Journal of Staff Development, Fall 2000 (Vol. 21, No. 4)

Copyright, National Staff Development Council, 2000. All rights reserved.

William Fox had mixed feelings when the principal assigned him to be a buddy for a first-year teacher at Kingston High School. He had just completed his fifth year teaching math and expected to finish his master’s at a nearby university the next semester. He wondered why the principal had asked him to take on this assignment and hoped it wouldn’t require any after-school time. He didn’t know how to mentor a teacher, but decided that he would be a friend to the teacher and hoped this would suffice.

The principal had a brief orientation for the seven first-year teachers and their assigned teaching buddies. Fox concluded that the meeting was more of an overview of school rules and procedures than a chance to clarify the expectations of the buddy system that had materialized over the summer break. At the end of the session, Fox met Tom Wilson, the new teacher, and encouraged Wilson to call on him when the teacher had questions or needed help.

A few weeks passed and Fox had not heard from the teacher. Fox felt that no news was good news but left a note in the teacher’s box to convey the notion that he hoped things were going well. The new teacher responded with a few questions about supplies and duties and not much of anything else. Fox peeked in on one of Wilson’s classes a few days later only to dis-cover that the toughest kids in that grade level had been "dumped’’ on him.

Wilson completed the first semester as a beginning teacher, then resigned before the year was over. Does this story sound familiar?

Mentoring programs for new teachers and for student teachers can help solve the problem. The current shortage of teachers should provide enough reason to mentor and take care of novice teachers so they remain in the profession. At the same time, it’s vital to the profession to provide professional development for experienced teachers, and mentoring is one way of doing just that.

So often, teachers who are asked to mentor a first-year teacher or a teacher new to the school have very little training on how to coach and mentor while teaching full time. In order for a teaching novice to feel success and for the teaching mentor to grow professionally, the mentor teacher should possess certain competencies.

Teacher mentors must understand the mentoring role and be committed to acquiring appropriate knowledge and skills. In some districts, mentor teachers have access to seminars and training opportunities that also provide mutual support among mentors. These teachers also may be offered released time to plan and support activities, observe novices and provide feedback, gather instructional resources, and team-teach to demonstrate effective teaching approaches. In other cases, a new teacher is simply paired with a more experienced one, as a sort of informal "buddy" — the way Wilson was paired with Fox — and each is left to figure out how to make the most of the mentor relationship.

Mentors need to take the first step to create a collaborative, colleague-to-colleague learning relationship. An ideal setting for first contact is a coffee or lunch organized by the school leadership to provide a social opportunity for new teachers to meet their mentors. If this doesn’t happen, an informal lunch at the mentor teacher’s invitation will provide an opportunity to lay the groundwork for an effective collegial relationship.

At this first meeting, the mentor teacher can provide an informational packet about the school district, a student handbook and a faculty handbook, a map of the school and other information that will help the new teacher begin to feel part of the professional community. Mentors should encourage their colleagues to talk about their teacher preparation programs and previous teaching experiences, and they should ask what kind of mentoring support the novice would find most helpful. Mentors should also share something about their own educational and experiential backgrounds and establish a context within which the mentoring relationship can grow.

Once the new teacher has reviewed basic information about the school community, the mentor and novice should meet to discuss specific goals and objectives related to the mentoring relationship and the novice’s teaching performance. Points to cover in this conversation include:

At each of these early stages of the mentor relationship, the mentor should initiate contact and create an atmosphere in which the novice feels supported as a colleague and a full partner in the professional life of the school building.

In any work environment, newcomers look to more established colleagues to help them learn the ropes. Mentors can help first-year teachers learn what’s expected of them as professionals and as faculty members, and how to meet those expectations. By sharing "shortcuts" to creating learning materials, planning lessons and handling the paperwork, mentors can reduce job stress and allow first-year teachers to prioritize their schedules to focus more time on teaching tasks.

The part of this new role that’s often most difficult for mentors is giving constructive feedback to the first-year teacher while maintaining a relationship as peer and colleague. Halford (1998) clearly states that the primary role of the mentor teacher should be support provider, not formal evaluator. "Simply put, new teachers need someone to talk to." (Halford, p. 35). The novice needs freedom to stretch developmentally by implementing new lessons, managing student behavior, and teaching content; the mentor needs to encourage this freedom while being available to guide, provide helpful feedback, and be a sounding board for the novice.

A peer relationship can be beneficial to both the mentor and the novice. According to Glickman (1990), teachers strengthen their skills and professionalism by interacting with each other, by trying new approaches in the classroom, by sharing ideas with peers, and by using peer input to evaluate and revise their teaching strategies. A successful mentoring relationship will make the most of this kind of collegial interaction.

There is no one way to teach, nor is there a guarantee that interns and beginning teachers will follow and adapt a mentor’s techniques according to their emerging teaching styles. But mentors can assist novices in translating content knowledge and skills into successful classroom instructional behaviors. One of the most effective ways for a mentor to help a novice develop his or her teaching skills is to demonstrate a reflective approach to teaching, self-evaluation, and implementation of new ideas.

Many new teachers will have practiced reflective activity as part of their teacher preparation program, and they may be familiar with an assessment tool that they can use in their professional work. If not, a mentor can provide guidelines for making reflection part of their daily teaching practice. One way to regularly capture thoughts is by creating a "What’s Working/What’s Not?" journal. In this way, the teacher can record notes about such topics as classroom management, activities and assignments, and instructional delivery. Another idea is to create reflection and feedback forms similar to the one above, to capture both the novice’s self-evaluation and the mentor’s input.

For many interns and first-year teachers, classroom management presents high levels of dread and anxiety. Mentors can help reduce these feelings by encouraging ongoing dialogue, sharing classroom management strategies, and modeling appropriate teacher–student relationships. Peer support is important, as well. Novice teachers need to know that all teachers develop their own approaches to classroom management, and that it is natural to try a variety of strategies before deciding which ones are most effective for a particular group of students.

A new teacher may appreciate a mentor-provided classroom management checklist. This tool would be useful as a guide while observing a mentor teacher model effective strategies, and as a reminder in his or her own planning of classroom management strategies. A checklist of classroom management standards can also be useful as a reflective tool, for self-evaluation, or for conferencing with the mentor. Items on such a list might include the following:

Interns and first-year teachers need to be able to work appropriately amidst diversity in the school community. However, novices haven’t always been able to teach in diverse settings or to reflect on their beliefs concerning diversity. Mentors can help novices, and themselves, by sharing in the effort to examine their personal beliefs and biases concerning diversity issues.

Assessment tools are available to help teachers — experienced and novice — evaluate and articulate their subconscious assumptions about others. Informal discussions are also effective in helping educators discover and understand their biases. Together, mentors and new teachers can honestly examine their assumptions about students. For example, they may consider whether they believe that intellectually gifted students are self-motivated and self-disciplined; whether female students are easier to teach than male students; or whether their teaching practices reflect a belief that at-risk learners are slow learners and unmotivated to improve their skills.

Such hidden expectations or assumptions can negatively impact a teacher’s ability to work effectively with students and colleagues. When mentors provide opportunities for these peer conversations with newer teachers, both novices and experienced teachers can become more productive in their classrooms and more professional in their peer relationships.

Mentor teachers are — or should be — selected because they are leaders in the school and effective educators in the classroom. They are likely to be busy and dedicated to their teaching. Mentors can view mentoring as just another obligation in an already crowded schedule, or they can embrace it as an opportunity to deepen their skills and professionalism. Mentors need an attitude of being lifelong learners and must understand that mentoring is an opportunity to develop leadership skills in themselves and in those they mentor. The least successful mentor-novice relationships are those in which mentors convey negative attitudes about their roles as mentors, about their jobs, or about the mentoring process as a whole.

Just as critical as retaining beginning talents, experienced teachers need opportunities to keep their fire alive, and mentoring new teachers is one way for experienced teachers to do that. Mentor teachers should be given the support and the training to become successful mentors. The time has passed when teachers volunteer to be a "buddy" to a new teacher or are asked by administrators simply to "help" the novice. A mentor needs specific characteristics as a teacher before assuming this very important role in a new teacher’s life. Perhaps with a formal mentoring program established in schools, the new generation of teachers will have a more caring, nurturing, and successful rite of passage into the teaching profession.

Gordon, S. (1991). How to help beginning teachers succeed. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Glickman, C. (1990). Supervision of instruction. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Halford, J. (1998). Easing the way for new teachers. Educational Leadership, 55(5), 33-36.

Podsen, I. & Denmark, V. (2000). Coaching and mentoring first-year and student teachers. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

Whether you’re a mentor in a structured program or you’re responding to an informal request from a new colleague or a building administrator, here are some questions to help you assess the role of mentor and your readiness to serve in this capacity:

Consider these questions within the context of your school’s approach to mentoring novice teachers. Whether you have a formal arrangement or you’re coming to the aid of a beleaguered new colleague, understand the mentor’s role in creating a positive, productive partnership.

The following competencies of reflective teaching can provide a framework for modeling reflective teaching practices:

• "Beginning teachers’ perceptions of mentors," by G. Huffman. & S. Leak. Journal of Teacher Education, 37(1), 22-24 (1986).

• Effective teaching and mentoring, by L.A. Daloz. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1986).

• Enhancing professional practice: A framework for teaching, by Charlotte Danielson. (Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1996).

• How to help beginning teachers succeed, by S. Gordon. (Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1991).

• "Lifesaving 101: How a veteran teacher can help a beginner,’’ by M. Delgado. Educational Leadership, 56(8), 27-29 (1999).

• "Mentoring with a mission,’’ by S. Brennan, W. Tahmes, & R. Roberts. Educational Leadership, 56(8), 49-52 (1999).

l Mentoring the new teacher, by J. Rowley & P. Hart. Videocassettes. (Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1984).

India J. Podsen is an associate professor at North Georgia College and State University, School of Education. You can contact her at the Education Bldg., Dahlonega, GA 30597, (706) 864-1527, fax (706) 864-1886, e-mail: ipodsen@ngcsu.edu.