1. Beginning Teacher Component
ASSIST
Beginning Teacher Component
Jan Prybys
Mentor of Mentors
Launch Into Teaching
Think about BTs in your district or your constituent districts. What do they want and what do they need
Once teacher education students graduate, responsibility for their learning has been turned over to school districts that are mandated, but not necessarily prepared, to provide induction support

2. Beginning Teachers
What is it they want?
What is it they need?

3. Beginning Teachers Want: To Fit In To Continue To Learn To Teach
After completing the initial teacher preparation certification program, beginning teachers are merely at the beginning of the process of learning to teach

4. Fitting In To their school culture Types of support available
“For example, one first-year teacher had plans for how to arrange her classroom in ways she felt would enhance learning; but as she walked through the halls, she observed the other classrooms had desks arranged in rows and were designed for order and control. She bowed to the subtle pressure to ‘fit in,’ until the second year….”
(Stanulis, Burrill, & Ames, In Press)

5. Fitting In To the teaching context
One beginning teacher said, “I want so badly to talk to someone about my teaching….”
A beginning teacher hoped to have an experienced teacher or fellow novice observe her to gain another perspective on her teaching (ASSIST web site)
Beginning teachers voiced the need for collaboration, connections to people who helped prepared them, and further learning (Stanulis, Burrill,& Ames,In Press)
Beginning teachers want to thrive, not just survive.

6. Fitting In ASSIST beginning teacher tools/resources:
Orientation handbook
Learning from problems of practice

7. Continuing To Learn To Teach
One first year teacher talked about how she longed to talk about more than management with her mentor:
“We just work so hard at the beginning of the year setting up the management so that we can really get into the curriculum…but [now] really my main focus is curriculum…how am I supposed to plan everything…and then I would love to be focused on differentiating.”
(Stanulis, Meloche, & Ames, 2006)

8. Continuing To Learn To Teach
Beginning teachers long for conversations to talk about practice that mentors are ignoring.
A beginning teacher tried to ask for curricular help but was ignored by his mentor. He sent an asking for help with the CD, the music part, and at the end asked for help with the next science unit. The mentor helped him with the CD and said, “…the science part, let’s get to that whenever.”
(Stanulis, Meloche, & Ames, 2006)

9. Continuing To Learn To Teach
ASSIST beginning teacher tools/resources:
Unit planning across content areas
Modifying plans based on student needs

10. Planning template
What is one task I can engage in to help beginning teachers fit in?
What is one task I can engage in to help beginning teachers continue to learn to teach?

11. Beginning Teachers Need:
Mentors who are prepared and supported in engaging the teachers they mentor on substantive issues of teaching.
Principals who talk with them about their teaching practice, who include them in making important school decisions, and who recognize staff members for a job well done.
Aim is to help mentors respond to BTs needs and fit in to school and district and professional norms but to do so in the context of stimulating and supporting them to become thoughtful teachers making decisions based on a framework designed for student learning.
To help BTs fit in as we defined it and continue to learn to teach means developing mentors who move beyond providing support as in “how’s it going?” and into complex and thought-provoking conversations that surround the practice of teaching.

12. Broadening our image of mentoring…
Fitting in
How is it going?
Open door for resources
Listening/valuing ideas
Including in norm development
Learning to teach
Sharing learning together
Helping in the classroom
Asking questions to push thinking