Ending the Year and Looking Ahead: Reflecting

Welcome—and a Video…

Session Objectives  Consider the importance of program reflection  Recognize your mentoring strengths/shortcomings  Strategize ways (in your teams) to address the shortcomings and maximize the strengths  Develop new approaches for next year’s mentor program

Materials Check  Mentoring Trait Reflection Guide  Core Mentor Team Reflection  Core Mentor Manual (optional)  Mentor Advisory Council Teacher Reflection  Color paper (one per table)  Pens, highlighters, post-its

Sound Familiar?  Reflect on the video we watched. Was there a mentor/protégé pairing that resembled yours?  What is special about this particular pairing?

Where Do You Fall? Mentor Patron or Protector Sponsor or Benefactor Counselor, Advisor, or Guide Teacher or Coach Role Model, Peer Pal, or Supporter

Reflecting on Our District Program  In February, I commissioned a study by our Accountability Department into the in-school retention rates for our district. # Teachers Employed in 13/14 With-in School Retention Rates (among teachers employed in previous year) All KCS teachers % All Level 1 & % All Protégés % All Mentors % Protégés with a Mentor who remained at school % Protégés with a Mentor who did not remain at school %

Reflecting on Our District Program: Findings  There was evidence that the need for a Teacher Mentoring and Induction program still exist.  There was evidence that chosen mentors were more likely to be retained within their school.  There was evidence that protégés were more likely to return to a school when their mentors return to the school.

Why Reflect?  Consider what worked/what didn’t  Strengthen the whole team with new ideas/approaches  Study social dynamics among mentor/protégé pairings  Decide how the mentor program fits with all other school-based professional development

Assessing Strengths: An Activity  Let’s suppose that we all are on the Core Mentor Team for our school. At your table, you have a sheet with a trait listed. Individually, fill out the reflection guide for that trait.  After time is called, you will hop to another table with another trait and reflect on that trait.  You have one minute to compose an example of that trait within your mentoring.

Assessing Strengths: An Activity  Now return to your original seat. Discuss at your table for two minutes where your strengths fell.  Around the wall, you’ll find the traits listed. Stand by the trait you find is your strength.  We can assess shortcomings two ways  Stand by the trait that is your shortcoming  Discuss which traits have fewer representatives

Strengths  Mentor for Life  Networking  Skill Development  Building a Professional Community  Building a Social Community  Celebration  Availability  Questioning

Strategizing our Focus  The shortcomings we discover—those become our focus for next year’s Core Mentor Team.  Other resources:  Reflection Guide in Mentor Manual, page  Core Mentor Team sheet (session handout)

Developing an Approach  Pick and Train Mentors:  If Possible, Use the Same Content Area  Visionaries  Expectations  Reflective Coaching  3:45’s for the First Several Weeks (forms, fees, organization, planning, TEAM rubric)  See the New Teachers Teach  CONTINUALLY REMIND THEM OF WHAT THEY SHOULD BE DOING THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.

Developing an Approach  Professional Development  Breakfast Bonanzas  Reflection Fridays  Create a MCT Handbook for New Teachers  Use Mentor Money  Substitutes  Book Studies  Professional Development

Session Objectives Revisited  Consider the importance of program reflection  Recognize your mentoring strengths/shortcomings  Strategize ways (in your teams) to address the shortcomings and maximize the strengths  Develop new approaches for next year’s mentor program

Why Reflect? So You’re Not at This Place in the Year

Thank You!