance between formal and non-formal education, indoor and outdoor education and the team takes care of a very important aspect of international mobility which is the intercultural learning which we develop with short excursions and facilitating the interaction with local partners, especially schools of the territory. 

We always try to connect our learners to local teachers and students to cooperate in developing innovation and networking for future projects. If possible, inside the program, a morning is spent inside a local school, visiting, observing and cooperating in the realization of one or more lessons. The proposed program JUMP works, in European dimension and with an international spirit, at the local level and, according to the period of the training along the year and the weather, it is possible to change some sessions and add visits and meetings, in cooperation with our network of partners including schools involved in European projects).​