Some Thoughts about Teacher Mentoring

Also see this page on teacher mentoring resources

A few of questions dealing with mentoring submitted for list discussion:

1. What is your experience with mentoring?

2. What does it take to build trust between teaching peers?

3. If a group of teachers in your school decided to come together on a
regular basis to discuss education topics, would you participate?

Tom Guttormsson
Marshall, MN Junior High School
tbgbp@starpoint.net

Trust develops on an individual basis


I have been a Mentor in my school building for some time now. My
experience has been with first year teahers and, also, with student
teachers and their cooperating-teachers in my building.

I think that trust is something that a Mentor/peer develops on an
individual basis. If someone looks to me as a mentor, in whatever
capacity I am needed, I nee to establish that the relationship is
between us and does not necessarily result in reports to those in
charge, as well. Nobody likes to have someone looking over their
shoulder if they know that every action may "get back" to the powers in
charge.

You asked "if a group of teachers in your school decided to come together on a
regular basis to discuss education topics, would you participate?" Of course I would participate, whether as a peer or an administrator. It is important for me to know what is going on in my school and this would be an optimum opprtunity.

Barbara Ross c/o Irving Park Middle School
3815 N. Kedvale Ave.
Chicago, IL 60641
bsross@starnetinc.com




Critical Friends meet each month

I am part of a group of teachers who meets at least once a month to discuss our work and our development. The group is part of the Critical Friends Initiative of the Annenberg Institute. Our group started two years ago. The first year was mainly a time to develop trust. The second year we began to visit each other's classes and examine student work. Three of us are now teaching a summer institute which we designed for student enrichment. Next year we will be developing professional portfolios to document our growth as educators. It's only been two years, but I can't imagine going back to the isolation of not having a group like this one.

Deborah Bambino
Science Leader
Central East Middle School
dbambino@mail.phila.k12.pa.us
(Deb is a MiddleWeb teacher diarist this year. She writes about her Critical Friends Group in her weekly diary entries.)



California teachers who examine student work

There's a wonderful issue of Horace magazine (Coalition of Essential Schools) titled something like "Teachers Working Collaboratively Together" which outlines several approaches to the examination of student work. Unfortunately it's not on the Web at this time. The Harvard Education Letter has a couple of articles on the process but only have excerpts on the Web. Do you know of any web resources for this? Please send them to MiddleWeb if you do.

Also see Linda Darling-Hammond's article:
How Can We Ensure a Caring, Competent, Qualified Teacher for Every Child? and in particular, her recommendation for more first-year mentoring programs.

And we posted these stories about a group of Calif. social studies teachers doing this work. It's amazing to watch!

http://www.middleweb.com/Hooverpromo.html

John Norton, editor, MiddleWeb
Norton@middleweb.com

Every teacher could benefit from a mentoring experience


While there is no mentoring program in place in the school where I teach, I was lucky enough to be assigned to a grade level with two other experienced teachers who helped me immensely throughout the first year. I was thrilled to have someone to go to for advice or just to talk over the events of the
day.

I think every teacher, first year or seasoned, could benefit from such an experience. If such a group were to form in my school I would be one of the first to sign up. The least I can do is to pass on the favor to another first year teacher.

Delilah
D/J Walton
dwalton@CSWNET.COM

The Importance of a Good Start:
Birmingham's TEACH Mentoring Program


Here's a story by frequent MiddleWeb contributor Anne C. Lewis about a mentoring program in Alabama that one teacher says made her first year of teaching "a dream."

Most teachers remember their first year of teaching as months filled with stress and high anxiety. "To tell you the truth, it was hellish," says one five-year veteran. "I almost didn't make it."

Being a first-year teacher means staying up late every night developing lesson plans-and struggling every day with the realities of classroom discipline and management, subjects that were often glossed over in your teacher education classes. Overwhelmed with trying to move so many students along at the same time, new teachers just hope to get through the year "without messing up," says Susan Buseniehner, a mentor teacher at Snow Rogers Elementary School in Birmingham, Alabama.

Read the whole story about a districtwide mentoring program for new teachers