Navigating the Eye Care Employment Sector

Economic uncertainty over the past several years has led many people to explore new opportunities for long-term employment. Healthcare represents one of the largest and most appealing industries for people who enjoy improving the quality of life for patients and who can handle the frustrations that sometimes come with direct patient care. The fact that there are so many different avenues that can be taken in healthcare often creates confusion for those who are trying to find the path that is most appropriate for their needs. One field that is commonly overlooked is that of the eye care industry which includes both medical and retail departments. Individuals who are looking for lots of room for career advancement and a relatively laid back work environment are encouraged to consider the many options available in the vision specialty.

Most eye care establishments have both medical and retail departments that complement each other. Personnel who work on the medical side of the business include assistants, technicians, optometrists, and ophthalmologists. These occupations represent progressively higher levels of education and training as well as compensation. Individuals who are uncertain which profession is most suitable for them are well-advised to begin their career as an assistant or technician and then decide on whether or not they want to pursue one of the more advanced fields after they have gained some experience. While the assistant and technician opportunities require relatively little education and training, the optometry and ophthalmology fields require a minimum of eight years of college and may include long postgraduate training programs.

How to Mentor a New Teacher

Teacher mentoring is an important part of a teacher's first year. New teachers tend to struggle especially in the areas of classroom management and lesson planning. This article outlines the steps involves for giving a new teacher the support s/he needs during the first year of teaching.

1. Observe the new teacher's lessons. After observing a few lessons, the mentor should begin a weekly schedule for providing feedback whereby mentors share his/her observations, positive notes and areas s/he thinks should be improved. Mentors should take note of what worked particularly well and which areas need improvement without criticizing or judging the teachers. Mentors should be available to help new teachers on a frequent and regular basis.

2. Sit with the teacher in a room with minimal distractions. Sitting in the teacher's room is not a good idea! Together with the new teacher, try to sum up the lesson. What went well? What needed improvement? Give the new teacher the chance to come up with the answers by him/herself. [see a list of guiding questions below] Provide a few guiding questions if necessary. When were the students most engaged? When were they not focused?It is important for mentors to encourage teachers to stop and think after giving a lesson whether it was a good one or not, and why. This is not in order to indulge in self-congratulation or regrets, but in order to have a basis for their own learning from reflection on experience: this lesson was unsatisfactory, what could I have done to improve it? Or: this lesson was good, what was it exactly that made it?

How to Write a Mentor Teacher Report

In most situations, mentors for student teachers are provided with a form to use when they compile their reports. These forms vary in their content, so read them carefully before filling them out. As a mentor teacher, you provide reports that the student teacher can learn from. Because of this, include the positives and the negatives of the student teacher's instruction. Let the student teacher know what she is doing right and provide concrete, constructive criticism illustrating what she needs to improve.

1. Read the student teacher's lesson plan to make sure that the content standards are addressed, the teaching objective is defined and the procedure is logical.

How to Be a Mentor to a Troubled Child

There are thousands of children across the country that need mentors. Mentoring a child in foster care or from a bad home situation is a positive way to impact their lives and give them a good role model to communicate with. People often avoid being a mentor because of the uncertainty of how to be a good mentor. Here are some tips for mentoring a troubled child.

1. Be a friend. Your job as a mentor is not to be a surrogate parent or an authority figure, but to be a friendly face for the child to communicate with. Spending all of your time together lecturing them or trying to teach them right from wrong will only alienate them and make them feel like you are just another adult who can't relate to them.

2. Relate if you can. It will help the child you are mentoring to feel that you understand them if you share similar experiences that you have had in your own life. It doesn't have to be a huge revelation to be helpful; agreeing with them that little sisters are annoying and sharing a story or two about your younger siblings will help them feel closer to you and make it easier for them to talk to you.

How To Develop a Leadership Training Structure

Given the high number of executives who are reaching retirement age, and the increasingly competitive international business market, corporations that don't have a structured leadership training program in place might not have a leg to stand on in a few years. Today's leaders need to be innovative, and they need to have someone in line to take their place when they are not able to lead any longer. Developing a leadership training structure will ensure that your corporation remains viable during times of conflict and change.

1. Determine the type of material you want your leadership training program to cover. For example, do you want all managers to participate in mandatory diversity training? What about the topics of conflict resolution and innovation? And, do you think it would be wise to incorporate some elements of succession planning training into your course offerings?

2. Choose one or more delivery platforms through which leaders will have access to the training materials. Keep your managers' needs and time constraints in mind. For example, if you are going to implement group leadership training sessions, live or virtual classroom instruction might work best. But, if you want managers to be able to access training materials whenever they are free, self-paced Web-based training is more flexible.

3. Mandate that all managers and senior level executives, regardless of seniority, actively participate in the new leadership training structure. Encourage them to apply new leadership techniques that they are learning to their daily workday in order to assess the validity of the training materials. Then, make adjustments as needed.

How to Implement Leadership Training

Business owners and senior executives understand that developing competent leaders within their organizations is key to maintaining a competitive position and fostering future business success. Implementing a successful leadership training program should start with senior management and flow throughout the organization. No matter what leadership training program you choose, implementation begins with assessing organizational culture and training needs, and follows a process that includes effective communication of program goals and expected outcomes.

1. Assess your organizational structure and culture and the specific needs of your internal leaders to decide what type of training program to implement. If the organization has a definite hierarchy, you should present the leadership training program first to senior leaders, then to others lower on the organization chart. If the organizational structure is flat, with many people sharing similar responsibilities, the leadership training program should be more team oriented, with everyone participating from the start.

2. Establish goals for your leadership training program. If your company is planning a major expansion, the training should emphasize not only a vision for the expansion, but also one for future employee recruitment and development. If the company is established but needs to improve its processes, the training should stress how to meet the goals for improvement.

How to Provide Leadership Training

Leadership training is essential for persons who work in a decision-making capacity. A company or organization provides leadership training to equip employees with the information, skills and tools to help them to become effective leaders. Leadership training can be offered through seminars, conferences, meetings or training courses. The training should be tailored to suit the specific needs of the company or organization because different entities and work environments require different types of leaders.

1. Identify the needs of your organization's leaders.

2. Assess the company's strengths and weaknesses to determine how to manage the entity and how to equip leaders with the tools they need need to operate on a day-to-day basis.


3. Plan a leadership meeting, seminar or conference. Attendance should be mandatory for people who manage others. You will want to include trainers and assistants as well.

4. Address the areas of leadership relevant to your company and print out key points and notes and distribute them at the meeting or seminar.

5. Give a presentation that discusses the issues affecting your organization's operation. Detail the company's strengths and weaknesses in relation to the role of leaders.