CHRIS
TOY
Diary #5
New
Teachers Making Smooth
Transition - with Plenty of Help
This past week I've focused on making sure to be out and about around the school and in classrooms. I've been in classrooms or in team meetings for at least one third of the day for each of the days since school began. I've been pleased with what I have seen, especially from some of the new staff.
What's been good is that each of the four new staff members are on each of the teams in school. The new 6th grade math teacher is new to teaching, but came to us through the university's ETEP program which is a teacher training program for professionals in other fields who have decided to enter the teaching field. He's experienced in life and has a middle school aged child. Our new art teacher is fresh out of the undergraduate teaching program at the university. Our new 7th grade math teacher is a nine year veteran middle school teacher from nearby Massachusetts, and our new 8th grade literacy teacher came to us from the high school. He taught in a more traditional junior high setting and seem to be enjoying the change, although he does admit to being challenged by the age group. Peer support is a wonderful thing While visiting team meetings the past couple weeks I've noticed that the teams have naturally become the peer support group for each of the new teachers. Each of the new teachers has mentioned on several occasions how important it has been to them to have a supportive team of teachers to answer questions, provide advice, and to work with. I feel lucky to have an organizational pattern in the school that helps the new staff. It's not just the team structure either. Each new teacher seems to have latched onto a member of his or team as a mentor or guide. The new art teacher works in the room adjacent to our technology education teacher, who also is the unified arts team leader. The art teacher has described his role as being a "life saver" for her, as she has had to learn practically everything from scratch. I earlier asked the Tech Ed. teacher to act as her mentor and he readily agreed to help her out. The new 7th grade math teacher has proven to be an exceptional resource in the classroom. In the couple hours or so that I've observed him I've seen someone who has the ability to help students understand how math works while he is teaching them the basics. By doing this he is able to easily differentiate instruction to challenge the students who are further along in their understanding and still give students who need more concrete explanations time to understand. Anyway, he has done a great job of making a first impression on the students and the parents, even the parents who are struggling with our move toward heterogeneous grouping in the 7th grade. A promising new group Due to the construction in our building I had to double up some homebases so I doubled the new 7th grade math teacher with the 7th grade science teacher. She is also an excellent teacher and has a great sense of humor as well as being easy going and very open to others. I asked her to serve as a mentor to him. I think this is working out very well. The new 6th grade math teacher is working out with the 6th grade team...literally. The 6th grade team has decided to take care of their physical fitness together and jog together a few times each week! I think this is great. He is one of two math teachers on the 6th grade team. The other math teacher is also the 6th grade team leader. I've asked her to keep an eye on him. In addition to the team and the team leader as support I also scheduled the new 7th grade math teacher to teach in the new 6th grade math teacher's room once a day. The 7th grade teacher is very open to other adults being in the room while he teaches, so the 6th grade teacher has been able to observe him on a daily basis. This is definitely a good situation. The 8th grade literacy teacher is working out very well too. He has developed a rapport with the students through his strength and expertise as a story teller. Each time I've been in his room I have seen him end or begin each class with a funny or interesting story or joke. Each of them was thought-provoking as well as funny. I've also seen that he understands that middle school students need some pretty concrete, organized ways of obtaining, organizing, and writing about information across the content areas. Anyway, he has made connections with his team as well. He will be involved in the literacy curriculum group. It just so happens that the lead teacher of this group is on the 8th grade team and teaches language arts right next to him. So, I've got four very promising new teachers, one one each team. Each one seems to have an effective mentor. Not a bad beginning, given what's happened since school started a couple weeks ago.
