The Benefits of a New Teacher Mentoring Program  S. 5 E. 65

Listen to this episode to see how a new teacher mentoring program helps your school and how you can play an important role by helping the person you once were. 

 Show Notes:

Episode Summary:

The first years of teaching can be fun and exciting. Everything is new, and new teachers are full of optimism. However, these years can also be extremely stressful for new teachers. That’s where you come in. As an experienced teacher, you can help new teachers sift through their countless emotions, successes, doubts, fears, and skills gaps.

You may be thinking- that’s not my job!  I have enough on my plate already, and you would be correct. But whether you know it or not, you are in this. The upside is that a new teacher mentoring program can help all teachers and build a stronger school community. In this episode we’re talking about why a good new teacher mentoring program is important, and why you should care.

 In this episode:

You don’t have to be in a formal mentoring role to offer support to new teachers. In episode 62, Teachers Supporting Teachers, we talked about how the best support for teachers is teachers supporting other teachers.  No one knows the ins and outs of the job they way you do. You may also look for some mentoring guidance as you plan your own future in education.

No matter when you hear this, it is a good time of year to think about new teacher mentoring.

In the beginning of the of the year, it is obvious that it is a good time to think about mentoring new teachers.  People are thinking, we’ve got new teachers in our school and we need to help them.

The middle of the year is also a good time to be talking about mentoring because that’s when new teachers hit their slump, the lowest point of their first year. This is actually when they need you the most.  

If you have worked with a new teacher this year, the end of the year is a great time to talk to them about their successes and their growth. It’s a good time for reflection as teachers begin to think about their plans for the next year. You may also be thinking about your own plans for next year- whether to stay in your same school, grade, or subject matter, or to move into a new role.

We also know that this time of year schools are planning their new teacher mentoring program for next year. You may even be asked to be a mentor. You may not think about how a good mentoring program affects you, but by the end of this episode we will convince you!

Today we are going to break down why we think new teacher mentoring is so important.

Here are five benefits of a good mentoring program.

1. New teachers need support now more than ever.

You know how difficult the job is. Education is changing at a rapid pace. With a nationwide teacher shortage, many new teachers are working with an emergency license in content they are not prepared for. Others have no experience in a teacher preparation program, have never student taught and may even not have a college degree. Yes, there are states where you can get a teaching license without even having a college degree.

Imagine the difficulty of your job, and then image you are 21 years old with no training and no experience. You are going to need support.

You may be thinking that training a new teacher is not part of your job, and technically, it isn’t. You also know that when some teachers struggle and fail, it affects everyone.

The reverse is also true, when everyone around is succeeding, it is easier for you to succeed.

2. New teacher mentoring is crucial for teacher retention.

When teachers leave, it disrupts everything in your school. Additional new teachers will come in and need support. It also often means that people will shift jobs and move to new grades or new buildings- sometimes that means an involuntary transfer, which might affect you.

Teacher retention saves your district a lot of money- money that could be used for programs and materials rather than recruiting, interviewing, hiring and training new teachers.

There is probably not a single school or teacher that feels like they have enough money to operate in all of the ways they would like to. Depending on the size of the district, you could be looking at thousands of dollars, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. On average, it costs about $20,000. to recruit, hire, and onboard one new teacher. That money could be better spent elsewhere.

3. A revolving door of teachers has a potentially negative affect on students.

When many teachers come and go from a school, environment is less stable for students. All teachers end up working harder.

When teachers are struggling, many times parental engagement increases and parents want more information and more solutions for why their children are struggling. That microscopic lens may affect everyone in your school.

All students deserve a calm and stable environment for learning. Drama, stress, behavior challenges and other issues not only affect you, they affect students and learning.

In his book Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Great Things, Adam Grant shares a long-term study started in the 1980’s in Tennessee.  It involved school districts randomly that randomly assigned 11,000 thousand students to different classrooms in kindergarten through third grade.

The initial intent of the study was to see if smaller class sizes were better for learning. They didn’t find out anything about class sizes, but what they found instead is that they were able to predict students’ future success entirely on their kindergarten teacher.

Students assigned to classrooms taught by experienced teachers in kindergarten earned significantly more money than their peers as adults. The researchers  discovered that having an experienced kindergarten teacher could mean students earned as much as $320,000. more in lifetime income.

In turned out that experienced teachers spent more time teaching character skills- including skills like how to meet a deadline, speaking up and sharing your ideas, getting along with others, and self-regulation skills.

Essentially experienced teachers weren’t only focused on how to teach math or reading lessons. They had that down. That experience gave them time to focus on teaching personal and life skills that paid off for students decades later.

 4. You can be a super star, but you can’t be one alone.

We did an entire episode on this idea, Episode 20 Build Your Star System of Support  which comes from Shawn Achor in his book Big Potential. 

Achor studied successful people in school and in life. What he found surprised him.

Our society rewards the single individual who achieves great things alone. We have one spelling bee champion or one valedictorian. We give trophies to the fastest person in the race. We are encouraged to stand out, to be the best.

What Achor discovered is that when we work together and help others become better, instead of vying for limited opportunities, we can actually increase opportunities. It comes down to the idea that the more you help people find their light, the brighter you both will shine.

Achor also noted that for the first 22 years of our life, in school, we are judged and praised for our individual efforts, when for the rest of our life, our success is almost entirely interconnected with others.

Achor says, “We need to stop trying to be faster alone, and start working to become stronger together.”  He added, “When we work together to help others achieve success, we not only raise the performance of the group, we exponentially increase our own potential.”

It turns out that your well-being, success, and happiness are very connected to those around you. You can be a superstar; you just can’t be one alone.

Another example from tree systems: 

Here is another example from Louis J. Zachary  in his book, The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships:

“Ecologists tell us that a tree planted in a clearing of an old forest will grow more successfully than one planted in an open field. The reason, it seems, is that the roots of the forest tree are able to follow the intricate pathways created by former trees and thus embed themselves more deeply. Indeed, over time, the roots of many trees may actually graft themselves to one another, creating an interdependent mat of life hidden beneath the earth. This literally enables the stronger trees to share resources with the weaker so the whole forest becomes healthier.

Similarly, human beings thrive best when we grow in the presence of those who have gone before. Our roots may not follow every available pathway, but we are able to become more fully ourselves because of the presence of others.  “I am who I am because we are,” goes the saying, and mentors are a vital part of the invisible mat of our lives.”

Think of this analogy in connection with new teacher mentoring. New teachers will better thrive when sharing the path of experienced teachers.

You can be a superstar; you just can’t be one alone.

 5. Help the person you once were.

When you ask people why they went into education, you get one of two answers. Either they had fantastic teachers who made a difference in their life and they want to be like those teachers, or they did not have good teachers or good support in school and they want to go into education to help students get the support that they didn’t get.

Mentoring is like that. Someone likely helped you to grow and thrive, and you benefited from that. Or, if you didn’t have that kind of support, you probably think back and wish that you had had a wise teacher by your side to ask questions of and to get advice. Now it is your chance. Helping new teachers to thrive is a fantastic way to give back to your community.

We often get calls from new teachers who are crying in their cars after school. While we are glad to help new teachers, we often wonder, where is their tribe?  Where are their people?  Why is it that they don’t feel that they have any support at their school?

Most teachers want their entire schools and districts to thrive. You know that when your school is thriving, students have a better chance of thriving. Positive, supportive schools are good places to work and that is an immeasurable work benefit. We spend so much of our lives in our work, it only makes sense that we want it to be fulfilling and to contribute to a positive and happy lifestyle. You play a part in that in what you bring to the school community, and mentoring is one piece of that very important puzzle.

Ultimately, by mentoring new teachers, you are helping the teachers and the students, and you are also helping to grow your future colleagues.

Recap:

We hope we have convinced you that good mentoring for new teachers is important. Supporting new teachers will help them to grow and thrive as well as to stay in your school and district. A good mentoring program doesn’t just help new teachers, it helps to make everyone better. Know that when you help the person you once were, it provides a level of fulfillment that contributes to an overall positive and supportive school community.

Quote:

“Ecologists tell us that a tree planted in a clearing of an old forest will grow more successfully than one planted in an open field. The reason, it seems, is that the roots of the forest tree are able to follow the intricate pathways created by former trees and thus embed themselves more deeply. Indeed, over time, the roots of many trees may actually graft themselves to one another, creating an interdependent mat of life hidden beneath the earth. This literally enables the stronger trees to share resources with the weaker so the whole forest becomes healthier.

Similarly, human beings thrive best when we grow in the presence of those who have gone before. Our roots may not follow every available pathway, but we are able to become more fully ourselves because of the presence of others.  “I am who I am because we are,” goes the saying, and mentors are a vital part of the invisible mat of our lives.”

Louis J. Zachary

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Great Things  by Adam Grant

Big Potential:  How Transforming the Pursuit of Success Raises Our Achievement, Happiness and Well Being by Shawn Achor

The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships, by Louis J. Zachary, 2nd. edition

 Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

Inspired Together Teachers Podcast Episode 20 Build Your Star System of Support

Inspired Together Teachers  Podcast Episode 62, Teachers Supporting Teachers,

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