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• What difference does mentoring make for Christian teachers?
• How does The Cultivate Project work?
• I'm interested in The Cultivate Project. Where should I start?
• How long does it take to go through The Cultivate Project?
• How do I access the Assess/Equip/Engage/Track features of The Cultivate Community?
• How does The Cultivate Project differ from The Passing the Baton DVD Training Course?
• What age of students does The Cultivate Project work best for?
• Do you provide live in-service training to help kick off The Cultivate Project?
• Can teachers get continuing education credit for going through The Cultivate Project?
• Can I study The Cultivate Project by myself or do I need to be part of a Christian school?
• How much does The Cultivate Project cost?
• Is The Cultivate Project faith-based?

What difference does mentoring make for Christian teachers?

We encourage teachers to look for and take advantage of opportunities to influence students one-on-one and in small groups. But even before such opportunities arise, we encourage teachers to view students through the lens of relationality rather than simply through the lens of content conveyance. We call this a “mentoring mindset” because it helps teachers view their students as mentors would view their mentorees-with warmth, caring, support, and acceptance, as well as honesty, a goal-orientation and a focus on accountability.

Such relational skills are conclusively and overwhelmingly related to student success. Consider just a few insights from the volumes of academic research on the subject:

• Interpersonal relationship skills of teachers were significantly associated with achievement motivation and self-esteem of students.
• Students’ sense of being liked, respected and valued by a teacher predicted whether they would value the subject matter and expect success.
• Students who believed their teacher cared for them believed they learned more.
• Teachers who expressed greater warmth tended to develop greater confidence in students.
• Programs targeting bullying and other anti-social behavior in school have had mixed results at best, but a program in which risk students were mentored by adults in the school context resulted in significantly fewer reports of bullying behavior and lower feelings of depression.

How does The Cultivate Project work?

There are three components of The Cultivate Project: a book, a professional development training course, and an online community:

• Book. Cultivate: Forming the Emerging Generation Through Life-on-life Mentoring, by Dr. Jeff Myers and Paul and Paige Gutacker, offers a new paradigm of mentoring that shows potential mentors how to release their mentoring gifts, form a variety of helpful mentoring relationships, and mentor the emerging generation in discovering life purpose, knowing and living the truth, and influencing others.
• Professional Development Training Course. The Cultivate Project Professional Development Training Course includes two components:
• The Cultivate Project Professional Development DVD: A high quality production bringing top teacher-mentors together to grapple with issues educators face as they seek to exert a stronger personal influence on students, such as, “How do I find the time?” “How should I handle over-dependent mentorees?” “How can I interact safely with students?” and dozens more questions. While these video segments are just 15-minutes long each, they provide the foundation of 14, 45-minute-long training sessions that spark discussion, peer coaching, and mutual accountability as teachers apply what they’ve learned.  
• The Cultivate Project Professional Development Implementation Playbook: A detailed guide that gives school heads the tools they need to ensure a smooth implementation of a school-based mentoring program. These include branding and ownership strategies (communication strategies to increase ownership among board members, teachers and parents, press releases, and website/brochure text), a detailed three-layer implementation process, facilitator guide, and assessment tools that measure school climate and student spiritual attitudes and practices.
• Online Community. The Cultivate Community is an innovative online resource that enables Christian teachers and administrators to implement a thoughtful, professional mentoring model that includes assessment tools, mentoring plans, mentoring engagement advice and training, and tracking/goal-achievement tools.

I'm interested in The Cultivate Project. Where should I start?

For Christian schools: We recommend leading your faculty/staff through The Cultivate Project Professional Development Training Course. Along with the course, you’ll want to pick up a “Teacher Kit” for each participant – which includes a copy of the Cultivate book and a yearlong access to The Cultivate Community. These two things will launch teachers into a whole new way of understanding their calling and relating to their students.

For individual educators: we recommend starting with the Cultivate book which offers a new paradigm of mentoring that shows potential mentors how to release their mentoring gifts, form a variety of helpful mentoring relationships, and mentor the emerging generation in discovering life purpose, knowing and living the truth, and influencing others. You can also sign up for an individual Premium Membership for The Cultivate Community, where you’ll gain access to additional training, a searchable database of mentoring solutions, dozens of easy-to-use mentoring plans, tracking tools, and much more.

For other organizations: We recommend getting a copy of the Cultivate book for each member of your board and staff. Then, to fully resource them to be the most effective mentors they can be, provide each member of your organization a Premium Membership to The Cultivate Community.

If you have any questions please call us at 423-570-1000 or e-mail service@passingthebaton.org.

How long does it take to go through The Cultivate Project?

If you are using the Cultivate book along with The Cultivate Project Professional Development Training Course, we would recommend going through one chapter and one DVD session per week. Including the introductory session, that would make for 14 weeks (or just about three and a half months) of 45-minute-long meetings.

If you are part of a school that is interested in The Cultivate Project, we’ve mapped out both one year and two year schedules for full training, assessment, and implementation. Committing to at least a full year is the best way to ensure that mentoring becomes a meaningful part of your school’s culture.

How do I access the Assess/Equip/Engage/Track features of The Cultivate Community?

Click here to find out how you can become a Premium Member!

How does The Cultivate Project differ from The Passing the Baton DVD Training Course?

The Passing the Baton DVD Training Course gives biblical backing for mentoring, discipleship, and coaching as the way that Christ influenced the disciples—and offers a few practical suggestions for developing such skills themselves. The Cultivate Project is focused on intensive equipping of people to mentor the emerging generation (12-year-olds to 20-somethings). It provides very specific strategies on how to form and carry out intentional mentoring relationships with middle and high school students.

What age of students does The Cultivate Project work best for?

The Cultivate Project focuses on at the emerging generation (12-year-olds to 20-somethings). However, the mentoring principles in Cultivate can certainly apply to younger, elementary-age students as well as older individuals. By and large we’ve designed the project to pertain to middle school and high school students.

Do you provide live in-service training to help kick off The Cultivate Project?

Yes. Dr. Jeff Myers is available to be booked for a one day in-service during which he will make a compelling the case for mentoring in the school context, answer questions, explain how to get the most out of The Cultivate Community and consult with/coach school leaders in implementation best practices. Many schools view a day with Dr. Myers as an essential way to jumpstart The Cultivate Project. Please call Passing the Baton International at 423-570-1000 to inquire about in-service training.

Can teachers get continuing education credit for going through The Cultivate Project?

Yes, the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) offers 2 CEUs (your choice of either Biblical or Educational/Professional) for participating in The Cultivate Project Professional Development Training Course.

Also, through an exciting arrangement with Northwest Nazarene University (NNU), it is now possible for teachers to earn 1 graduate credit for hours logged while going through The Cultivate Project Professional Development Training Course. For more information, e-mail office@passingthebaton.org.

Can I study The Cultivate Project by myself or do I need to be part of a Christian school?

You can absolutely study The Cultivate Project on your own. Here are two good ways to do it.

1. If you’re looking for the basics, pick up The Cultivate Project Teacher Kit for $35 , which will give you everything you need to get started as an individual in life-on-life mentoring.
2. If you’re looking for a more thorough training experience, pick up The Cultivate Project Professional Development Training Course for $395. (We feel an individual could glean a lot from the experiences of the seven seasoned teacher-mentors featured on this 14-session DVD. However, keep in mind that this training course was designed to ignite small group discussion and spark school-wide change – so not all of the material will be immediately applicable to individual study.)

How much does The Cultivate Project cost?

The ideal way to do The Cultivate Project and to insure it really cements life-on-life relationships into the DNA of your school is to:

1. Pick up 1 copy of The Cultivate Project Professional Development Training Course ($395). Includes 14 professional development sessions on DVD, a detailed Implementation Playbook that provides all the resources you'll need to implement The Cultivate Project at your school, and one Teacher Kit for your use as an administrator.
2. Pick up a Cultivate Project Teacher Kit for each of your teachers who will go through the course. Includes a copy of the Cultivate book, a Cultivate audiobook download, and a one-year premium membership to The Cultivate Community online mentoring software (for $35 each).

Is The Cultivate Project faith-based?

The Cultivate Project was written and designed from a distinctly Christian perspective. It is not, however, affiliated with any particular denomination or church.