Is there a mandate in place called NTLB: No Teacher Left Behind?
Many districts, like my own, require new teachers to engage in some sort of induction program with a designated mentor. But how are teacher mentors truly supposed to know what their mentee needs? In our classrooms, we can usually trace data on our students' language proficiency, math scores, former teachers, behavior, and even health. We can ask former teachers in the building, "Hey, how strong was Jorge in reading last year?" We can seek out our special educators and ask for advice how to best support a student with special needs, and then after ALL that, we can intentionally plan a differentiated lesson to meet our students' needs.
But how do we, as mentors, best support a new teacher? Do we call their former professors? Do ask Teach for America to create a "one-pager" giving us stats on this particular individual-- "On a scale 1-5, how well do they handle classroom management?" Do we find health and behavior records? No! As much as mentoring a new teacher is similar to teaching, it is exceedingly different. How do we best prepare a teacher to mentor a new teacher? What are the most necessary features and efforts of a mentor? When do we give our new teachers constructive criticism? When do we teach them all those darn educational acronyms? When do they just need a hug?
Let me "backwards design" my project and begin with my objective. As my school's coordinator of the New Teacher Induction Program, I am currently putting my heart into creating a positive and worthy experience for 27 new teachers. Thus, I selected mentoring new teachers as my action research topic. I want to find out what works and what doesn't. I want to learn what other sites are doing nationwide. Overall, I want to learn how to change and improve my practice. Upon researching articles, books, and previous studies, and writing my literature review, I've found there are various philosophies as to how to mentor teachers and how to implement a new teacher program. Based on findings and my knowledge of my own site, I've developed a plan of action in my research, which includes: surveys, interviews, focus group, field notes, and a questionnaire. I will gather data from both mentors and mentees answer some of my big questions.
27 new teachers! That is a lot. Charlotte-mecklenburg schools had a great mentoring system when I was down teaching down there. It was very helpful to me being a brand new teacher. I wish they had that everywhere.
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