Mentoring Newsletter
A guide to working with mentees at your school site
Mentor Focus: February 1st - 15th:
Hello, Mentors!
Here is hoping you are off to a super February start! This newsletter is chock-full of great information, suggestions, and discussions. Check out the video with Shruti Raman, Lead Mentor at South Lake Elementary. Shruti, Assistant Principal Courtney Shiffrin, and the school-based mentors have put together a phenomenal program for supporting their new teachers. You will definitely get some great ideas of what you could possibly implement into your school's support for new teachers. As always with these videos, thank you in advance for not judging my video-taking skills!
Events this week include:
- The New Teacher Academy on Tuesday and Wednesday;
- The last new teacher networking event Wednesday evening;
- And the Teacher Leadership Council Event on Saturday morning.
If your new teachers haven't had a chance to go to one of the networking nights, they're missing out! Please remind them of this week's opportunity. The feedback has been super because the teachers walk away with information and products that are immediately applicable to their teaching.
Lastly, registration information for Saturday's "Teaching, Leading, and Caring for the iGen Students" event can be found below, and it is going to be an AWESOME event. You don't want to miss it. Registration closes Wednesday!
Thank you for all you do! You truly are the Heart of Brevard!
- Bridget Reed
1. Personal: Celebrate Valentine’s Day with a card, a cartoon, or a candy bar; just pick up something at the grocery store checkout and put it in your new teacher’s box for just that extra touch of “thinking about you and you’re doing great!”
2. Professional: Assist in planning for administrative observations and evaluations.
3. Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Explore strategies for checking for understanding. With standardized testing coming up soon, the new teachers may be inclined to rush through material without checking to see if students are really getting the material.
4. Organizational Systems: Concentrate on the use of time – focusing on time management beyond the classroom.
5. Students: Review the learning profiles of students and identify those who might need to be referred for special services.
6. Colleagues: Encourage the new teachers to build in time to meet with their colleagues to examine student work. Help them decide what student work samples to bring to the table.
7. School Systems: Be sure that the new teachers are well informed and have accurate information about scheduling and teaching assignments for the upcoming school year as soon as it is available. This is usually the time when rumors start circulation about possible changes!
8. Parents and Community: Ensure that the new teachers remind parents of the upcoming standardized testing. Help them develop a plan for letting parents know what they can do to help create a positive and productive testing environment.
*Special Educators: Help these new teachers use class work, individualized testing, literacy assessments, and all other available data to design scaffolding for student success on the upcoming standardized tests.
Breakdown and several suggestions taken from Paula Rutherford's Just Ask Publications
South Lake Elementary School Mentoring Session
FTCE Subject Area Preparation through BEESS
In case you have a teacher looking for some way to study for any of these subject area tests have them check out this site. Classes through BEESS are free and these are independent, not facilitated, so they can start them anytime.
Elevating Wellness to New Heights Event
New Teacher Induction Program
Email: stanley.lisa@brevardschools.org
Website: https://www.brevardschools.org/Page/7999
Location: 2700 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Melbourne, FL, USA
Phone: 321-633-1000