Those who act with professionalism and a good attitude know how to remain calm in difficult situations, dedicate themselves to building upon their skills, honor commitments, and accept responsibility for their actions. A professional knows how to look the part inside and out. A professional gets the job done and garners the respect of those around them because of it. 

The  Skills for Life   Toolkit has four activities that focus on professionalism both in the workplace and in the student's personal life. As a mentor, showing professionalism can be just as impactful as the activities and should be practiced throughout mentoring your student.  

1)  Students watch everything we do, so we must model what we expect. Teachers arrive to class on time, prepared and organized. As a mentor, arrive to your mentoring sessions on time and prepared to mentor. Allow students into your process. Let them see how you plan; how a mess becomes something meaningful. Lead by example - in every way. We need to show students trust and respect, especially as these two behaviors are essential in maturity.

2) Really observe kids and listen. Highlight their good qualities regularly and then empower them to help their peers. Suggest they use their strengths to help other students, the buddy relationship can help students learn to be responsible to some one else. Have students keep track of their own progress in a way that is meaningful to them. 

3) Foster creativity by establishing an environment where taking risks is rewarded. The focus can't be on getting it right, but rather trying, experimenting and innovating. Celebrate the failed attempts as much as successes so students continue to take risks, a very important skill for aiding in developing creativity. In addition to this, students need time to practice. Give them time to work on seeing an idea through until the end.

4) Teach students to use calendars to help them organize and stay on time. Alarms can be set on phones using Google calendar or in a lo-fi example, color coding a planner can help aid students who need work on neatness, punctuality and organization. Again, encourage students to find a method that works after you've shown them a few different ways. This will help with deadlines as well. Deadlines are a part of life. 

Talk with your student this month about professionalism, and complete the activities found in Chapter 5 of the Skills for Life workbook. 

If you have not taken advantage of this toolkit, we recommend contacting William Dailey ( [email protected]) to request a hard copy. Otherwise, please refer to our digital download option list below. If you decide to use it or are currently doing so, please provide us your feedback so we may continue to refine and improve this resource for our mentors and mentees.