The Things We Leave Behind

Meet Eve Shelton Jones.

ithin five years, 58% of our district staff would be made up of new teachers. I wondered: Who would carry forth the school's traditions? What would happen to the programs we'd all worked so hard to develop?

noticed that those who had done their student teaching at my school had an edge when they began teaching here on their own. Their schedules were just as difficult and their challenges just as daunting, but they knew how to get supplies, how to take attendance, and how to complete progress reports and report cards. Most importantly, they knew who to turn to when a student or class or colleague was getting them down. They already had mentors in the building.

couple of years ago, I learned that our superintendent expected that within five years, 58% of our district staff would be made up of new teachers. A bit selfishly I wondered: Who would carry forth the school's traditions? What would happen to the programs we'd all worked so hard to develop? The turnover for new teachers was already high. Many were leaving after only the first or second year. I knew that if new teachers did not put down roots in our system, everyone would suffer.

believed Somerville needed a formal mentoring program, and I wrote a memo to our union president to say so. As it turned out, she had been discussing that need with our superintendent, who shortly afterward assembled a mentor program advisory group made up of teachers and administrators. We held monthly meetings facilitated by an advisor from the Northeast and Islands Regional Lab at Brown University. During the course of a school year, our advisor helped us develop a time line, form committees, and design a pilot program. One year later, he and I would co-facilitate our first training of 20 twenty potential mentors.

t the outset, the group divvied up responsibilities. A program design committee decided upon mentor qualifications and wrote a job description, a communications committee developed a flyer to advertise for mentors, and a "matching committee" handled the applications and selected the pilot group. A staff development team designed a two-day training, and an evaluation committee designed an instrument to be administered at the end of our pilot year. All of us contributed to the design and writing of a Teacher Mentoring Handbook.

ur pilot year focused on four mentor-protege pairs. At our training, we asked teachers to recall positive and negative first-year experiences. Comparing their memories with what current literature tells us about the needs of new teachers, we found plenty of common ground and learned a lot. New teachers need a confidential, empathetic ear, a mentor who will take the time to listen and problem-solve without passing judgment. They need a coach they can trust who is comfortable acting as their liaison with the greater school community.

e learned that for a first-year teacher, it is more important to have a mentor in the building than it is to have a mentor who teaches an identical program. We learned the value of having someone who can fend off the administrator (however well-meaning) or nosy colleague who asks, "How's the new kid doing?" We learned that the new teacher is shocked at how different full-time teaching is from student teaching and has more of a need to learn classroom management skills than anything else.

ur current mentors have reported they would like the opportunity to work with their proteges on issues of standards-based curriculum and assessment during year two, when the rookies are no longer in "survival" mode. Some mentor-protege pairs found it difficult to establish regular meeting times; we now know that future pairs must set up a calendar of scheduled meetings in the fall. The advisory committee also needs to work with building principals about mentor-protege release time and issues of confidentiality.

ike the rookies, our advisory group has made it through the pilot year, and our next goal is to provide a mentor for every new teacher in the system. More than ever, we understand that mentoring is about more than just the needs of new staff. It's also about the legacy of a generation of teachers--veteran staff who want to retire from schools where students thrive because well-trained, committed teachers have put down roots and made those schools their homes.

Online Resources:

Creating a Teacher Mentoring Program

http://www.nfie.org/publications/
mentoring.htm

A great starting point, this comprehensive resource page outlines many of the issues and questions that school districts, teacher associations, and universities might consider when developing or improving mentor programs. The questions reflect the experiences and observations of teachers (both mentors and protégés, active and retired), district administrators, higher education faculty, and teacher association leaders. The content is based on the proceedings of the Teacher Mentoring Symposium of the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education (NFIE). Addresses topics such as confidentiality, criteria for selecting mentors, incentives, the matching of mentors and protégés, and types of training & support.

Mentoring The Bilingual Teacher

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/resource/mentor.htm

The National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education offers this adapted overview of the literature on the mentoring of bilingual teachers. Author María E. Torres-Guzmán uses a question and answer format to offer a definition of mentoring, discuss implementation efforts and common problems, and identify salient issues emerging from the pairing of mentors in bilingual settings. She also suggests alternatives to existing models. (Based on "Urban Bilingual Teachers and the National Standards: Mentoring for the Future," by María Torres-Guzmán and A.L. Goodwin in Education and the Urban Society, 28, 48-66.)

The Mentoring Leadership and Resource Network Homepage

http://www.contactpoint.ca/index.pl?section=mentoring

The MLRN is a grass-roots effort that is supported, in part, as a network of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Offers support and limited free advice to mentors and mentoring programs. Also publishes a newsletter, occasional papers on mentoring, and a membership directory.

Print Resources: