Laying out a Timeline

Need some ideas for possible next steps to take with your mentee? Not sure about how to think about your mentoring year in terms of “the big picture” month by month? Check out Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman’s Mentoring Matters pp. 13-17. Here you will find an array of ideas for mentoring conversations that are appropriate at various stages of the academic year.

Lipton and Wellman identify the mentoring role in terms of three functions: As mentors we Offer Support, Provide Challenge, and Facilitate Vision.

Their calendar of options suggests appropriate monthly mentoring topics that align with each of these three functions. An effective mentoring relationship balances the functions – we keep the work challenging, with overarching goals and vision in mind, and we give support or guidance when it is needed.

Go grab your copy of Mentoring Matters and check it out!

Lipton, L. & Wellman, B. (2003) Mentoring Matters: A Practical Guide to Learning-Focused Relationships. Sherman, CT: Mira Via, LLC.

Coach Training and Orientation - What's what?

What is the difference between the "coach training" and the "BTSA or Intern Orientation"?

"Coach Training" is a multi-day training provided to introduce you to the New Teacher Center's Formative Assessment System. The first year of coach training includes a three day training on the foundations of coaching including goal setting, observations, analyzing student work, and understanding context. In the second year, the training covers coaching strategies to address equity, the learnin g needs of special populations students, and English Language Learners.

BTSA or Intern Orientation is a one-time meeting wherein the requirements for BTSA or Intern program completion is reviewed. It is important to attend the Orientation for the program in which your mentee is enrolled. BTSA teachers have a Preliminary credential and are obtaining their Clear credential. Interns are enrolled in a university program and are earning their Preliminary credential.

All coach training dates are now posted on the NTSD website. Look for the google calendar link at the top of the page. Please register for trainings.

The Way is Right Before You

The title to this entry summons a fairly commonplace Zen saying - "The way is right before you." As it is true in life, so it is true in mentoring practice. Our mentees give us countless opportunities to introduce new information or offer support in specific ways that are meaningful to their professional lives. In mentoring terminology, we call these opportunities "entry points." Come to mention it, this term has a bit of Zen flair to it, too. By paying attention, and then acting strategically in our mentoring role, we are offered the "entry" by our mentee colleague to focus our work together. In the last two weeks, I've come across plenty of entry points with my mentees. Among them: "I don't understand how teachers find the time to develop daily plans, link them to standards, and on top it all, write whole cohesive units. I don't know where to begin..." or "I feel very confident about what I'm teaching, it's finding the resources to make labs happen that's feeling like a challenge right now..." or "Our school is nestled here in this community, yet there is little parent involvement. I'd like to learn more about how to involve parents in the school community - I intend to start right here in my classroom." What are some of the entry points you have heard this week? How will your mentoring be strategic in terms of steering the two of you along the way? By acting on offered entry points, we simultaneously reinforce trust -- trust that is established as a result of our attention, integrity, skill, knowledge, and respect. Fortunately, we have a pretty hefty toolbox to draw from. I view our mentoring tools as the skeleton around which the heart of the work forms - meaningful, reflective conversation. Mentoring is the practice of guiding our colleagues towards actualizing their professional potential. Remember, it is always right before you.

Calendar the Time

Why do we set aside a regular, weekly, calendared time to meet? Because it establishes a rhythm to the work we are engaged in with the colleague we mentor. It also establishes a core message -- you matter, I matter, and what we will learn together matters. It's that simple. There are other benefits. I have found over the years that meeting with a mentee every week at a set time results in the greatest growth in practice -- and growth in practice that our mentee can name within the mentoring relationship is a powerful weekly boost to professional esteem and energy. It also results in a habit of mind on the part of each of us to "show up" for reflection on pedagogical practice. Last year, a mentee said to me, towards the end of the year, "this time...our time together...this is the real work...this is where it happens!" That was nice to hear - but the real reason "it happened" was because he showed up. Every week. So I encourage you to get out your calendars this week - do it face to face with your mentee, or make a phone call - but do it. Set aside the time. Both you and your colleague will benefit beyond words from this simple action.

Thanks for reading.

Alison.

Beginnings

One can be drawn to the idea of needing the right words to begin. I'm going to put that aside and share what I can, with the best words I can find, about being a mentor to new teachers. After eight years of mentoring, as well as benefitting from hundreds of hours of professional development on mentoring, it only seemed right to take the time to share what has been shared with me. I will begin by acknowledging that most of what I have learned about being a mentor has been learned through the process of mentoring - through relationships with the teachers I've mentored - teachers who, from the first day, I always consider my colleagues. My gratitude extends to them for trusting me and for trusting the work.

So we begin. This week marks the beginning of a new school year. While we are probably accustomed to first-day-of-school jitters by now, for many of us, mentoring a new teacher may be an entirely new aspect of our professional life. For others, we are entering yet another year of mentoring - and we know just how much craft goes into doing it well! My goal in writing this blog is to offer succinct weekly insights about the art of mentoring a colleague. In some cases, I will share what I am doing in my own mentoring work. In other cases, I will offer a key concept regarding the craft of mentoring. On other occasions, I will draw from a book, article, or professional journal that may be of use to all of us. Lastly, I will write about a variety of mentoring tools we use in our work and align those entries to the time of year that we are most likely to use specific tools. I welcome your insights, feedback, successes, and challenges and hope this blog will become a place where we can support each other and share our best practices.

For this week, for tomorrow and the next day, the heart of our work is about getting to know our mentees - getting to know everything we can know about them. This is a time to build a relationship based on trust - one that is grounded in mutual understanding. Even if you are in your second year of mentoring a colleague, take some time this week to approach your mentee with "I don't know you" eyes. Find out something completely new about them, and avoid relating via assumptions. Operating on assumptions can lead us to guide our colleagues in areas where guidance is unnecessary, or to overlook pivotal areas of practice wherein reflection is key. Assumptions also create a relational block - what you are actually meeting via an assumption is your own idea about a person rather than who they may be. That makes the work about you, rather than the individual being guided. This breaks down trust rather than building it.

We want to build trust.

A central aspect of building trust is creating the space in our work to put ourselves aside and listen. Rather than walking through a mentee's classroom door this week with our own personal agenda about what they should do or what they need, the only agenda we should have is to sit down and ask them questions about themselves - and then listen. Where did they go to school? What brought them to teaching? What are they passionate about with regards to their content? What are their dreams for the coming year? Where do they feel confident? How are they unsure? Where did they grow up? What do they want to know about their students? What do they want their students to learn? Their answers to these and any other questions that may surface in the midst of the conversation will show you the way to the next "right step" for offering genuine support around areas of strength and need that you identify together.

Enjoy this week - and at the end of every meeting, I encourage you to say "thank you."

Thanks for reading - and welcome!

Alison.