New teachers face a myriad of challenges. The coaching cycle is designed to assist a new teacher with the transformation from emerging teacher to colleague. Quality teaching occurs with there is a genuine exchange of ideas. Therefore, the coaching cycle, or mentoring, while taking on different forms, really never ends.
The Mentor and Mentee and the Pre-Observation Conference
To be an effective mentor, much needs to go into the approach you take with your mentee. Part of the process will be, of course, observing the new teacher at work. But in order to do this effectively, a mentor/mentee need to collaborate on the observation.
During the planning conference for an observation, the mentee should identify:
- the type of lesson
- the goal of the lesson – especially as it pertains to district/state teaching standards
- a specific issue or concern that the new teacher may be having
How to Observe a New Teacher
A quality mentoring session has a limited focus. New teachers cannot be expected to learn the art all at once and dumping a list of objectives on a new teacher would be counter-productive. Instead, with the new teacher leading the way, discuss the focus of the observation and how the mentor will collect information. The observation should be as low key as possible. Obviously, some students will be distracted at first by the intrusion of another adult. Establishing the logistics of an observation will improve the likelihood of getting an authentic look at the classroom. As a team decide:
- when the mentor enters, leaves the room
- where the mentor will sit in order to be less obtrusive
- what kind of data the mentor will collect and how that data will be collected
Collecting Data from a Classroom Observation
Data collection can take on several forms, such as a narrative of the events during the class, or a checklist of observed behaviors. It is very important that data collection methods be developed collaboratively between mentor and mentee. Effective data collection focuses on an element in the lesson or a behavior in class that the mentee wants to know more about.
Time to Reflect on Teaching
If there's one thing that is lacking in teaching, it is the time to reflect on how things are going. Regardless, this is an important part of the process, especially for new teachers. Reflection can consist of back and forth journaling, a conversation, or a bulleted list of what was learned from the data.
The Post Conference Discussion Between the Mentor and Mentee
It's important for the mentor to be a great listener during the post conference stage. Remember, the mentor is a coach, not a "sage". Conducting the post conference as an opportunity to talk about what the mentor liked best about the new teacher's lesson, focus on the data collection and the specific issues that the mentee wants to address. Ask the new teacher for their outlook on the lesson, drawing specifically from the reflection the new teacher did right after the lesson. Some mentors like to narrow the conversation to very specific elements of the new teacher's work by:
- paraphrasing the mentee's observations of the lesson plan
- asking mentees how they decided to use a specific strategy
- asking mentees to clarify a part of the lesson or a rationale for a specific strategy
- commenting on the effectiveness of the lesson
- making non-judgmental responses to the lesson by asking the mentee to talk more about the observed lesson
- making suggestions to the mentee based on the mentor's own experiences
Making suggestions can be tricky. Never simply tell the new teacher what they should have done instead (unless there were some alarming things going on in the lesson). This is an opportunity to guide, not to indoctrinate, a new teacher.
The relationship between mentor and mentee will change over time, as the new teacher progresses from an emerging professional into an innovator and collaborator within a department. Mentoring is fundamental to that transition. By focusing observations on specifics within a lesson, the mentee will get quality feedback in a timely manner and be given the opportunity to think and grow as a teacher.
References
Induction for the 21st Century Educator. Illinois State Board of Education.(ICE, 2009). p. 17-27.
Catherine Aubrecht - I've taught high school students about writing (and literature) for 17 years, so now it's time to turn the tables a bit, practice what I ...
