Our Voices, our Schools - February 2010
Annie Tronco is a Beginning Teacher Mentor
and Program Facilitator in the Hillsboro School District.
The Hillsboro School District, in partnership with the Forest Grove School District, has a two-year program that helps new teachers take the first steps in their teaching career. What effect do you think the program is having on the districts as a whole?
Any veteran educator will tell you how tough the first few years of teaching can be. Our full-release mentors have the time and flexibility to really meet each beginning teacher where he or she is and provide customized support, including collaborative planning, observing and collecting data, and modeling teaching strategies. We are a second set of eyes and a non-evaluative sounding board. We bring experience to the table, but our beginning teachers take the lead in determining what they want to work on. These partnerships are helping teachers get better, faster.
In your time with the program, what has been your favorite mentoring success story?
That's like asking which of my children is my favorite! I love when my early career colleagues recognize that a deliberate action they took resulted in student success. I love when they trust our relationship enough to be vulnerable and ask for the help they want. I love when a principal tells me she sees 1st and 2nd year teachers performing like teachers with a lot more experience. I love how collaborative beginning teachers are and how they are willing to hold their practice up to the light and see how it's working for students.
Chalkboard is very focused on supporting teacher effectiveness. What qualities do you think make a mentor effective?
The most effective mentors have to be pried out of the classroom because they can't imagine not having their own students. They are master teachers, but they are always questioning their practice and looking to expand their skills. They must be interpersonally intelligent, and they need to have the respect of fellow teachers. Humility doesn't hurt. Mentors have a sharp learning curve as well! As members of the Oregon Mentor Project, we have been blessed with strong leadership from the Oregon Department of Education and world-class training from the New Teacher Center. Supporting adult learners - fellow professionals - requires different skills from teaching students. It's not about telling a colleague what to do (or how to teach like you!), but rather learning how to ask good questions, providing resources, collecting objective data, offering ideas and sometimes just being a strong shoulder to lean on. Above all else, mentors are passionately committed to student success and know that by boosting teacher effectiveness, they are touching many more lives than they would have as individual teachers.
