When I started the IDOL journey, I thought “I’ve got so many transferable skills. I’m already qualified for many of these jobs!” I dutifully created a website, crafted an ID resume, and refreshed my LinkedIn profile. I knew I faced hard work to upskill and learn about the ID field, but I had time to invest and a big IDOL goal that seemed reasonable to me. But five months later, no job offers. Not even a single interview! “What gives?” I wondered. I already identified as a quiet quitter from my day job - that’s why I became an IDOL! Was I now also quitting on my career transition?
Sometime in 2019, my long-time enthusiasm for teaching began wearing thin. Twenty years of teaching freshman composition will do that to you, I reasoned. So I jumped into innovative teaching practices in an effort to continue learning and challenge...
Shouldn’t it be the adult learners’ responsibility to handle their mental health needs so they can access learning? Why should an ID even take mental health into consideration? Alumni, Mandy Brown, shares her answer.
When you design for learners, how often do you consider burnout? How often do you consider trauma? What about your learners’ survival responses? These are all questions I had to consider on a daily basis when I worked for a restorative justice center.
I tend to use “trauma,” “burnout,” and the “survival response” interchangeably when I speak with mentees at IDOL courses Academy. And while there is a Venn diagram of the three, some quick definitions might help.
The survival response (also called the stress response) is that deeply rooted instinct when one responds to danger, the fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses. We...
The one thing academy alumni, Mandy Brown, didn’t expect to get from mentoring was the very thing she needed while in a previous role. Read more to learn what mentorship has meant to her.
Mentorship Means Community
One of the most astounding aspects of mentorship has been seeing my impact. That wasn’t always something I had. When I worked at the restorative justice program, learners entered and left the program on individualized plans, and if they never returned, the leadership assumed all went well. (Given that this population was highly transient, this assumption was and remains problematic.)
Returning learners often forgot all the work we’d done from their last trip through the program. They’d remember me but have lost the learning we’d worked so hard to achieve.
So either I’d never see them again, uncertain of the results of my work. Or I’d see the same learners repeatedly and notice how...
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