As we come to a close of the topics in Level I and II, I wanted to hear from you about this refresher training.
What else would you have liked to have done with mentoring? Can you think of topics we might have missed?
Any last words?
Your evaluative response is your last assignment.
child's perspective
Thank you for your hard work, your willingness to try something new, your incredible insight, and your valuable experience as related to mentoring beginning teachers and student teacher interns. I have enjoyed your perspective.
We have a wealth of knowledge in this building and your true desire to share and learn came through in your comments and discussions!
Most of us have a story of that intern with Marginal Performance. Instead of reading case studies off the Clinical Faculty web site, let’s share our own.
The first part of the assignment is to share your story of working with an intern with marginal performance, but leave us hanging! Don’t tell what the outcome was - we will use your cliff-hanging case studies for part 2 of our assignment.
The second part of the assignment is to come back to the comments, find a marginal performance story that you connect with and give us your best mentoring advice in a reply. To do that, click on the reply button of the comment you are choosing to give advice about. Your reply will end up nested underneath that comment. See the illustrating photo below.
Don’t choose a story that someone else has commented on… one per customer! That way every problem gets a solution!
So you will essentially do this assignment twice. Write your story, come back later and give advice to a colleague.
Don’t forget to mark your progress in the Google Docs form.
Interns typically request information in 4 ways: Request for Action, Request for Information, Request for Understanding, and Inappropriate interactions (such as gossip, rumors).
Read through the slides on the Clinical Faculty web site and find out what types of responses are appropriate for each request.
Note the types of Verbal Villains on pages 3-5 of the pdf. Have you come across a Verbal Villain in the past? Respond.
View the Author Stream slide show about pre- and post- conferencing. Which of these ideas strike you as particularly useful or powerful mentoring strategies for successful conferencing? Respond.
Use the ten categories below to brainstorm a list of skills that beginning teachers should be able to demonstrate in the classroom and as a professional.
Respond to at least three categories. Don’t forget to mark your assignment as complete on the Google Docs form. Assignment #9 is on the second tab of the Google Docs… look at the bottom to click to the next page.
Read the five common mentor problems presented below. Respond to 2 of the situations.
1. I can’t find the time to meet with my mentee. Elementary school is so demanding of teachers’ time! Between Book Buddies and Staff/Grade level meetings, we just don’t seem to connect for any meaningful length of time.
2. Some of my colleagues seem to think that my mentee is having some significant problems of one kind or another. They approach me as if they expect me to fix the problem. I’m not even sure I see what they are talking about; his performance in the classroom seems to be developing appropriately.
3. I don’t know what to think! My mentee seems to be spending more time with another teacher. They seem to be engaged in meaningful conversations and I guess I have some mixed feelings about that.
4. My mentee seems to be unorganized and a little disengaged with the realities of the classroom. I don’t see her following through with what I have asked her to do. What is the next step?
5. My mentee seems to be having problems with boundaries in the classroom. What do I say to help him/her keep things professional, and find that balance between being kind to students versus ‘overly friendly’?
In 1991, Gordon published results of a study of the problems of beginning teachers. The results are listed below.
Difficult work assignments
Unclear Expectations
Inadequate Resources
Isolation
Role Conflict
Reality Shock
Last week the Clinical Faculty offered their ideas of the 5 most common problems of beginning teachers. I compiled the comments you made into a wordle. Click on the wordle to see a larger image. The largest words occurred most often in your answers.
time management
discipline
communicating with parents
classroom management
lack of funding/ paperwork
And here are the results of a study by Veenman (1984) of the difficulties beginning teachers most frequently reported. I put them in a poll format so we could vote.
For Assignment #6, choose the one answer you think presents the most difficult challenge for beginning teachers. On the next blog post, I’ll reveal the ranking that Veenman found. We will see if it matches the results of our poll. Don’t forget to mark your assignment on the google docs form!
Now, fast-forward to 2009. How have things changed? Have things changed?
For Assignment #5, you will list your top 5 predictions of what the most common problems of beginning teachers (not student teachers) are today. Place them in order from 1-5, with 1 being the most prominent problem.
Leave them in a comment on this blog post and I will compile the results.
Don’t forget to mark your assignment on the google doc.
Now, let’s make our own! By collaborating, we will have a great collection of ideas for a successful start to student teaching!
Your assignment: think of three (3) ideas for a successful start to student teaching. Click on an image of wall wisher and put your ideas on a post-it note. (If the wall wisher is getting filled up, click on the 2nd or 3rd wall wisher to find room to add your ideas.)
You don’t have to do all three wall wishers! Just choose one that’s not filled up! Or choose the prettiest one! Or choose the first one you click on! … well, you get the idea.
I don’t know how many it will take, but if I need to add another wall wisher, I can.
