Mentoring

A strong relationship with a highly qualified mentor is essential to facilitating maximum growth in new teachers.

New Teacher Alliance Examples:

• Mary M. Knight School District had an informal mentoring process, since its district consists of just 16 teachers. But the district now has a formal program with five trained mentors. The mentors serve as a network of specialists, help one-on-one with curriculum content and conduct bimonthly meetings that include conversations about expectations, life in a rural community, student engagement and discipline, and grade books.
• Raymond School District created an induction program that included matching mentors with new teachers and meeting at least monthly. The pairs come together for meetings to address concerns of new teachers: parent communication, classroom management, proper questioning techniques and just-in-time topics. An unanticipated benefit of the mentoring program is the professional stimulation for veteran teachers.

Great Ideas from Around the State:

• Establish a “mentor roundtable” that brings mentors from a district or region together on a regular basis to discuss topics of interest, practice skills and share the latest research.  
• Send mentors to mentor-specific professional development opportunities such as Mentor Academy, Mentor Tune-up and the statewide Mentor Symposium.
• Encourage mentors to observe each other as they conduct learning-focused conversations with new teachers.
• Have mentors co-observe in new teachers’ classrooms, later discussing together possible supports, resources and next steps for the teachers.

Resources for Mentoring:

• How to Develop a Coaching Eye. Stephanie Feger, Krostine Woleck, and Paul Hickman.  National Staff Development Council, available on the Web at www.nsdc.org/library/publication/jsd/feger252.cfm.
• Mentoring Matters: A Practical Guide to Learning Focused Relationships. Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman .  MiraVia, LLC, Second Edition, 2003.
• The 21st Century Mentor’s Handbook: Creating a Culture for Learning. Paula Rutherford. Just ASK Publications, 2005.
• Click here to view our Concept Map.

The New Teacher Alliance brought together a group of mentors, teachers, and district personnel who work with new teachers to write mentoring cases regarding the dilemmas that educators face when working with new teachers.  The group produced five cases that describe the various complexities surrounding new teacher induction.

When Do I Tell and Who Is Responsible chronicles the dilemmas mentors face when new teachers struggle in the classroom.

Survey Says . . . . We Have More Questions than Answers highlights the difficulties in implementing a new teacher induction program into a district that had only an informal program before.

What Are Mentors For describes the concerns around working with a group of educators who do are becoming mentors but have not had all of the training.

Change Will Do You Good discusses the complexities of implementing a statewide grant based induction program.