Mentoring matters

How mentors can serve as role models, helpers, and colleagues.

By Evalee Parker

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Related pages

• Building your own support network: How to take charge of your own professional development and break through the isolation of the classroom.
• Conversations, questions, and answers for a beginning teacher: A kindergarten teacher begins her career with an excellent support network.
• Learning from new teachers: Mentors can share in the hope and enthusiasm of new teachers.

Related topics

• Learn more about beginning teachers, mentoring, professional skills, teacher leadership, and teacher support.

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The purpose of the North Carolina mentor program is to assist beginning teachers through the induction phase of teaching. The five purposes for teacher induction programs are:

1. to improve teaching performance and collegiality,
2. to increase the retention of promising beginning teachers,
3. to promote the personal and professional well-being of beginning teachers,
4. to satisfy mandated requirements for induction and/or licensure, and
5. to transmit the culture of the system to beginning teachers.

To reach this goal, the skills of mentors must be enhanced to successfully help these beginning teachers with the difficult transition from student teacher to teacher. Mentors need the following:

• Commitment. Mentors must want to help others, want to share ideas and materials. They should be at a stage where they want to continue the cycle and give back to the profession.
• Training. Mentors need to be knowledgeable about the state’s induction requirements. They also need training in working with adult learners, active listening, cognitive coaching, and the reflective process.
• Time. Mentors not only need to have some time to spend with their mentee, they also need time to develop their practice as mentors. They need opportunities to examine their beliefs about teaching and time to discuss the dilemmas and problems that arise in the course of mentoring. This helps contribute to the “culture of mentoring” in which teachers work together to improve their teaching. Class coverage or release time may be needed in order to do this.
• Support. Mentors need support from the school administration, from other mentors, and from other teachers in the school. Having leaders, especially principals who are committed to helping beginning teachers succeed, makes a critical difference.

Teaching is a difficult job, even for experienced teachers. It requires intelligence, preparation, creativity, determination, and perseverance. The expectations and demands of the job are overwhelming, especially when teachers are expected to meet the needs of all students, handle mountains of paperwork, establish positive connections between home and school, and manage their time and stress effectively. Many beginning teachers feel discouraged because they enter the profession with such high hopes and idealism only to find the work challenging, not enough time to plan effectively, and not enough support. Although they have been through a teacher education program, many don’t feel fully prepared because that experience was largely a collaborative one, unlike their classrooms where they can easily feel isolated and deserted.

In order to retain more teachers, we need to reexamine our teacher support models. We can’t continue doing the same thing and expect different results.

The role of a mentor is so important to the success of a beginning teacher. Mentors are role models, helpers, and colleagues. Here are some specific ways a mentor can fulfill these roles (adapted from the Cabarrus County Schools Mentor Handbook):

• Display a positive attitude.
• Give of your time and support.
• Share resources, materials, teaching strategies, and ideas.
• Actively listen!
• Practice and encourage reflective thinking.
• Be a lifelong learner.
• Be a questioner who promotes thinking, analysis, problem solving, and planning.
• Be a leader who guides and sets examples.
• Be an assessor who recognizes readiness for new challenges and growth.
• Be a motivator who encourages and challenges.
• Be a facilitator who enables a beginning teacher to discover and build on new skills.
• Be a confidante who listens but does not share confidences.
• Be an advocate for your mentee and your profession.
• Be someone who cares and wants to help beginning teachers.

Tips for beginning teachers:

• Ask for a mentor if one is not assigned to you right away.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
• Take classes or professional development workshops.
• Keep current with best teaching practices.
• Read resources intended for new teachers
• Join a professional organization.
• Steer clear of the gossipers, whiners, and complainers!
• Take care of yourself!

Tips for administrators:

• Assign a mentor for your beginning teachers as soon as possible.
• Provide beginning teachers with a reasonable class assignment and schedule.
• Gradually add extra duties and responsibilities.
• Visit beginning teachers’ classrooms frequently and informally. Provide feedback on these visits.
• Provide release time for beginning teachers to network and collaborate with colleagues.
• Provide opportunities for professional development for beginning teachers

The strength of a mentoring program is for everyone to commit to an active role in the development of a successful professional for the future.