Mentor Proposal Information
Please take a few moments and familiarize yourself with the information we are looking for in a Mentor Proposal. Unlike co-ops (or more traditional, class-based, home education resources), iFamily Leadership Academy relies on passion and inspiration for the courses offered each semester. The questions we ask on the Mentor Proposal Form find their genesis in the unique Mom School environment we foster at iFamily. You may also be interested in reviewing our Mentor Agreement as well as our Procedure for Becoming a Mentor. If you have any questions, please reach out to our Mentor Coordinator by emailing the Board of Directors.
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While this may seem obvious, it is essential that you enter an active email account and a phone number where the Board may reach you. Members will use your email to register for classes on Class Application Day. We will list this information in the full member only view of your class and will not post it publicly.
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Your class title ideally combines three things: memorability; brevity; and story. Choose a name that captures your class while remaining succinct.
iFamily Leadership Academy is a free-market commonwealth. Each mentor owns their own classes and determines their class fee independent of the Board. We do encourage mentors to take into consideration: their prep time, materials needed and/or provided, level of difficulty, age of students, and length of class time. Mentors will collect their own class fees.
Selecting a Phase of Learning helps both you and prospective students better understand your intentions and will directly lead to the success of the class. We also provide a supplementary, free-form box for clarification since the phases of learning are a continuum. This addition to the chosen phases of learning gives parents and students an even clearer picture of the mentor's target audience. If relevant, please consider including prerequisites, perhaps a single age or grade, as well as potentially sensitive material best suited for a specific audience. Ultimately, we want parents to feel empowered in determining which classes are the perfect fit for their students. However, please note that the required phases of learning selection is what will be used when categorizing your class.
The Descriptive Thumbnail is a teaser - an advertisement - to whet the students' appetite as they peruse all the offered classes. It is visible to the public and serves as an easy-to-understand synopsis of your class.
If the Description Thumbnail is the movie trailer, and the class is the movie, then the Vision and Purpose is the storyboard. It provides greater detail and explains your passion for the material. It also gives prospective students an idea of what your hopes are for them - the experiences, skills, or wonder you want them to take away from the class. It may include a syllabus as well as methods to be used (e.g. lecture, discussion, symposium, simulation).
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Clear expectations for parents and students keeps everyone moving together on the same page. While iFamily strongly recommends the use of inspirements over requirements, and an understanding of our opt-in environment is critical, we also support the individual mentor's right to use methods and techniques suitable for their class's content and phase of learning.
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Materials and supplies that are not included in the class fee, but which are necessary for a student enrolled in your class, must be outlined in this section so parents can understand the full cost of the class before applying.
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What is your ideal for both class length and duration? Our schedule is incremented by 50 minute blocks with a "passing period." In order to best serve the many classes and students gathering at iFamily, we allow class proposals to request one of these four options: 1 semester/50 minutes; 2 semesters/50 minutes; 1 semester/1 hour & 50 minutes; 2 semesters/1 hour & 50 minutes.
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Our Mentor Coordinator works tirelessly to include as many requests as possible and all requests are considered. Please understand that our current facility limits some of our freedom when scheduling classes.
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To maintain the excellent standards of iFamily Leadership Academy, and to honor the commitment made by parents and students of your class, the Board requests a plan for the use of a substitute if illness or an emergency were to require your absence. Please remember that other parents may be mentoring that same hour and expecting their children to be safely in class. Your absence impacts them and thinking through a plan now avoids possible pitfalls during the semester.
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Our community includes people from many various circles and backgrounds. Given our differences, there will be mentors and/or classes that won't be a good fit for some families. We value our differences and want to foster transparency in a safe place so everyone may evaluate the fit of each class for themselves. Therefore, your bio should be specific to each class proposal so the values, presuppositions, or specific paradigms to which you ascribe that particularly relate to a class are openly shared. You may consider including your family, your education, your experience, your passions, etc.
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We also require a picture for at least the lead mentor.
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What do you need to make a determination for the fit of a student in your class? There is an example listed on the Mentor Proposal Form but other ideas might include: previous experience, a writing sample, phone interview, audition.
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Parents also need to know about your refund policy. As a reference point, iFamily Leadership Academy offers a full refund of all fees if a family chooses to leave within the first two weeks of class. However, we do not purchase supplies in preparation for individual families. So, think about your outlay of expenses and make a policy that is equitable for both you and your students.
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We are excited to invite a wealth of classes and ideas to the iFamily table. Diversity is strength. Diversity without any direction quickly turns to chaos. iFamily was chartered with a specific purpose and it is to that end that each mentor is required to sign the Mentor Agreement. We want our organization to stand fixed on its educational goal of supporting families as they grow leaders while remaining flexible to the nuances that define any given semester's member families. The Mentor Agreement ensures that we keep the first things first.
We are in the arena together
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.