One of the most powerful ways to support new teachers is through mentoring. When thinking of mentor teachers I can’t not think about the special relationship that my mentor teacher and I have.
I started teaching as an intern teacher. The summer before I started teaching I had some basic pre-service courses and then dove into teaching full time as the teacher of record. About a month before the start of the school year I met my mentor teacher in the school office. She handed me a binder with all the school information (schedules, maps, phone numbers, most important school policies) and showed me my classroom.
The enrollment at the school was high, and many teachers shared classrooms. As the newest member of the department, I was the roving teacher. I spent three periods using my mentor teacher’s room (while she floated out as the student activities director) and used two other teacher’s classrooms.
I would come in each morning and my mentor would be teaching (she taught a class during “zero periods” - before the first class of the day). I would settle in and then get ready for the day. I also took the time to watch her teach. In the first period, we both had “prep”, so we had time to talk. I would ask her all sorts of questions about teaching...ask her advice and get her feedback. I also had a place I could just vent. Looking back I wonder how she was so patient with me! I’m sure she had things to be doing, grading, or making copies, but she would always take however much time I needed to talk.
She was my guide. She helped me navigate the school layout, teaching, and school politics. She helped take care of the nuts and bolts, showing me where to get supplies, how to enter grades, and other office tasks so I could focus on learning to teach.
It’s twenty years later, and we are still friends. Without her, I’m not sure I would have made it through my first year or have had such a great blueprint for mentoring others. I still turn to her to ask an occasional question, or to get her input. I hope I have half the amount of patience for my mentees that my mentor had for me.