Who We Are
Our Mission
We are on a mission to promote professional learning, well-being and efficacy for educators through various forms of supportive mentorship.
Our 8Cs of Mentorship
The Mentoree’s 8Cs of Mentorship build onto the 3Cs shared in Mentorship Matters by Wellman, Humbard, and Lipton.
Our Vision
Our vision is to support educators by continually learning, fostering connections, and creating opportunities to reflect and grow.
Our Values
Community
We value learning with and from each other.
Caring
We value authentic reciprocal relationships that have individual agency, dignity, and belonging at their core.
Choice
We value self direction and agency as key aspects of effective professional learning.
Collective Efficacy
We value the shared belief that we can create and sustain a community of educators who support each other, evolve each other’s pedagogy, and improve each other’s teaching practice. This leads to collective efficacy while also fostering self-efficacy.
Connection
Connection is at the centre of everything we do.
The Lead Team
Noa Daniel
Noa Daniel MEd is a teacher, consultant, the Chief Building Officer at Building Outside the Blocks (BOB) and the co-founder of The Mentoree.
Noa is also a podcaster, a children’s book author, blogger, and keynote speaker. She hosts the weekly live OnEdMentors show on VoicEd Radio. Noa blogs about her work in and outside of school including, chronicling the continuous growth of at The Mentoree.
She is also a TEDxKitchenerEd Talk and keynote speaker. Noa loves to present on the power of mentorship in education, among other topics. Noa is also a director on the board of Learning Forward Ontario.
Noa is a Mentor and our Director.
Teri Rubinoff
Teri Rubinoff PhD is an Ontario Certified Teacher (Special Education Specialist).
She has held a variety of roles in education including classroom teacher, special education teacher, literacy teacher, and special education consultant (K-12) in a large public board of education in the Greater Toronto Area. She has also been a university lecturer in the areas of early childhood and disability studies.
She earned her PhD in Education at York University in Toronto where her research focused on teacher education, inclusive education, and disability studies. She began her involvement with OnEdMentors as a mentor and is thrilled to be part of the leadership team!
Teri is a Mentor and our Programming and Research Coordinator.
Christine Chin
Christine Chin is a classroom teacher and leader who is dedicated to student success and well-being.
She is a French Immersion teacher dedicated to creating and nurturing collaborative learning cultures that support teachers, students and their families. Christine is also a teacher-librarian. Her experiences have informed her understanding of how to support students who face specific challenges within the French Immersion setting.
As an NTIP Mentor and Literacy teacher, she has enjoyed the process of supporting teachers to further develop their skills and continue along their learning journeys. Her participation on the Leadership Team at The Mentoree has allowed her to be inspired by others and find creative ways to give back to her community.
Christine is a Mentor and our Operations and Digital Infrastructure Development Coordinator.
Leading in the Community
Melissa Jensen MEd has enjoyed supporting educators in their professional learning and continues to do so as a retired educator. She is happy to share the expertise learned from her variety of teaching and leadership experiences as a educator.
Being a Mentor and the Community Outreach Coordinator at The Mentoree allows Melissa to use her well-developed networking and collaboration skills to generate podcast ideas and assemble panellists to share their expertise and leadership on the #OnEdMentors podcast hosted by Noa Daniel.
Melissa is a strong advocate for self-selected professional learning and knows that she benefited greatly in her teaching career by learning from others outside her school and district. The Mentoree community embodies the professional learning opportunities to support educators on their lifelong learning journey.
Melissa Jensen
In various roles – from classroom teacher to senior leadership positions like superintendent and associate director of education – Karen Friedman, MEd., has led with passion and conviction.
Upon retiring from the York Region District School Board, she declared, “Education is in my DNA!” Now, as The Catalyst Coach, she mentors upcoming leaders. As a key Motivator for The Mentoree, Karen decodes the “Promotion Process” and provides invaluable insights and advice. As an OISE Senior Mentor Coach Lead, Karen guides the mentors of OISE students as they hone their mentorship craft.
Many current leaders credit Karen as their mentor. Karen serves as an executive at Leadership Forward Ontario, where she helps enhance professional learning across Ontario. Finally, as Strategic Advisor to The Mentoree Leadership Team, Karen lends her strategic expertise to our forward-thinking organization.
Karen Friedman
Our Story
The Mentoree began as a collaborative inquiry into the impact of a 1:1 self-directed mentorship experience on professional learning and student achievement. Through a phased approach, we created a community that supports 1:1 self-directed mentorship experiences as professional learning to strengthen teacher efficacy and impact student achievement. Our goal continues to be fostering responsive, reciprocal and non-hierarchical relationships between Mentors and Mentees and among the community at large. Even the name itself blurs the lines between Mentor and Mentee.
Our Full Story
It all began with the OnEdMentors podcast — the longest running live show on voicEd Radio created to mentor preservice and new teachers. Today, vibrant and informative weekly discussions take place among passionate educators addressing questions, exploring perspectives and learning from each other.
In an effort to make mentorship more accessible to teachers at any stage of their career, Noa Daniel went to Leigh Cassell of Digital Human Library to help broaden the reach and impact of OnEdMentors by exploring how mentorship could be a primary source of professional learning and change for educators. They wondered how they could create a space where teachers could go when they wanted to learn and grow on their own terms and on their own time. Building on the name OnEdMentors, the vision for OnEdMentors Connect (OEMConnect) was formed in January 2018.
After engaging a small team of mentors and critical friends, Noa and Leigh launched a collaborative inquiry into the impact of a 1:1 self-directed mentorship experience on professional learning and student achievement. Through a progressive phased approach in the months that followed, our community continued to grow and evolve into the thriving community of mentorship available to educational professionals today.
Building on the success of OEMConnect, Noa and Leigh began imagining a space to house a variety of services that focus on mentorship for educational professionals. It wasn’t long before they were playing with names for this new space (one of Noa’s favourite things to do), like The Complimentary. What resonated most with the founders was the latter half the word Complementory because it sounded like the blending of mentor and mentee. Naming the organization The Mentoree would say everything they wanted it to.
The name represents a reciprocal, non-hierarchical mentorship community that blurs the lines between mentor and mentee. The Mentoree would focus on mentorship as a primary source of professional learning for educators at any stage in their career. We all have something to teach, and we all have something to learn.
Today, The Mentoree is run by a leadership team led by Noa, and it has become an even more collaborative community. We’ve extended our offerings beyond but including 1:1 Mentorship. What began as a small group of educators exploring mentorship has evolved into a thriving community of educators dedicated to learning from and with one another.
The success of The Mentoree would not have been possible without The Mentoree Leadership Team and the Mentors and Mentees who are actively engaged in the community, making it a more supportive and inspiring place for everyone.
We all have something to teach, and we all have something to learn.
Join Us!
– Noa Daniel, Christine Chin, and Teri Rubinoff
The Mentoree Leadership Team
Quick Links:
Our Recent Posts:
Get in Touch:
Register for Events:
