Mentor's guide

By Kristi Johnson Smith

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Related pages

• Communication: The key to successful mentoring: Building support systems begins with asking for help — and giving it.
• Learning from new teachers: Mentors can share in the hope and enthusiasm of new teachers.
• Building your own support network: How to take charge of your own professional development and break through the isolation of the classroom.

Related topics

• Learn more about mentoring and teacher leadership.

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My first words to any veterans, mentors and administrators reading this section should be “thank you.” The support and counsel you offer new teachers is invaluable. It is my hope that The First Year will assist you as you assist those new to the teaching profession.

The purpose of this section is to detail ways in which you might use The First Year to enhance the work you are already doing. Some of you may be working with large groups of novice educators. Others may be working one-on-one with the new teacher down the hall. Regardless, the individual articles may serve as a way to introduce a topic for discussion or as an initial response to a topic about which a new teacher has expressed concern.

In a large group

Imagine for a moment how the articles might be used in a large group forum. In that setting, you are responsible for assisting dozens of new teachers, each confronting a different set of classroom challenges. Your goal is to provide foresight into issues these teachers may not anticipate, counsel about concerns already consuming them, and support for them as individuals in a stressful new setting. You may begin by addressing issues that affect all of the teachers (and might use a relevant article to introduce that discussion), but you also recognize that beyond the general guidelines that benefit everyone, you need to know and respond to their individual needs.

One way to do that is to choose three or four articles and ask the new teachers to read them. Once they have done so, ask them to identify the article that addresses a topic they would like to discuss. Allow them to move to different sections of the room, congregating with small groups of others interested in talking about the same issue (and ideally, a mentor who can facilitate discussion within each group).

1. Encourage them to begin by sharing why they chose the article. Does it remind them of an issue they are currently facing?)
2. Move into a discussion of the issues. Would the article’s suggestions work for them? What other approaches have proven effective or ineffective in their experience?
3. Conclude with a brief period of reflection. Was there anything in the article or discussion that might help them in their classroom? if nothing else, have they identified other new teachers with whom they can collaborate about common concerns?

If there is time, have individual groups report back to the larger community. Overall, the hope is that the articles will inspire the groups to engage in reflection and discussion, while reminding the new teachers that they are not facing the struggle alone.

Timely topics

Whether you are working with a large group or with an individual teacher, the chronological organization of the articles in this collection should help you identify topics that are timely and relevant to what your new teachers are facing at different points during the school year. You can use that organization to identify topics those teachers might need to discuss.

Don’t forget, though, that the best way to identify timely topics is to simply ask new teachers to identify their current challenges! At one point, new teachers may reveal that classroom management is the most pressing issue. At another, they may express concern over administrative observations occurring throughout the school. Use their responses to guide future professional development sessions and individual conversations. (If you would like to introduce those sessions with a relevant article, the index will help you find what you need.)

Key themes

Offering the articles piecemeal (as opposed to viewing them as a chronological collection) serves many needs, but may obscure a few key messages that are delivered and explored throughout The First Year. You may find it useful to articulate those messages while facilitating discussions about individual articles. Doing so lets participants know that the individual practices recommended in some of the articles work best in classrooms where practitioners are also working to manifest the following beliefs:

• Teachers must build relationships with their students, and there are practical ways to establish and maintain those interpersonal connections.
• Investing time in those relationships with students will reduce management issues and inform instruction. Management issues are reduced when students feel valued and safe, and when teachers understand who students are, why they make certain choices, and what they ultimately need. Instruction is improved when teachers know their students and can identify each student’s potential points for personal connection with course material.
• Instruction should be engaging, relevant and purposeful. A successful day is a day in which students have learned.
• It is important for teachers to take care of themselves while caring for each of their students.
• Parents, colleagues and administrators want new teachers to be successful. New teachers should not be afraid to ask people in those groups for help.

Thank you!

I’ll end with another thank you, and with a sincere hope that whether you are using the articles to help an individual teacher, or many individual teachers in a large group, you find the collection a useful resource. In the words of one new teacher, “We’re in this together.” Together, we can help our new teachers — and their students — achieve incredible goals.