Many schools in the US have formalized the process of mentoring novice teachers as their way of inducting the new teacher into the teaching profession. They run Mentoring Teachers Programs, which enable a newbie to adjust to the new teaching career through the assistance of a veteran teacher. In these programs, the veteran teacher, the mentor, coaches the new teacher on several areas in teaching such as how to prepare lesson plans and execute them, how to handle students of different ages and characteristics, how to teach more effectively in different kinds of settings, how to resolve classroom conflicts and the like.
Benefits to the New Teacher
The program leads not only to improved teaching skills but also to increased job satisfaction on the part of the new teacher. According to Evenson in his book on mentoring teachers, the new teacher benefits in three ways. First, the program allows the new teacher to easily adapt with the school environment. Aside from helping the new teacher get acquainted with the school’s staff and facilities, the mentor also teaches him how to observe and cope with the school’s rules and regulations.
Second, the program allows the teacher to establish teaching competence. This is achieved as the mentor provides the new teacher with opportunities to observe, assess, and practice his and other teachers’ teaching. The process encourages feedback from and constant communication with the mentor.
Lastly, the program introduces the teacher to teaching as a continuously developing and a life-long profession. If the new teacher feels that he gets as much support as he can from colleagues and the school administration, he will likely stay in this profession and would gladly make himself available as well for future teachers who would need his assistance.
Other Benefits of the Program
The benefits of mentoring programs are far reaching. It is not only the new teachers that benefit from the program but all the participants in the program including the mentor, the student and the school as a whole as well. Thus, mentoring programs are seen not just as a form of assistance to the new teacher but as a vehicle for the improvement of the school’s whole educational system.
For the mentor, the program serves as another opportunity to share his wealth of experiences, knowledge and skills. Much of these skills and knowledge are not found in books or reference materials. They are accumulated through time through extensive training and professional practice. Without the mentoring programs, these experiences, knowledge and skills gained and acquired through time may gradually fade away.
In a way, the mentor also improves himself as a teacher in the process of mentoring. He does this as he reexamines his professional experiences inside and outside the classroom and as he provides tips and guidelines to the new teacher.
Moreover, the mentoring program provides him with an added source of income as mentors are usually compensated for the extra services they render.
Students are directly and indirectly benefited with this kind of program as their new teachers gain more teaching skills and knowledge, which are imparted to them. Ultimately, the students learn more things and enjoy their classes more when the teacher is prepared and well versed with the topics he or she is discussing.
A research conducted by Southwest Educational Development Laboratory to study the mentoring programs in Texas reveals that many districts see mentoring teachers programs also as a vital retention strategy. The study recognizes that the attrition of new teachers is among the cause of shortages of teachers in some schools.
There's a shortage of special educators these days. Special education teachers are badly needed by almost all of school districts today. They are wanted in 98% of all the educational institutions of the U.S. And over the next years, more than a million new special educators are required.
Special educators leave their jobs a lot faster than regular teachers. This is because of the tasks that are placed on their backs. Special educators are tasked to manage IEPs, give alternative assessments, become paraprofessionals, use assisting technologies, comply with complex legislation, and write all the paperwork. All of these they have to do, on top of the emotional and physical toll of doing individualized instruction.
The effective way of mentoring special educators play a special role in their development and preservation. To mentor special education teachers, the following should be done:
1. Effective identification, recruitment, and selection of mentors.
There may be a handful of special education teachers. But only a few of them are really up to the task. Before training a teacher to be special education teachers, they have to be psychologically, physically, and emotionally up to the task.
2. Provide adequate action planning
With the many tasks facing a special educator face, mentors should take part in the action planning process in everyway they can. Mentors should be always available for the teacher could confer with them. Mentors should take part of the special educator's task every time they can.
3. Continuous evaluation
The evaluation of special educators should be continuous. The regular evaluation of special education teacher is going to be helpful in determining whether or not the skills and abilities of the teachers are up to the present challenges of their job. Should teachers fall short, they can easily update their knowledge through retraining.
4. Address diminishing support
Diminishing support for special educators is real. Expect this to happen even if you have tried hard to provide the support special educators need. Whenever the support of your team to special teachers is failing, address it with a special meeting to solve the immediate problems the teacher encounter at hand.
5. Check instances of isolation and burnout
The psychological and emotional toll of teaching special education is high. Teachers get drained out most easily if they feel isolation from their peers and experience burnout with their work. Try to check the level of isolation and burnout teachers have. Solve it by offering out of town team building activities, regular brainstorming and interaction with colleagues.
6. Conduct regular counseling with teachers
Teachers should be subjected to regular counseling sessions, whether they need it or not. This would help teachers a lot, because they could share their stories, experiences, frustrations, and successes with a person that could really help. Regular sessions would help teachers with their day-to-day activities.
7. Facilitate workshops and trainings
Special educators need to update their knowledge through trainings and workshops. These activities are very important because it allows them to learn more techniques that could help them a lot in their daily jobs. Make sure that the workshops and trainings made for teachers are as lively and as fun as it should.
These are the things can do to properly mentor special education teachers so that they won't give up their jobs easily. These professionals are very important in the society. Their roles are indispensable so they have to be given the proper attention they need.
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