Mentoring New Teachers AISSA Beginning Teachers Program Session 1 May 2011 Louise Bywaters

Welcome to the profession… Professions Professionals Professionalism Professional standards Professional ethics Professional protocols Professional development Professional appraisal Professional career development Who are you and what do you stand for as an education professional?

Many Hats… Buddy, peer, colleague Supervisor Mentor Coach Friend Counsellor Psychologist Mum and Dad

Mentoring New Teachers Mentors work on the meta development of the teacher Long term They look after the wellbeing, morale, long term professional and career development Each new teacher should be assigned a mentor for the induction period Mentors will refer teachers to both their line manager and skills coaches

Mentoring Principles Voluntary Temporary Oriented towards professional life, practice, relationships Career focused and linker to other people and resources Mutually beneficial Futures focused Professional obligation Ethically bound

Who might mentor? Experienced and seasoned Optimistic and learning Working in the same site Professionally engaged outside the school Links and networks Has a big picture of the education industry Generous and interested in succession Highly skilled in the profession Good communicator and listener Someone prepared to share their time Visibly supportive

Mentorees need to be…. Keen to learn Prepared to listen to others Invite advice and think about it carefully Prepared to share, disclose Confidential, trustworthy Responsible with time, committed to setting up sessions Career and classroom focused Receptive to feedback Conscious of the dependency trap

Mentor’s role Deconstructing the school’s politics Introducing to norms, cultural mores, ideology and philosophy of the school Linking with skills coaches and assisting with planning Assists with professional portfolio development Reflection, review and general feedback Career advancement, decision making Leadership capacity building Succession Cautionary tales, words of wisdom and traps for young players.

Stages of mentor relationship Initiation: Cultivation: Separation: Redefinition:

Code of conduct What rules, expectations, standards and imperatives are essential for you and your mentor/ee to sustain a strong and productive relationship. Work with another two pairs to write a set of operating principles and a code of conduct for your group. You will use this to review the relationship in the future and go back to it if things are not working

Code of conduct We will expect…. There fore we will….. We will know it is working well when…. We raise concerns by….

How do you learn? What is your learning style? How best do you learn? What sort of support do you value best? What are your strengths and weaknesses under pressure How do you manage stressful times? What strategies for facing problems work best for you? Honey and Mumford….LS inventory

How do you help…? What are your strengths in developing and maintaining a helping relationship? What are your weaknesses? How do you teach others best? What pitfalls will you particularly have to be mindful of in this relationship? How do you learn and how does that affect how you work with others who learn differently? Share the inventories and discuss your results with your commencing teacher.

What bus was that? What were the things that you struggled with in the first term? What did you wish you had more help with? What is pressing and urgent now? What are you facing in the future terms that you anticipate will cause a steep learning curve? Brainstorm on the recording sheets so you can make a priority list of things that you want to learn about in the next few months and need to put in your learning plan?

Brainstorm List Urgent/important Not Important/Urgent Not Urgent/Important Not important/Not Urgent

Learning Plan Priorities List the top three areas that you want to discuss with your mentor What advice or assistance do you need? What sort of resources do you need? Who can coach you on particular skills you feel need polishing? Use this list to prepare for your discussion later today

Discussion tools PNI Lotus diagrams Fish bone diagrams Brainstorms Bone diagram Y charts Mapping Covey’s quadrants (time management) Graffiti sheets

Communications Ethics and processes for maintaining safe and appropriate mentoring records Do’s and Don’ts Planning and review before and at the end of the session (PNI)

Bridge to Success Project Identify one key area that you would like to do some long term work on with your mentor Write a project plan that assists you do engage with your mentor on this question Be prepared to come to the final session with a 5 slide learning story that shows your progress and how the mentor worked with you to get there

Project Plan Area of challenge Outcome you want to achieve Question you want answered? Collaboration with mentor and others Actions you are going to take to get there Evidence you are going to look for that indicates your outcome has been achieved Storyboard of progress and pictures

Professional Portfolio Self Managing professionals Keeping it all together over a career Private documents Respository of critical material E-portfolios vs paper Elements of a professional portfolio Personal Information My work this year Self assessment and performance appraisal Professional learning and development Treasures

Just before you go…. What was particularly useful from today’s program? What else would you like to learn in relation to mentor/commencing teacher learning? How did this fit with the rest of the Beginning Teacher program you have been involved with this year? What advice would you give the program organisers that would add value to your learning as a commencing teacher?