Mentoring Newsletter
A guide to working with mentees at your school site
Mentor Focus: March 2020
Hello, Mentors.
I hope your March is off to a super start! There will be one newsletter this month due to spring break. We are almost there, people!
Please remember to assist your administrators, if needed, regarding the applications for Rookie and Emerging Teachers of the Year. The application is linked below and is due by March 11th.
Check out the hyperlink in the student focus section below on how to reduce student anxiety over our upcoming testing. Please share this information with your new teachers. They may have anxiety about the testing as well.
Lastly, take a look at this month's video when you get a chance. Our past Rookie and Emerging Teachers of the Year have some sweet words for all of you who work so hard supporting our new teachers. As always, thank you!
-Bridget Reed
1. Personal: Make a Spring Break survival kit for your new teacher with magazines and novels, sunscreen, chocolate candy, etc. and put it on his/her desk. You can pick up all of this at the dollar store but what a memorable gift!
2. Professional: 1. Analyze portfolio artifacts and assist in identifying how they are aligned with the IPPAS performance evaluation criteria. Discuss what else might be included. 2. As appropriate, discuss how the process works for the possibility that there may be a reduction in the number of teachers for next year at your school. This can feel very unsettling to a new teacher and the more accurate the information they receive, the more grounded they become.
3. Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Focus on classroom assessment practices.
4. Organizational Systems: Check in with the new teachers on their record keeping systems. Review school reports they need to complete, grade books, attendance logs, and parent contact records as appropriate.
5. Students: Remind new teachers that if they demonstrate nervousness or speak disparagingly about standardized tests, their students will pick up on those emotions and comments. Encourage them to communicate to students how well the students are prepared for both the content and process of the testing.
6. Colleagues: Ask the principal, as appropriate, to give you a heads-up about any upcoming teaching assignment decisions for the new teachers so that you can be prepared to support the new teacher in dealing with the changes.
7. School Systems: Just before standardized testing events, review the policies and procedures for administering the assessments.
8. Parents and Community: Review the procedures and processes for parent conferences. Discuss what worked in the fall conferences and what needs to be done differently this time around.
*Special Educators: 1. Provide guidance on how to plan for transition of students between buildings and programs for the upcoming school year. 2. Debrief with them on their roles in the administration of standardized tests and help them think through what they would differently next year
Breakdown and several suggestions taken from Paula Rutherford's Just Ask Publications
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.
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