What To Do With The New Teachers

              I am excited and a little nervous about the upcoming school year.  I’ve been put in charge of my schools mentoring program for new teachers.  There are some things I have going for me in this role, but there’s also a lot that I’m unsure of.  As I try to peer into the future of this program, the road is shrouded in a fair amount of mist.

              Things I have going for me: I was a new teacher once, and I have very clear memories of what the biggest challenges were and of the key lessons that helped me overcome them.  I’ve had a couple of student interns in my classroom before, so I’ve had some experience coaching new teachers.  I’ve been on several selection committees for my school’s teacher of the year, so I’ve had some experience doing observations, albeit these were all master teachers rather than developing teachers.  I’ve been deeply involved in providing professional development to teachers.  This has been mostly in the Orchestra field, but I’ve done a few for general ed teachers as well.

              Things I’m unsure of: I was a new teacher once, and memories of formative learning are frequently obscured by the passage of time and the consolidation of skills.  I’ve never really been able to throw a good party.  That is, I tend to be all about the business of getting the job done.  The soft skills of building and maintaining relationships and doing little things to keep morale up have never been strong suits for me.  There are a lot of new teachers this year, and I will have do several observations and conferences with each of them.  I’m worried about finding the time for it.

              I’ve been reading some journal articles on mentoring – a thank you is due here for all of the resources linked in our discussion forums on effective PD and mentoring! – trying get ideas about things I should try.  I’ve seen some good case studies about mentoring programs that work compared to those that don’t, and I hope I can apply some of that ahead of time so I can miss a couple of the common potholes that seem to be out there.

              In a meeting with my principal, she told me that teacher retention is a key measure for a school, and that I’m now on the front lines of helping people get in and stay in.  In teaching, people are often ‘thrown to wolves’ by being left on their own in a classroom without anyone there to walk them through the process and give corrective feedback in real time.  I’ve never had any other job that left you on your own as quickly and completely as teaching does.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to help our new staff feel a little more like someone has their back than I did when I first started out.