What does mentoring influence look like?
by Jenny Combs on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 3:10pm
Share an experience:
- How has your work as a mentor impacted a beginning teacher's practice?
- How has your collaboration impacted the beginning teacher's students?
Comments
6 comments postedThank you all for your input! Talking about your mentoring experiences and impact reminds us of just how important this role can be for beginning teachers and their students.
We have talked thus far about how impact and collaboration of mentoring has demonstrated:
* teacher retention: our mentees stay in the field of teaching
* building leadership: our mentees go on to help others in the field
* inspiring creativity: our mentees find innovation and open their minds to meaningful instruction
*providing resources: our mentees now have a place to find reliable and accessible information
Please continue to share your experiences with your beginning teachers........how did your mentoring experience impact a beginning teacher and their students?
I think one hallmark of influence that I look for/seek is increased professional curiosity -- problem-identification and potential solutions that include students and colleagues in ways that I didn't see when the mentoring relationship began. Some of the new teachers I've worked with have wanted to initially "pour" their knowledge into students, only to find that students resisted such a passive expectation. When we were able to start inquiring into what students need-- what those specific needs were, how to teach to/create an fruitful environment for them, and why in those ways -- the relationship with students began to be more interesting and rewarding. The essential driving statement and question would become, "I find x really cool and/or important. What do I think needs to happen so my various students can *find* it cool/important, too?"
When I think about the teachers I mentored in the Bronx, especially those who were going through the "pit of [attitudinal] despair," what helped me consider my impact (and what I needed to adapt) was how well I/we fostered opportunities for a gradual release of teacher-directed (and centered) instruction . . . to find ways for the students to become the knowledge producers -- by doing and creating -- such that the new teacher could become coach to the students' knowledge production. Basically, when the new teacher phrased something similar to the essential statement and question, then I knew that my support was on a right track. Of course, teaching as inquiry isn't easy, but it does seem to provide more profound rewards . . . and the more rewards a new teacher sought and experienced through professional inquiry, the more I realized that my impact would have longer-term benefits for them and their students.
A young man I mentored years ago developed his creativity once I showed him how students became engaged through activities, use of manipulatives, and technology. He is very bright and knowledgable about mathematical topics but needed to bring his teaching down a few "notches" for students to respond to his teaching methods. His lecturing was not leading to success and he was frustrated. After observing my class one day, he was amazed at how much fun students were having with an activity on probability and candy. We collaborated, sharing ideas, encouraging each other. I sought his help in understanding the state formula for determining school progress. Unfortunately he left our school and returned to his home state. About two years later he visited me and told me that each year he told his students about how he had learned from me to teach using creative new ideas and methods. He also brought copies of some of his favorite activities to share with me. His goal was to finish his doctorate and begin teaching on a college level to train teachers.
I have been able to put out fires so to speak. It is so important to build a truating relationship so that when troubles occur we can truly help. I have been able to transform the new teaching experience for a few teachers by getting them resources (including SPED team teacher) that amde it possible to ger through the first year.
By getting the appropriate resources for the new reacher and to help guide them, so that their instruction resonates with their students
There are so many facets to teaching and experience in the classroom is really the only way an educator can learn MOST of what there is to know about management, resources, lesson-planning, relationships with students, teachers, parents, and the list goes on. Being a mentor has allowed me to be the one-stop resource that could help brainstorm ways to deal with all the different situations that come up in education. I have learned a lot from the new teachers I have worked with, as well, so it has been a true collaboration. I think students are impacted by getting a more well-rounded experience from a teacher who knows that somebody has his/her back if situations arise that need some problem-solving.
Beginning teachers often share things like... I wouldn't have made it through the year without you while you are working with them. I ran into one of my beginning teachers about 3 years after we had worked together and he shared how much our work together impacted his teaching. Reminds me of the times when my high school students would come back to visit and I was sometimes surprised to hear about the lasting impact of our work together.
Lynn