Mentoring Newsletter
A guide to working with mentees at your school site
Mentor Focus: September 1st - 15th:
Thank you so much for attending the Lead Mentor Training Session last week. Again, you are THE most integral part of our county's retention program! The impact you have on your mentee's life and success in the classroom is immeasurable.
-Bridget Reed, reed.bridget@brevardschools.org
Please read through the following suggestions and choose two-three areas that you feel are appropriate to be discussed with your mentee.
1. Personal: Check, without prying, to see that teachers new to the area are happy with the life they are creating beyond the school community. If you can, assist in resolving any issues. Also, please remember to accompany new teachers to meetings and sit with them in the meetings.
2. Professional: We are still having open houses in schools and beginning the parent conference schedules. Both of these events can be extremely anxiety-provoking for new teachers. Do a run-through with your mentee of what goes on in a classroom during an open house and few tips on how to shine while presenting to a room full of parents. If your school’s open house is over, practice a parent conference. You may want to take on the role of a challenging parent or how to discuss a student’s classroom behavior or academic progress.
3. Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Discuss interims. Show the mentees where they are located, the timeline, and how to complete them.
4. Organizational Systems: Ask how paper-flow management systems are working. Assist in organizing the classroom as needed.
5. Students: Provide new teachers with a calendar of extracurricular events in which their students might be participating. Encourage them to attend a few to get to know their students outside the classroom.
6. Colleagues: Go over policies, possibilities, and potential pitfalls of working with instructional assistants. We have many twenty-somethings who might possibly be directing an IA. This could be the first time they will have to lead someone possibly more senior than they are in age. This can be really daunting! Talk to your mentee about how to set up goals and directions for their IA if needed.
7. School Systems: Continue to talk about your mentee's needed resources and where he/she can locate those items.
8. Parents and Community: Have your new teacher listen in on how you conduct a parent phone call and how you document it.
*Special Educators: Discuss strategies for early contact with parents and suggest setting up meetings to introduce themselves and to establish a positive context for future interactions.
Breakdown and suggestions taken from Paula Rutherford's Just Ask Publications
Video: Mentoring Session at Stone Middle School
Why reinvent the mentoring wheel?! We have some awesome mentoring programs already up and running in our district. We will be showcasing several of them via video as we move throughout the school year. Pick and choose what will work for your school. Feel free to reach out to the Lead Mentors in the video as well! They are a wealth of information. Also, if you have had a successful session/item/plan, please let me know!
You may have to click "View it in your browser" at the top of this newsletter in order to play the video.
Professional Development
CHAMPS/DISC (K -12 Classroom Management): This is our district's classroom management program. It is a three day training. This training is a PDCP requirement, however, it is open to all BPS teachers.
There are two sessions:
1. C#15620 S#404303 Training Rooms 5&6
September 16th, October 8th, November 5th
2. C#15620 S#404304 Training Rooms 7&8
September 26th, October 22nd, November 12th
New Teacher Networking Event - Mentors, feel free to attend with your mentees - Impactful Evening!
Fun Night welcoming our newest teachers on August 24th at the "New Teacher Night Out" at Squid Lips - sponsored by Brevard Schools Foundation
New Teacher Induction Program
Email: reed.bridget@brevardschools.org
Website: https://www.brevardschools.org/Page/7999
Location: 2700 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Melbourne, FL, USA
Phone: 321-633-1000