Spencer Community School District
Purpose

Support and assist beginning teachers
as they transition into the education
profession

Provide opportunities for professional
teachers to further develop leadership
skills (build teacher leaders).
Goals (as required in 281—83.1(284,284A)
To promote excellence in teaching
To enhance student achievement
To build a supportive environment within school
districts
To increase the retention of promising beginning
teachers
To promote the personal and professional well being
of classroom teachers
To support continuous improvement
Thank you for being a part of
this program!!!
…are those people in
our lives, who, through
their deeds and work
help us to move
towards fulfilling our
potential.
-Gordon F. Shea
Mentor As A Growth Agent
“…the mentor is a growth agent
whose role is to develop selfreliant, reflective beginning
educators, able to make effective
instructional decisions as they
strive for high performance for
themselves and their students.”
 Wellman & Lipton, 2006 Learning Focused Relationships
Beginning teachers benefitting from
skilled mentoring are more likely to:
Increase their efficacy as skilled problem
solvers and decision makers
 Engage in professional exchanges
regarding improving practice
 Remain in the teaching profession

Mentor as a Growth Agent
Three functions:

Offering Support

Creating Challenge

Facilitating Professional Vision
Read & Example Strategy
Everyone reads
Offering Support
A’s verbally summarize
Trio’s: Craft 3 examples
Everyone reads
Crafting Challenge
B’s verbally summarize
Trio’s: Craft 3 examples
Everyone reads
Facilitating
Professional Vision
C’s verbally summarize
Trio’s: Craft 3 examples
Balancing the role

Support alone will provide comfort but
may encourage complacency.

Challenge without support may increase
anxiety and fear of failure.

Support and challenge without vision
may leave us wandering on a journey
looking only at the ground beneath us
but not the road ahead.
Phases of Teacher Development
Anticipation
Anticipation
Reflection
Survival
Rejuvenation
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Disillusionment
Jigsaw Strategy
Count off by 5’s
 Regroup with number-alike colleagues
 Individually read your assigned ‘phase’
 As a group, determine how to share
information (Creativity is key)

1’s
Anticipation p. 6
2’s
Survival
3’s
Disillusion
4’s
Rejuvenation
5’s
Reflection
p. 7
p. 8-9
p. 9
p. 10-11
Phases of Teaching Revisited
Anticipation
Anticipation
Reflection
Survival
Rejuvenation
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Disillusionment
Stem Completion
Think-Pair-Share

One goal for me as a growth-agent….

As a growth agent, one new idea for
me….

One thing I will do to enhance my
learning-focused relationships….
“If your only tool
is a hammer,
you will see
everything as a
nail.”
-Maslow
A Continuum of LearningFocused Interactions
Critical to have a variety of “tools”
 Mentoring, as in teaching, you select the
tool appropriate to the learner’s need
 Skilled mentors navigate across the
continuum of interaction to enhance
learning—INTENTION DRIVEN ACTION
 Within the continuum there are three
stances: consulting, collaborating &
coaching.

Say Something Strategy

In pairs, each individual reads designated section
of text.

When each partner is ready, they turn and “say
something” about the text they have just read.

Once each partner has had a turn to speak,
continue the pattern for each designated section of
text.

As a large group, discuss the differences between
the three stances.
Video Processing Questions

What are some of the things you noticed
about each stance and who was
producing the bulk of the information at
that point?

What were some of the things you
noticed about the transitions between
the stances?
"You can judge your age by
the amount of pain you feel
when you come in contact
with a new idea."
—Pearl S. Buck
Expectations for Mentors





Schedule regular time with beginning
educator/new employee
Be INTENTIONAL (Intention-driven action)
Provide support by modeling lessons/coteaching, providing resources and
observing as requested.
Document time log using Google form
(3-4 hours/mo)
Attributes of “great” mentor
Mentors: What attributes are essential to
have as a mentor?
BE and New Staff: What attributes do you
need in a mentor?
Mentor as a Growth Agent
Three functions:

Offering Support

Creating Challenge

Facilitating Professional Vision
A
is…
(Wikipedia)
a hardware or software device which is
configured to
 permit,
 deny,
or
 proxy (substitute)
Firewall separating zones of trust
data through a computer network which
has different
levels of trust.
THE “FIREWALL”
 Maintains
confidentiality
between mentor and beginning
educator
Mentor
Evaluator
Beginning
Educator
Mentor
Evaluator
Mentor
Beginning
Educator
Evaluator
Phases of Teacher Development
Anticipation
Anticipation
Reflection
Survival
Rejuvenation
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Disillusionment
Jigsaw Strategy
Count off by 5’s
 Regroup with number-alike colleagues
 Individually read your assigned ‘phase’
 As a group, determine how to share
information (Creativity is key)

1’s
Anticipation p. 6
2’s
Survival
3’s
Disillusion
4’s
Rejuvenation
5’s
Reflection
p. 7
p. 8-9
p. 9
p. 10-11
Phases of Teaching Revisited
Anticipation
Anticipation
Reflection
Survival
Rejuvenation
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Disillusionment
Intention-Driven Actions
Scheduled meeting times with a specific
focus
 Mentors will complete a time log
 Beginning educator will retain all other
records or information.
 Beginning educators will complete
Professional Teaching Portfolio which is
directly aligned to ITS..)

Lunch Assignment
What motivated you to become a teacher?
 What do you feel you are most confident in? What
skills do you bring to our district?
 What are you most looking forward to this year?
 As you anticipate the school year, what are you most
concerned about?
 What do you hope to learn by the end of the year?

For the remainder of the day,
we are….