Sunday, February 3, 2008
Mentoring
Mentoring for both teachers and principals is so important. I was glad to hear from the class that most schools are like mine and they have mentoring programs, but they are not used effectively. Mentoring programs can be so useful for new teachers and administrators to get them off to a good start. Mentors have to trained and given resources to help them be more successful and administrators must be supportive of the program. Before a mentoring program is started the goals and objectives must be clear, the leadership of the program must be in tact, and following through/evaluation must be constant. Over all mentoring is a great way to provide confidence for new teachers as well as cut down on teacher turnover.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Our school does not have a formal mentoring program. I think one needs to be in place. It is very hard for a new teacher to come to school and be expected to automatically go to work. There is so much more to teaching than just teaching. Someone needs to help the newbie with paperwork, supply issues, layout, protocol, IEP and other necessary accomodations,and so many other small things before actual teaching even comes into play. If the teacher is a first year teacher the questions and tasks at hand may be overwhelming. So many new teachers are so overwhelmed that they get frustrated and begin to drown in all of it. Sadly this is when a new teacher may decide to take another career. If the person has a good role model and someone that they can count own for a helping hand it will take so much of the stress out of the day and allow the new teacher to actually enjoy the reason they are there. That is to teach.
I think one important aspect to remember in the mentoring process is that you have to let new teachers take risks and make mistakes, and then discuss as a mentoring team what you learned from mistakes. Although a "mentee" often is a new and first year teacher and comes in thinking they have all new ideas, they should have the oppurtunity to apply their ideas. Even if paired with a a great mentor, it is important that new teachers learn from mistakes made in the classroom and take risks, rather than be "trained" to be a replica of the mentor.
Post a Comment