Strengths coaching: Mentoring to help new teachers improve their strengths
by Nick Ferentinos JEA Mentoring Committee When making assessments about a teacher’s practice, mentors often want to start with deficits, what the person does not do well, much as many teachers do when they’re looking at student work. For that matter, new teachers usually begin self-assessments by raising what they think is wrong with their...
’13 Steps to Teacher Empowerment’ encourages new teachers to determine proactive ways to work with veteran teachers, principals and parents (Part Two)
by Nick Ferentinos JEA Mentoring Committee In a presentation at the New Teacher Center’s Annual Symposium in San Jose, Calif., “Leveraging the School Culture to Support New Teacher Mentoring,” Harry Ross and Steve Zemelman addressed the practical strategies taken from their book, “13 Steps to Teacher Empowerment: Taking a More Active Role in Your School...
What mentors and new teachers can learn from ’13 Steps to Teacher Empowerment: Taking a More Active Role in Your School Community’ (Part One)
by Nick Ferentinos JEA Mentoring Committee One of the challenges new teachers face is learning their school’s culture. For some, it’s a shock because the community is unlike their own school experience. Teachers are generally middle class, but they often find themselves in a school that has high poverty and a culture which is unfamiliar...
New Teacher Center Symposium stressed teacher quality and technology’s impact on mentoring
by Nick Ferentinos JEA Mentoring Committee I left the New Teacher Center’s annual symposium on Feb. 8 and 9 with two strong impressions: Measuring teacher effectiveness has become a key point in the discussion about teacher quality, and technology is rapidly changing the way we mentor new teachers. The Center, arguably the leading organization in...