LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

LEARN NC Virtual Mentoring Program

LEARN NC mentors are experts in their subject matter and have effectively mentored teachers in their own school systems. Whatever the challenge, LEARN NC will be there from the first day of class through the final bell of the year.

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Start Dates

Note: For teachers unable to begin Virtual Mentoring: Biology on August 20, we will enroll additional participants on August 27 and September 3. Just sign up for the August 20 section, and let the registrar know your preferred start date.

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Related pages

  • Communicating with parents, colleagues, and administrators: Effective communication is often about avoiding problems rather than solving them. These resources on communicating with parents, participating in a mentoring relationship, and working with colleagues and administrators will help you communicate effectively in a number of situations.

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LEARN NC’s Virtual Mentoring program helps schools retain new teachers by augmenting their existing induction efforts online. Because LEARN NC Virtual Mentoring happens on the Web, teachers can get expert help at any hour, day or night. Best of all, in most cases it’s available at no cost to the LEA, school or teachers.

What is Virtual Mentoring?

Participants in LEARN NC Virtual Mentoring receive:

  • One-on-one training: LEARN NC mentors are experts in their subject matter and have effectively mentored teachers in their own school systems. Mentors will guide teachers through the curriculum, plus tricky areas for new teachers such as classroom management and parent conferences.
  • Professional learning community: Teachers will form a professional learning community of instructors teaching the same subject, each sharing his or her successes, challenges, and unique perspective on how to confront instructional issues.
  • Full curriculum access: Participants in LEARN NC’s Virtual Mentoring program receive access to a fully developed, online curriculum plan aligned to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study to use as a year-long course template or a reference for individual lessons.
  • Free: Most LEARN NC Virtual Mentoring experiences are available at no cost.

Why Virtual Mentoring?

According to a recent study by The Education Commission of the States, mentoring programs are shown to have a positive impact on retaining teachers, one of the biggest issues facing schools today.

Teachers leave the profession at an alarming rate. Consider these statistics:

  • One-third of all new teachers leave the profession after three years.
  • Forty-six percent of teachers leave the profession within five years.
  • New teachers are 2.5 times more likely to leave teaching than experienced instructors

(source: National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future)

A Virtual Mentoring program ensures teachers have access to the content and classroom management expertise that can help them succeed in the classroom, leading to fewer headaches and fewer resignations.

Enroll now

LEARN NC Virtual Mentoring experiences have already begun for Fall 2008. More will be available for Spring 2009. Please keep checking this page, or subscribe to our news updates so you’ll be notified when the Spring Virtual Mentoring experiences are open for enrollment.