Mentoring program helps ease stress for new teachers
Nancy Horst, Special to the Gazette
Friday, September 3, 2010
When students returned to the classroom last month, 21 new teachers were beginning their education careers in Emporia schools. One comfort for a new teacher is having a mentor as a partner for the first two years.
Emporia’s Teacher Mentoring Program follows state teacher licensing guidelines that require new teaching professionals to work with an experienced mentor for the first two years of their career.
Wendy Moore, director of Instructional Programs, believes the program gives needed support for teachers just starting out. Principals try to pair new teachers with an experienced a teacher at the same grade level or in the same subject area. Moore said the majority of this year’s first-year teachers also completed their student teaching in Emporia, making them much more familiar with district curriculum and expectations.
As the mentoring program supervisor, Moore meets monthly with teachers who are new to the profession and their mentors. She also meets four times a year with teachers who are new to the Emporia district or in their second year in the profession.
“From my perspective, no amount of preparation a teacher can get in a college setting can fully prepare you for the classroom,” Moore said. “There are so many scenarios that come up every minute of the day that you can never prepare for all of them.”
After working as a tutor for three years at Village and student teaching for year at Timmerman, Jacob Kucza was quite familiar with Emporia schools when he was hired as a fourth grade teacher at Village. Yet, he is grateful to have a mentor and supportive teacher colleagues to help him “keep my head above water” during the first weeks of school.
“It is very different from student teaching,” Kucza said, “because every single day you’re in charge and you do not have a supervising teacher to fall back on for help.”
One of the lessons he learned from his student teaching was the need to have the same high expectations for every student. “I tell them that I’m going to ask them to do a lot of hard things, but I know they are all capable of it.”
He said he got acquainted with his mentor, Jill Jones, before the year started, and she has helped him with everything from where to find supplies, how to access special services, ideas for classroom management, and how to teach specific pieces of the curriculum.
Jones is one of 58 teachers serving as mentors in the district, and this is her third year in that role at Village.
“It is nice to be able to help a new teacher navigate through all the issues that pop up,” she said. “I want to help reduce their stress level.”
For the second year, Jones also is a mentor for Lyndsey Balkenhol, a second-year fourth grade teacher at Village.
“I definitely think the mentoring program is beneficial for first- and second-year teachers because it provides us with someone who can help guide us, answer questions and give us feedback,” Balkenhol said. “Your mentor also is a safe person you can go to if you have concerns.”
Both Kucza and Balkenhol praised the strong support system they have from all Village teachers, especially through their fourth grade Professional Learning Community. All Emporia schools use the PLC model for teachers to meet and discuss curriculum, student data, and plan lessons. At the elementary schools, the PLCs meet immediately after the early dismissal on Wednesday afternoons.
“I believe mentoring is a valuable part of the licensing process,” Balkenhol said. “It is an extension of the student teaching process, and having a mentor guide you is a process that are used to. It helped me make an easier transition.”
Mentors are asked to meet at least once a week with first-year teachers and every two weeks with second-year teachers. However, both Kucza and Balkenhol said they have frequent access to Jones through email and face-to-face conversations.
oh4theluvof (anonymous) says...
Good for these new teachers, but how did our district that was making all these cutbacks and having to find placements for tenured teachers where non-tenured ones had been, possibly have 21 teacher openings????????? Are these ones going to be booted at the end of this year to make room for the next batch like Mr. Awesome was?
The priorities in this district are confounding!
September 8, 2010 at 10:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )