The ACTFL Mentoring Program is designed to help early career language educators succeed in their current assignments and learn the skills to be successful long-term in their careers. Mentors and mentees will be matched by language, level, interest, and location as best as possible. Two mentor programs are available: the traditional program for in-person educators and the distance language educator program for those who teach online.
Mentoring Program
Participate in the ACTFL Mentoring Program!
“If it weren't for the mentee/mentor program, I would not have been successful in my work at school. My mentor helped me tremendously with the standards, backward design, and great resources.”
Valerie Morgan
Lecturer, World Languages and Literatures, California State University, San Bernardino
Traditional mentoring program qualifications
- To be considered as a mentee, you must be a new teacher within your first five years of teaching. If you do not fall within the stated requirements, please include an explanation of your specific circumstance in your application.
- To be considered as a mentor, you must have five or more years of teaching experience.
Distance learning mentoring program qualifications
- To be considered as a mentee, you must be within your first three years of online teaching. Applicants may have more years of experience in a traditional background, but still qualify as a mentee if they are new to online teaching.
- To be considered as a mentor, you must have more than three years of online teaching experience.
All participants in the mentoring program receive access to an assortment of tools, including a copy of The Keys to the Classroom, Second Edition, excerpts from The Keys to Strategies and Enacting the Work of Language Instruction, Volume 1.
All work is conducted online through Zoom, email, phone, text, and the ACTFL Mentoring Program Community.
General Guidelines
To participate in this program, first, read the Program Guidelines, then complete the appropriate application on ACTFL Central through the Volunteer Portal.
- Applications Open: March 6, 2023
- Application Close: June 30, 2023
- Program Dates: September 11, 2023 - May 24, 2024
You must be a current ACTFL member to participate and apply for the program and remain an ACTFL member for the duration of the program. You will need to be logged in to access the appropriate application.
Non-members must join in order to access the applications. If you do not know your login information, please request your login information.
Applicants will be contacted after the sign-up deadline to confirm their participation. Applicants must respond to the confirmation email to be matched. Pairs will be matched in August, and sent additional information and materials after the match.
Questions? Contact us
Ready to begin your mentoring journey?
Ready to begin your mentoring journey?
During the appliction period, go to your ACTFL Central home page and click the "Volunteer Opportunites" dropdown. Fill out the Mentoring Program application, and we will take it from there!