Save the Teachers: Mentoring Plans for New Teachers

What's the number one way to support students at struggling schools? I'm sure you can think of many answers to this question, but I think one of the best ways to support students is to support new teachers with effective mentoring programs. Mentoring programs should be established to provide new teachers with a strong foundation and support system as they learn the art and science of teaching. According to The New Teacher Project, the way to close achievement gap is to recruit, train, and retain effective teachers in high needs schools. They propose that helping new teachers with instructional design and delivery in addition to classroom management and cultural issues is the key to success. The New Teacher Project believes that new teachers should be provided with mentoring and professional development in the following areas:

• Setting Rigorous Academic Goals
• Use of Appropriate Assessments
• Creating Standard-Based Lesson and Units
• Applying Differentiated Instruction
• Use of High Impact Teaching Strategies
• Addressing Misbehavior Effectively
• Using Diversity to Promote Achievement
• Developing Rules, Procedures and Consequence
• Effecting Change in the Classroom as a Newcomer

New Teacher's have different needs than more established teachers. They can benefit from the following supports:

• How to plan and support students learning by establishing routines and procedure for the beginning of the school year
• How to manage and organize the classroom
• Help with becoming familiar with the curriculum and State and Common Core State Standards
• How to assess student learning, and plan instruction based on students' needs. 
• How to differentiate instruction bases on students' learning needs

Here are some steps your school can take to establish a mentoring program:

Establish time for Mentoring:

• Mentors should visit new teachers two times per week in order to plan lessons and/or model lessons and conference with them.
• Mentoring should occur during the normal school day
• Mentors and teachers can communicate via email during the days when the mentor is not onsite or available for in-class debriefing
• Mentors should observe the teachers, discuss both areas of strength and areas in need of improvements during one-to-one conferences.

Mentor Matches

• Choose the mentor based on his/her expertise in literacy, math, science, social studies, classroom management techniques or more subgroup specific expertise such as English Language Learners or Student with Disabilities.
• The mentor should provide ongoing support of the new teacher, and keep a log of their interactions and meetings.

Beyond Mentoring (Additional School-Based Support)

• Assign new teachers to work with grade level or subject area leaders to discuss school policies and procedures.
• Inter-visitations can be arranged for the new teachers to see best practices delivered by his/her colleagues.
• Ongoing needs-based professional development should be provided to support teachers in their content areas.

Evaluation

• Establish a Mentoring Committee to discuss improving the tenets of the program as well as to discuss results of implementation on an on-going basis.
• Collect data that will highlight the impact of mentoring on student achievement.
• School administrators should analyze the effectiveness of the mentoring program  through formal and informal observations of new teachers.

Teaching is a very difficult job and the best way to improve teacher retention and improve student achievement is to support our new teachers with an effective mentoring program that will provide our newest teaching professionals with as much support as possible.